Hit Me Hard and Soft, and what Billie Eilish has to say about pop girl spring

In the last few months, pop music fans have been fed with new albums from genre mainstays like Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, and Dua Lipa.

Now, at the tail end of what many online have playfully dubbed "pop girl spring," Billie Eilish has burst onto the scene with her third studio album, Hit Me Hard and Soft.

Today on Commotion, music writers Reanna Cruz and Aisling Murphy join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to unpack the heavier themes on her new record, how her sound has shifted since her last album, and whether her partnership with her producer and brother Finneas has run its course.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast, on your favourite podcast player.

Elamin: Reanna, how is this record sitting with you?

Reanna: It's sitting with me better the more I think about it. I feel like this record is Billie Eilish kind of railing against the past year that she's had promoting What Was I Made For? from Barbie, you know — this depressing, maudlin, really good but sad song. And Skinny as the first track kind of sets us up for that. Then you pivot into these more fun, more exciting pop tracks, which I really dig. This record feels like Billie Eilish is trying for a pop hit. She's been very anti-pop, and I think this record is going full capital-P pop music.

Elamin: I'm interested in the ways that Billie engages in the construction of who Billie Eilish is in the public. She does it very deliberately. She does that really well.

Aisling, the phrase "pop girl spring" has been thrown around in terms of this floodgate of new, massive albums from pop singers that we know and love. Where do you think Billie sits in relationship to all of those?

Aisling: I find that Billie's new record almost leans into mental health and the negative side of that more than some of these other pop girl spring albums that we're looking at. Like, the bridge of Chihiro sounds like a panic attack. It feels like a panic attack. This is a very exciting new pop record, but then also it's getting into quite dark and contemplative places. There's a lot of, "Hey, my coming of age wasn't so great. Anyway, let's dance," which is super fun. There are so many facets and layers to this album. It's not purely, "hey, it's summer, let's dance." It's, "Hey, I have a lot going on right now."

Elamin: …"But let's dance."

Aisling: Totally.

Elamin: Reanna, something that I've found consistent with Billie is that there's a third act transition to all her songs. The songs are all very dynamic.... She just loves a big switch-up, which to me the title, Hit Me Hard and Soft — these songs do that. She's worked with her brother, Finneas, on all her albums. What do you make of the soundscape that Finneas has created with her for this record?

Reanna: Well, they have two Oscars, right? So there's a penchant for cinematic song creation and approaching a song in this three-act structure, like you mentioned. I think this record leans very heavily into that. I think what Finneas is going for on this album is pushing the boundaries of what we know Billie Eilish to sound like and kind of furthering that a little bit more. There's more beat switches, there's more pop hits, there's a couple moments that are very like The Weeknd cinematic-synthesizer-disco moments on the album, which I never really thought I would hear.

Elamin: The conversation that people have all the time, Aisling, about the relationship between Finneas and Billie three albums deep into their career, as well as all the EP's that came before that, is maybe it's time for her to find another producer. I think this is the case against that. I listen to this album and go, there's a safety in this partnership that helps them both get to an interesting place creatively. There's something to me that's kind of interesting about a partnership that keeps kind of growing. I think they push each other into different places. Are you done with the Billie and Finneas partnership?

Aisling: No, I'm so impressed by how they continue to develop both individually as producer and vocalist and then together as a unit. What you were talking about with the third act switch, I can't really think of any other mainstream pop artist who— between L'Amour de Ma Vie and then The Diner, it's mellow and kind of Lo-Fi, which is what we know from Billie Eilish. But then we get into 100 Gecs-style hyperpop out of nowhere. I'm obsessed with that, and I don't know if another producer would be willing to swing that widely and risk that much with Billie Eilish. I am so obsessed with the risks that these two keep on taking, and they should keep doing it because I think that it's working for them.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Jane van Koeverden.