Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell was the first musician born in the 21st century to score a number one single in the United States. Eilish had already been building a profile for a few years, debuting on SoundCloud and building a following through singles and the impressive EP don’t smile at me. Her debut album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, was released in March 2019, after she’d already built an ardent following. She’s also released significant non-album material – the Bond theme ‘No Time To Die’ and a duet with Rosalía on ‘Lo Vas a Olvidar’.
Eilish’s intensely personal and dark music seems like an unlikely fit for the top of the charts, but she’s connected with disaffected teenagers. In an era of careful PR and image cultivation, Eilish is refreshingly individual. Her songs are written about the night terrors and lucid dreams that she experiences. Eilish is charismatic and her vocals are engrossing.
There are parallels in Eilish’s teen angst and bedroom poetry to Lorde’s 2014 breakout Pure Heroine, but Eilish’s music is rawer. Production, co-writing, and instrumentation is supplied by her brother Finneas, formerly a child actor on Glee. Eilish has an off-beat magnetism that’s allowed one of her insular songs to top the charts. Eilish is an important figure for legions of youthful fans, and she’s one of the most influential voices in popular music.
2017, 8.5/10 Eilish followed up a successful series of singles with an eight-song EP. It’s substantial enough to be considered as a mini-album. It’s a little brighter and more conventional than her subsequent work – the less dense songs like ‘idontwannabeyouanymore’ demonstrate that she could make a career as a torch singer. It’s especially impressive given that Eilish was only 16 when she recorded it – she’d already released the key track ‘Ocean Eyes’ at the age of 14. Deservedly, don’t smile at me was a success, reaching #14 on the Billboard chart.
Not surprisingly for a debut, there are a few awkward moments – ‘My Boy’ jumps sections a little clumsily, along with some awkward vocal asides from Eilish. But she also shows remarkable maturity at times – “Tell the mirror what you know she’s heard before/I don’t wanna be you, anymore” is a great line from ‘idontwannabeyouanymore’. ‘Ocean Eyes’ is gorgeous, Eilish’s vocal gentle and yearning.
don’t smile at me is an impressive mini-album from Eilish, paving the way for the phenomenal success of When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
2019, 7.5/10 It’s a sign of the times when a Grammy-dominating, worldwide #1 album was recordedby a teenager in her brother’s bedroom studio. Often the instrumentation is minimal, with O’Connell just playing a single instrument at once – the prominent instrument on number one single ‘Bad Guy’ is the synthesizer bassline.
When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? captures a range of moods – the album closes with pretty and vulnerable songs like the acoustic guitar on ‘I Love You’ and piano on ‘Listen Before I Go’. Despite the bedroom setting and use of acoustic instruments, there’s an industrial harshness to songs like ‘Xanny’. ‘My Strange Addiction’ presents Eilish’s skewed take on pop, accompanied by samples from The Office.
I find the minimal and darker sound less compelling than Eilish’s other releases, but it seems like I’m in the minority with that opinion.
Happier than Ever
2021, 8/10 Billie Eilish’s debut album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? made a major impact. Among other milestones, Eilish became the fifth artist to win both Best New Artist and Album of the Year at the Grammies. Such acclaim was premature for a teenager still developing her craft, but she was instantly charismatic and relatable for disaffected teenagers.
Eilish’s second album, Happier Than Ever, was still a worldwide number one but hasn’t had the same cultural impact. Yet it’s a better record, suggesting that Eilish might not join Starland Vocal Band and Milli Vanilli in the ranks of the Best New Artist Grammy curse.
As with her debut, Eilish’s main collaborator is her brother Finneas, who provides cowrites, production, and instrumentation. Happier Than Ever is a little long at 56 minutes, although, unusually, the strongest material is clustered toward the end. ‘Your Power’ is sparse and majestic, with Eilish accompanied by acoustic guitar. ‘NDA’ accompanies Eilish’s vocals with an electronic pulse, while ‘Happier Than Ever’ begins as a torch song and builds to a dramatic conclusion with its big guitars. Happier Than Ever is a more sonically ambitious album than before, but the low-key, bass-driven ‘Therefore I Am’ revisits the territory of her debut.
Happier Than Ever outstays its welcome, but it’s enough to demonstrate that Eilish is here for the long haul.
Best Billie Eilish Songs
Your Power Ocean Eyes Happier Than Ever idontwannabeyouanymore Bad Guy NDA bellyache Therefore I Am
Aphoristic Album Reviews is almost entirely written by one person.
Graham Fyfe is probably the only music blogger to appreciate both Neil Diamond and Ariana Grande. Based in Fleet Street (New Zealand), he's been writing this blog since around 2000. Aphoristic Album Reviews features reviews and blog posts across a growing spectrum of popular music.
Review Pages
Read about the discographies of musical acts from the 1960s to the present day. Browse this site's review archives or enjoy these random selections:
Roxy Music were formed in 1971 by vocalist and keyboardist Bryan Ferry who, along with several of his band-mates, came from the same English art school background as The Who and The Rolling Stones. Accordingly, Roxy Music always felt conceptual – they were purposefully experimental, decadent, and futuristic, and there was always […]
Rachel Ann Morris took the stage name Rae Morris, a strange choice given that she shares her handle with a well-known Australian makeup artist. She was born in the seaside resort town of Blackpool, also the birthplace of Graham Nash, Chris Lowe, Maddy Prior, and Robert Smith, as well as […]
Born into a high-profile Texas oil family, Townes Van Zandt was groomed as Texas governor, but inspired by songwriters like Bob Dylan, he dropped out of college in the 1960s to pursue a musical career. Of MENSA level intelligence, and diagnosed as a manic-depressive in his early twenties, Van Zandt […]
After leaving Hüsker Dü, Bob Mould released a couple of solo albums, before forming another power trio. Unlike Hüsker Dü, where Grant Hart was an important songwriter and vocalist and Greg Norton was also central to the band’s sound, Sugar is Mould’s show; his two new recruits, bassist David Barbe […]
Conventional wisdom suggests that Gordon Sumner surrendered his credibility when he left The Police, letting his pretentiousness overcome him as he dabbled in jazz and saved the rainforests. As a singles artist he couldn’t match the brilliant individual songs like ‘Message In A Bottle’ he wrote for The Police. But […]
Aretha Franklin was the Queen of Soul and, according to Barack Obama, “helped define the American experience”. Success, however, didn’t happen overnight – when she delighted the mainstream in 1967 with her cover of Otis Redding’s ‘Respect’, she’d already recorded ten albums. Franklin grew up in Detroit, the daughter of […]
Blog Posts
I add new blog posts to this website every week. Browse the archives or enjoy these random selections:
When Mike Scott formed The Waterboys he was the group’s only member, recording most of their self-titled 1983 debut alone in the studio. Since then, The Waterboys have churned through more than 85 members – Scott believes this is a record, beating out other fast-changing bands like The Fall and […]
The Byrds were one of the most significant American bands of the 1960s. They emerged out of the L.A. folk scene, featuring three singer-guitarists; James Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, and David Crosby. Their first single as The Byrds was their chart-topping cover of Dylan’s ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’, which established the […]
Original Eagles bassist and vocalist Randy Meisner passed away last week. It wasn’t a surprise – he’d been battling physical and mental health issues, as well as alcoholism. It was as though he still carried the baggage from leaving the Eagles in their prime – his career never recovered. He […]
Talking Heads emerged from the mid-1970s CBGB scene, along with Blondie, The Ramones, and Television. Neurotic frontman David Byrne formed the band with drummer Chris Frantz. When the new band was unable to find a bass player, Frantz’s girlfriend Tina Weymouth learned to play by listening to Suzi Quatro records. […]
A quirky alternative rock band from Boston, Massachusetts, the Pixies effectively bridged two eras in guitar rock; the underground bands of the 1980s like Hüsker Dü and the mega-selling 1990s alt-rock bands like Nirvana and Radiohead. The four-piece guitar band is known for extreme dynamics, often juxtaposing quiet verses with […]
The Gaulish warrior Asterix has been a French institution since he first appeared in 1961’s Asterix the Gaul. He’s accompanied by his inseparable friend Obelix and aided by the druid Getafix’s magic potion that gives superhuman strength. His cunning defends his Gaulish village from Romans, Vikings, and even aliens. Three […]
