A Review of Billie Eilish’s New Album

Billie Eilish’s debut album, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? was released on March 29, just weeks before Billie playing the biggest gig of her career, Coachella.

Eilish is a singer-songwriter and collaborates heavily with her brother Finneas. Her first single “Ocean Eyes” was originally written for his band but was put in Billie’s hands and was released on her Soundcloud in 2016. Eilish’s music is considered pop/electropop which makes every song she has released a fun and interesting experience with a touch of sadness.

Eilish is only 17 years old and is taking the pop world by storm. She is the first artist born in the 2000s to have a number one album. WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? includes 14 songs that effortlessly blend into one another. Although she released her EP don’t smile at me almost two years ago she has had singles rolling including “you should see me in a crown” and headlined her first tour, all in 2018.

Adding a bit of comedic relief to start off her album “!!!!!!!” is a quick track that shows off Billie’s personality and how easy going she is. It is easy to forget that the woman behind these songs is a teen writing and singing her experiences that are sometimes fictional pieces of work.

Most songs were also produced by her brother Finneas including, “all the good girls go to hell”. This track has such an interesting sound opening with the vocals by Billie being warped in an almost demonic way. The song opens by saying “my lucifer is lonely,” meaning that she or whoever the song is about is lacking an angel on the other shoulder adjacent from the Devil. The imagery of lacking an angel on the other shoulder fuels good girls doing bad things because they lack the moral compass.

The most playful song on the album is “wish you were gay” which was written when Billie was 14. The song is about having a crush and that crush not feeling the same way. Her vocals have such an interesting sultry feel but not necessarily to sound sexy. Eilish sings in the chorus “I just kind of wish you were gay,” and in her voice, it is easy to detect that the crush, in general, is in some way difficult to have because she knows they are straight but it is hard to understand why they do not like her back.

WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? is an amazing blend of everything electropop/indie and as a first-time listener, it is understandable why Eilish is a huge hit. What makes Billie’s debut album different from the rest is that it has a little bit of something for all fans of the genre and has a little bit of that relatable element to it. Although she is young, her music is not influenced by that, like many artists she pulls from her real life and other people’s lives in order to tell a story. Listening to it over and over again gives a different experience each time and not many albums do that.