MUSIC REVIEW: Billie Eilish "Happier Than Ever"
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Since it's been a couple of years since I've posted links to all my other stuff, if you'd like to know/get more, here's where to find me:
Hope you find something you like!
In the meantime, I certainly found an album I like. Let's talk about:
Billie Eilish "Happier Than Ever" ****
Billie Eilish "Happier Than Ever" ****
Billie Eilish had the impossible task: following up Nevermind. Following Frampton Comes Alive. Following Dark Side Of The Moon. When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go? was not only the first #1 album by somebody born in the 2000's, but it spawned a #1 single (which was the first by someone born after 9/11). Then for an encore, it went six for six at the Grammys, sweeping all four major categories.
When the camera showed the nominees in anticipation of the announcement for Album Of The Year, you can see Billie clearly mouth "Please don't be me". It's freaky that "everything i wanted" came out four months before, because it's the perfect soundtrack to that moment.
So how do you follow up one of the biggest albums of an entire decade? There are a few options: Run it back and see if you can get away with diminishing returns (AC/DC, Def Leppard), Sell out HARD (Peter Frampton) commit career sabotage but be so popular the fans still love you anyway (Nirvana) make a sprawling epic that is a hit with the fan base but has mixed results with the general public (Fleetwood Mac, Guns N Roses)...
Or do what Billie did and just evolve as an artist like none of this happened.
For Happier Than Ever to turn out how it did, Eilish must have some superhuman ability to compartmentalize the wild ride of her success. I'm not talking about the subject matter, that shows through in the lyrics; I'm talking about the direction. This is a more self-aware album, it has more emotional depth, it's more cohesive than the first one, riding a solid vibe instead of throwing every idea at the wall to see what stuck.
But that compartmentalization may be from an external source. Finneas is as much a part (or more) of the sound than Billie. Then again, he co-wrote When We All Fall Asleep. He won those Grammys too. He's been on the same ride, except in the passenger seat (going back to "eveything i wanted" again, he's literally in the passenger seat in the video). Suffice it to say, between the two of them, they were able to create a space together that made this album seem, artistically at least, like water off a duck's back.
So what do we find in that feathery flow? I liked it better on first listen, but it's still got life to it on follow up spins. It drags in the back half, and a couple of songs wind up feeling unnecessary ("Therefore I Am" in particular), but overall it's a pretty dang good experience. Here are some loose thoughts about the tracks:
- By the technicality of being on this album, "My Future" is 1000% in the conversation for the Songs Of The Year list.
- The beginning of "GOLDWING" holy FUCK
- Actually just "GOLDWING" in general. I shouldn't have to say anymore, good God.
- "Lost Cause" is catchy and swingy; a bit unfortunate the trope of the deadbeat is being sung about in an era of mass un- and underemployment. (But we all know the type, right?)
- Billie gets real about conventional beauty standards and the fake prudishness of the public (which only exists to further misogyny via subterfuge) on "Not My Responsibility", laying out how no matter what a woman does in public, she can't do the right thing in the eyes of an eager-to-chastise peanut gallery. Then it flows into "OverHeated", dealing with the sociopathic tendencies of the really nasty spewers of venom and obsessed, creepoid fans.
- "Everybody Dies" has a really pretty vocal line. The kind you'd describe as "achingly beautiful". I feel the grief. I like the production touch at the end with the vocal slipping into murkiness (you can barely tell if you're not paying attention), then on the line "you are not unknown" coming into sharp focus, then the last few lines are swallowed by reverb like the ghost singing it has moved on.
- "Your Power" is a hell of a subtweet about a record industry fuck. It's devastating that this kind of song isn't topically unique anymore, made no less harrowing by the heartbreaking delivery.
- Ironically followed by "NDA", which is the most blatantly "I'm not enjoying the excesses of fame at all" song. The high flat gate on the autotune forms a phantom zone diamond for the imprisoned Ms. Eilish to bang on.
- I still can't really vibe with "Therefore I Am". It's pretty meh in general, the kiss off isn't even that convincing and the lyrics feel banal. Especially the chorus: what kind of "OOOO GOT 'EM!" line is "You think that you're the man? I think Therefore I Am."? Just not feeling it. But on the album I don't despise it anymore, I guess. When it first came out I haaated this song. Now it has context, I can almost tolerate it.
- The title track kind of underdelivers, but then goes all rock at the end (and by this point that's more predictable than you think, but it got me the first time). The music is intentionally distorted as shit, further proof that memes become the music in the end (think of any Vine with a super loud punchline and how the most culturally relevant things online in the last decade were produced by amateurs; that's why the trend is going toward super distortion). It's garish on an otherwise immaculately produced album, which is probably the point.
- "Male Fantasy" is cool and all, but the album just ends.
It was sort of meandering from track eight on, to be honest, but despite that, it's still the best album I've heard all year. There's good shit all throughout the project and the only things "wrong" with it aren't dealbreakers; they're minor quibbles at best. This has a pretty damn good shot of making my top five.
And there you have it. What did you think of Billie Eilish's Happier Than Ever? Let me know in the comments. Next week, we're gonna take a look at The Armed, NOFX, Hiyatus Kaiyote, Dee Snider, Left At London and Bruce Hornsby, so stay tuned.
Stay safe out there. Love Over Fear.
And there you have it. What did you think of Billie Eilish's Happier Than Ever? Let me know in the comments. Next week, we're gonna take a look at The Armed, NOFX, Hiyatus Kaiyote, Dee Snider, Left At London and Bruce Hornsby, so stay tuned.
Stay safe out there. Love Over Fear.
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