HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, the Softest Hard-Hitting Album of 2024.
10 songs – 43 minutes
”HIT ME HARD AND SOFT” is two-time Oscar award winner Billie Eilish’s third album that was released on May 17, 2024. This album has ten songs and is a heartfelt story about love. As someone who isn’t really an Eilish fan myself, I thought I’d give my honest thoughts and opinions on this album and go in depth as to why.
SKINNY
“SKINNY” is a beautiful and depressing open letter about Eilish’s struggles and insecurities. She discusses love and her identity in the song, Lines like “Fell in love for the first time / With a friend, it’s a good sign” and “People say I look happy / Just because I got skinny / […] / And I still cry” directly state those feelings. She then ends the track with a beautiful and sad instrumental piece. This song is beautiful. I was surprised by the soft and deep emotion she expressed in the first song of the album. I love the seamless transition to the next song at the end of the track. Very solid 9/10 and strong start to this album.
LUNCH
Right off the bat, “LUNCH” carries an entirely different and bad-bitch vibe. Not only that, Eilish confirms a long standing rumor—that she’s LGBTQ. Lines like “Tastes like she might be the one,” “It’s a craving, not a crush, huh,” and “Tell her, ‘Bring that over here’ / You need a seat? I’ll volunteer” explicitly stated as such. The last 37 minutes of this track beat-switches and repeats the lines “Eat that girl for lunch / yeah, she / yeah, she / Tastes like she might be the one.” I like this song a lot too. I like the energy and the bipolar energy already expressed in the beginning of the album, somewhat setting a chaotic tone for me early on. 8/10.
CHIHIRO
To me, this song is directly to the person she’s loving on. “Did you take / my love away / from me?” and “Do you feel it too? / When you told me it was serious / Were you serious?” are directly to her crush. I really like the mellow instrumental and the raw and, honestly, quite relatable lyrics about longing for love and connection. “CHIHIRO” is also the name of “Spirited Away” character Chihiro Ogino, a ten year old girl who needs to save her parents from an amusement park “pig” trap by working at the park (which I think is a really cool reference). In an interview with Rolling Stone Eilish explains that this song is “loosely based off [Spirited Away]” and that she wrote it’s “one of [her] favorites.” I—unsurprisingly—like this song too. The instrumental is very mellow and calming. Even my Eilish hating boyfriend likes this song. Solid 8/10.
BIRDS OF A FEATHER
BIRDS OF A FEATHER is song that I’ve already heard through Tiktok. As the name suggests, this track is about sticking by each other’s side and loving until death. This song was played as a snippet in the third season of the Netflic series “Heartstopper” before it’s offical release.” I love the upbeat nature of this song. I think it’s really cute and a welcome switch up. 8/10.
WILDFLOWER
This track is an interesting one. It’s about getting in a relationship with someone who seems to have broken a friend’s heart. “But I see her in the back of my mind / all the time” and “Did I cross the line?” is Eilish expressing some form of anxiety or regrets about this relationship, as well as “But every time you touch me, I / just wonder wonder how she felt / Valentine’s day, cryin’ in the / hotel.” This song goes from guitar to a minor but noticeable faster-paced beat switch in the middle of the track. This song is intriguing. Many online theorize that this track is about Devon Lee Carlson, who is Jesse Rutherford’s ex. Rutherford is Eilish’s most recent public ex and the lead vocalist for the extremely popular rock band The Neighborhood. I like this song’s pace and lyrics. Though I don’t relate to the scenario described, I relate to the insecurity over a partner’s exes that isn’t really easily controlled. I love the ending vocals. 9.5/10.
THE GREATEST
This is a slow and sad song (despite the title having a more positive connotation). This song is about insecurities and not feeling like enough in love, “All the times I waited / For you to want me naked.” I personally don’t think this is the best song off the album, but I don’t think it’s bad. It’s a little forgettable. But—and this is a big one—she belts out “I made it all look painless / Man, am I the greatest / The greatest,” which was definitely not something I was expecting, as I, like many, have only really known Eilish as a softer/whisper singer. Apart from the last third of the track, the rest is a little bit too mellow. 7/10.
L’AMOUR DE MA VIE
This song is sung in a deeper tone—kind of. It’s not really a whisper or full chest voice. This song is a love song to an ex, as she says “I need to confess / I told you a lie / I said you, you / were the love of my life.” She talks about a mutual heart break on both sides and feeling trapped with lines like “Did I waste your time?” and “It wasn’t asking for a lot for an / apology / for making me feel like it’d kill / you if I tried to leave.” “You said you’d never fall in love again because of me / Then you moved on immediately” suggests a toxic, co-dependent relationship and how she might’ve wanted to escape for a long time. This song isn’t really sad, it’s more energetic and free-spirited in its delivery. In my opinion, it’s a very nice change from depressing breakup song to a freeing and relief-filled song. “I was the love of your life / but you were not mine.” 9/10 for the first half. The second half beat switches to a highly auto-tuned, somewhat disco sounding beat. She reiterates her happiness and relief over this breakup. While not as good, I like that she keeps up a positive attitude and takes back herself on this track. A bonus is the hinting of a relationship with her ex’s ex (which ties back to WILDFLOWER), “Your girl’s a fan of- / Miss me, say you miss me / It’s such a pity / We’re both so pretty.” . 7.5/10 for the second half.
THE DINER
This track has a very different and unique instrumental track. It’s almost jazzy at the start, starting off with a prominent saxophone and orchestra (violin and cello) to back it up. This is [obviously] a very different track. It kind of gives off stalker vibes from the lyrics “I’m here around the clock / Waitin’ on your block / But please don’t call the cops.” Along with being stalker-ish, it’s also further confirming the LGBTQ rumors with the line “You could be my wife.” The track gives off halloween vibes with the production. Last year, Eilish reportedly filed a restraining order against an intruder that broke into her home, so this track may be alluding to that person and their stalkerish tendencies. The track ends with a phone number, “310-807-3956,” which is a real number that leads the caller to a message of Eilish saying “hello” and saying that she’ll “call them back.” I love how unique and cheeky this song is. I’ve had some experience with a stalker (albeit unknowingly), so I can kind of relate to some of the themes in this track. I also love how she wrote a song pretending to be like the person who tried to intrude on her privacy to kind of call them out in a sense. I thought that was really cool. 9/10.
BITTERSUITE
Returning to the mellowness, “BITTERSUITE” is about not wanting to fall in love and praying to God to stop it from happening. The beat switches around the middle point to a more up-beat instrumental (again) and she details her desires and details how she feels about her crush, saying things like “I don’t need to breathe when / you look at me, all I see is green,” with is implied to mean that she gets naseuous or “butterflies” when she’s with this person. Right before it hits minute four, the instrumental changes again, but the words are very quiet. Not a bad song, though I am growing a little tired of the constant beat switches. I can relate to what she’s feeling in this track, 7/10.
BLUE
This is song is about post-breakup blues. “I’d like to mean it when I say I’m / over you / […] and I’m still blue.” She references her past songs, with her “birds of a feather / now I’m ashamed” and “I told you a lie, désolé, mon amour” referencing “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” and “L’AMOUR DE MA VIE” respectively. “Désolé mon amour” means “I’m sorry, my love” when translated from French. It’s clear that she’s not over the breakup and has mixed feelings on both her ex and her relationship, “I’m trying my best, / don’t know what’s in store.” She discusses her ex, saying that they’re “born bluer than a butterfly, / beautiful and deprived of oxygen.” She says that they’re “colder than [their] father’s eyes” and suggests that the father was in some ways emotionally abusive. If this is a reference to Rutherford, she could be alluding to the trauma expressed in the song “Daddy Issues” by The Neighborhood. In “Daddy Issues,” Rutherford tells the story of a girl and her mom facing issues with an abusive and/or absent father. Lines like “But we can’t save you” and “Victim of your father’s plans to rule the world” back this theory up by directly alluding to an abusive father figure and how damaging that can be for a child to grow up around. In the last half of the song, Eilish relates to some of the ex’s struggles, saying “But they could say the same ‘bout me” and “And I could say the same ‘bout you / born blameless, grew up famous too.” “But when can I hear the next one?” may be a subtle request for more music from The Neighborhood. I really like the sound and vibes of this song. I loved the delivery and production by Eilish and her brother Finneas O’Connell, who co-produces and co-writes all of Eilish’s songs with her. 10/10.
CONCLUSION
This album is extremely well written and produced. As someone who wouldn’t have ever considered herself a Billie Eilish fan, I really recommend this album to anyone reading this. It’s a mostly-sad album about her love life and sorrows. If any readers like mellow-dramatic and beautifully written lyrics, I recommend this album. 100%. 9/10 overall.
