Billie Eilish Album Reviews

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 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 unlikely to fit the top of the charts, but she’s connected with disaffected teenagers. Eilish is refreshingly individual in an era of careful PR and image cultivation. 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. Her brother Finneas, a former child actor on Glee, supplies production, co-writing, and instrumentation.

Billie Eilish Album Reviews

don’t smile at me

When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?

Happier than Ever

Hit Me Hard and Soft

10 Best Billie Eilish Songs

don’t smile at me

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 recorded by 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.

Hit Me Hard and Soft

2024, 9/10
It’s hard to fault Billie Eilish’s career so far. Her debut presented an artist with a unique vision. Her second record expanded her range. And her third is her best so far, as she’s more confident and in control. Songs like the opener ‘Skinny’ could have fitted into the whispered intimacy of her debut When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? But she confidently belts out other songs like ‘Birds of a Feather’.

Eilish’s main collaborator is her brother Finneas, who surrounds her voice with a range of textures. My favourite song here is ‘Chihiro’, driven by a funky bassline, and punctuated by unexpected synth crescendos. It forms a terrific one-two punch with the warm, breezy ‘Birds of a Feather’.

‘The Greatest’ taps into the vocal jazz influence sometimes present in Eilish’s music. She sounds great hitting the uncomfortably high notes at the end. Following her success with the Barbie soundtrack song ‘What Was I Made For?’ in 2023, ‘Lunch’ shows her pop smarts.

Eilish is classy and keeps getting better with each record.