Hit Me Hard And Soft

Excellent album. Probably the best album added to the revised addition. Hit me hard and soft is the perfect way to describe this record also. Billie and Finneas wrote every tune on this bad mofo, take a lesson future and current pop stars.

Yea I thought shorty was gonna be whispering for 40 minutes over slow guitars. Glad she proved me wrong, I can definitely shake ass out the window on a long car ride to Birds of a Feather. Glad I finally crawled out from under this rock!

Excellent album. Billie should be on this list and I am pleased that this one made the edition.

I listened through, and it just didn't grab me. Which surprises me; Billie Eilish is one of the most streamed artists of the past decade, she is clearly a major talent, and her early work just knocked me out. But this just left me a little "meh". I went back and spun When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? again, and that record is amazing. It is full of powerful, arresting, compelling songs that leap out of the speakers, grab you by the ears and shake your head around. This just feels a bit... ordinary. She's a big talent and deserves a spot of this list, but this strikes me as just the last album Dimery read about in the Guardian. Great cover art, though. Props for that.

LETS GOOOO! I’ve loved this album since it came out; thank the Lord it made the list. Just a perfect pop record in every way I could think of. Dancy, dramatic, emotional, and cute, all together mixed so well. And the production is just *chefs kiss* (the transition from Bittersuite into Blue is one of my favorite musical moments of the last few years god it’s so good). 10/10

Billie Eilish is one of the more refreshing pop artists today. Really respect the songwriting she and Finneas do.

This is an album I admire more than I enjoy. The production is the standout...extremely well mixed, with a sense of space that lets the vocals, bass, and smaller details coexist without competing for attention. The quieter moments feel intimate, while the bigger passages have weight without overwhelming the music. As a complete listening experience, though, it doesn’t consistently connect with me as strongly as its sound impresses me. There’s plenty to appreciate in the atmosphere and craftsmanship, but not everything leaves a lasting impression. An album that rewards a good pair of headphones, even if the songwriting doesn’t always inspire the same enthusiasm as the mix.

This was one of my albums of the year when it was released. Holds up pretty well, be interesting to see if I feel the same in 10 years. 4.5

Billie is such a talent! Nice scope of work - back to more accessible tunes with a ln a personality... and only 22 years old! Love it - listened a couple of times this go round.

Yeah, it’s ok. I don’t understand why the kids think it’s amazing.

Hit Me Hard and Soft lives up to its name, you have the soft and slower songs and the dancefloor bangers, and the album switches between both pretty frequently. You can see in the first two songs, which starts as orchestral pop only to transition to nu-disco. I'm not entirely sure if I like the album or not. I've listened to it twice, the first time it felt so lifeless and sucked all of the energy out of me, but on a repeat listen in the right mood it did hit me right. I find the breathy vocals to be incredibly irritating, especially since Billie Eilish is clearly a very good singer. That style of singing has been adopted in the alt pop scene, so not only is it inescapable now but it wasn't very good to begin with. Chihiro and Birds of a Feather give the album some stability where Eilish can really get into her groove, until the song quality falls of a cliff near the end. She's clearly better when she has more energy in her songs, her slower songs feels a bit too much like a dirge Was it a good addition to the list: Yeah probably. Eilish is one of the defining artists of the 2020s so she should probably have something in. Top 3 songs: Chihiro, Birds of a Feather, The Greatest

Billie Eilish is pretty good, she’s an icon of today’s generation and I don’t mind her tunes at all. It remains to be seen if this album stands the test of time enough for inclusion on such a list. For today, I score it smack bang in the middle.

It's refreshing when a modern pop artist is actually an artist and not some industry radio song machine. Is this style of music my favorite? No, but the execution is good enough that I enjoyed it regardless.

Ok, an album most seem to agree is one of the very few legit sensible inclusions in the new book, and I won't argue. Never listened to a full Eilish record I believe, but always been generally impressed by her vibe, media presentation, and importantly, what I've heard of her stuff. The first 3 songs here are all great and showcase different angles, a slow and introspective ballad, a straight pop banger, and a twisty turney dancefloor filler. Great start. The production deserves a mention, so much pop music has banal and by numbers production, ruining a lot of what might otherwise be decent songs. On Chihiro this is particularly noticeable, with muffled beats emerging into focus and then retreating again, different parts of the soundscape demanding the ear's attention throughout, keeping the listener guessing. I should listen to this record again on headphones. I'm not that surprised to find the top track on Spotify (Birds of a Feather) the least interesting, this happens all the time, its just the way I am. Wildflower kind of continues this trend, it's fine, it's a ballad, I could do with another banger at this point. The Greatest next though, another slow ballad. Which morphs into a power ballad. Very good. To be fair, this batch of songs more closely reflects the mood portrayed on the album cover than songs 2-3, so they're the anomaly rather than the other way around. I'm confused by L'amour de ma vie, which seems to be two half songs after resolving into house beats towards the end, are these two unfinished ideas? The same happens in Bitter suite, but this is at least is labelled as such with a clever title. One to return to. Interesting. Don't quite love it. At the moment a high 3, low 4, I'm intrigued enough to give her other albums some time sometime.

Perfectly calibrated for our times, it seems, comfort blanket bedroom sounds coupled with a jarring vein of anxiety - troubled, emotionally fraught, a life lived too much online, yearning for connection. Haunting.

This album has an unexpected whiff of old school class.

I seriously thought I wasn’t gonna mess with this kinda music, but there were some songs that came outta nowhere and BLEW ME AWAY. Turns out Billie is way more than what I thought, and is able to convey so many emotions, something I wasn’t really anticipating. Aspirational and Excellent work, has shifted music taste a lil Best tracks: The Greatest, L’amour de ma vie, Bittersuite

I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for Billie, but it honestly feels like she just gets better. When it first dropped, everyone was hyping it up, and it actually took me a minute to fully get into it—the title even felt a bit weird at first—but now I get it. It’s not an absolutely perfect album, but the highs on here are brilliant, starting with "SKINNY" which is a stunning opener and easily one of my favourite tracks she’s ever done. From there, "LUNCH" initially felt like a strange choice to transition into but it totally works, just like how the transition from "L’AMOUR DE MA VIE" into "THE DINER" is great too. On the flip side, I just haven't warmed to "CHIHIRO" or "THE GREATEST" as much as the rest of the tracklist; there are just way stronger tracks that outshine them for me. But "BIRDS OF A FEATHER" is great, and "BLUE" is the ultimate grower that just gets better the more I hear it, especially with how it links back to other songs. I’ve seen a lot of critics coming for her breathy vocals, but I don’t get why people view that as a negative. I love that it’s not an over-performance or overly self-indulgent; the album has an aim and it delivers, with Billie showcasing her voice in tons of different ways we haven't seen on past records—particularly on Birds of a Feather. People always over-emphasise and corrode artists who don’t have massive, powerhouse vocals like Whitney Houston, but some of the most interesting artists in pop history—like Madonna or Kylie Minogue—are great because they make , focused pop records, and Billie is basically like an alt-pop queen at this point. My only real critique on the production side is some of the autotune choices; I don't hate autotune if it’s stylistic, but here it just didn't really add anything or serve the song. Still, it’s wild how diverse her singles are, and if a non-fan listened to them, they probably wouldn't even guess she’s worked with the exact same person for the vast majority of her career. The fact that she and FINNEAS have kept there partnership all the way is interesting. There aren't loads of new female solo artists in recent years that I've genuinely enjoyed, but Billie and Olivia Rodrigo are definitely the standouts, and I expect them to just keep exploding if they stay this consistent. Overall, it’s a really solid 4/5 for me.

Yuck

This has caught me off guard completely I only really knew Bad Guy by her before this and this is very much not like that Really impressive Quiet and introspective and big and widescreen Could go to 5 with a few more listens

Hit Me Hard and Soft is the third album of Billie Eilish. According to the critics it is her best one yet. Personally I like the previous ones better as this one sounds more commercial and less special. Songs like "Birds of a Feather" are apart from the vocals so conventiation that I tend to get bored. Still several other songs like "Wildflower" are absolutely beautiful. The very specific (whispering) vocal style of Billie is still unique and the production of the music is fabulous. It's a goed decision to have at least one of her albums added to the list.

I don't get why people like this. I'm pretty sure I don't have mesophonia, but I seem to develop it whenever I hear Eilish's throaty-mumbly voice.

Idk man this was cool. I haven't listened to Billies newest albums, I like that she's sounding more accessible but still making interesting cool music. Love it.

Billie Eilish gets a little lost in the twists and turns of her third album, *Hit Me Hard And Soft*, whose concept finds her exploring increasingly erotic and sapphic territory. If proof were needed that the young mainstream pop prodigy has truly grown up, here it is: she can now own her desires without necessarily hiding them behind layers of teenage cynicism. It is, however, the musical desires expressed here that make this undeniably original album something of a landmark. Billie and her producer brother Finneas are constantly playing with the very idea of formula on *Hit Me Hard And Soft*. On half the tracks, the pair embrace familiar formats with an opportunism bordering on grand larceny ("Birds of a Feather", a flat-out, thoroughly kitschy number that only qualifies as a hit because audiences have forgotten what a generally dreadful decade the '80s were; the more successful, sprightly "Lunch"; and the excellent ballads "The Greatest" and "Skinny", very much in the vein of the songs the duo have been turning out for years). Elsewhere, though, Billie and Finneas decide to throw all notions of formula out the window, so as to better capture the confusion surrounding the pop star's romantic wanderings. The results range from the downright weird ("The Diner"'s winks to quaint novelty acts of the distant past) to the downright incongruous ("L’Amour de Ma Vie" and its bizarro house music dead-end). Fortunately, there are also cuts that feel pretty much on the money (the hypnotic "Chihiro") and, above all, a final one-two punch of dark, poisonous beauty in "Bittersuite" / "Blue". In fact, the two tracks form a single, muti-compartmented piece, complete with trap-filled drawers and soft-R&B shelving, whose closing minutes might well haunt your nights, provided you're willing to let those neon lights in. "Blue"? Billie isn't exactly Joni Mitchell, sure. But she shares with the latter a knack for making her own meanderings strangely endearing. Not bad at all in an age when 'pop' still too often rhymes with 'tick-box exercise'. 3.5/5 for the purposes of this list dedicated to essential albums, rounded up to 4. 8.5/10 for more general purposes (5 for the musicianship and production values + 3.5 for the artistry) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 + 1 (addition to the 2026 edition of the book) Albums from the original list I *might* select for mine later on: 288 + 3 (*including this one addition to the 2026 edition of the book* -- although there are chances that I will choose to include Billie Eilish's debut album instead, that's how good AND culturally relevant *When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?* is. Besides, sophomore LP *Happier Then Ever* is excellent as well, so it's not as if there was a lack of competition here...) Albums from the original list I won't select for mine: 336 + 3 (additions to the 2026 edition of the book) ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 124 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 142 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 319

My daughter is a massive Billie Eilish fan, and as a result, so am I. Billie is absolutely wonderful, and going through her music together has been great. ​The only real question I had to answer while listening today was whether this album deserved four or five stars. I heard it a lot the year it came out, though rarely in sequence as a complete album from start to finish. Returning to it, it’s really good and definitely deserves five stars. ​It does things her previous albums didn't do. It has a unique way of taking fragments from different songs, blending them into others, and weaving everything into one really interesting piece. It’s easily the most ambitious project she’s done. ​While Happier Than Ever remains my personal favorite, this is probably her cleverest album yet, and it earns major points for that.

...And we're back. Yes, after an 18 day break from this website, the 1001 Albums book has finally been updated. The website's been updated too, giving me the chance to review the newly added albums! Now, I've seen the 13 new albums, and I'm going to be honest, this crop of albums baffles me. There are way too many obscure indie albums and late-era "comebacks" for any good list of "albums you must hear before you die." I'm predicting a lot of 3s in the next 13 days. But you know what? We get to start things off on a good note. This album actually makes sense being here! Billie Eilish is one of the biggest pop artists of the decade! Her music's constantly being streamed, she's won 10 Grammys, she's made songs for huge movies including a James Bond theme, and she's done all this by the age of 24? That is astonishingly impressive. But fame isn't everything. Plenty of artists are immensely popular but are still not good enough to have an album on a list like this. I mean, Morgan Wallen is popular but that doesn't mean that he should have an album on this list... probably because of all his albums are way too fucking long and also terrible. No, you've got to have serious talent to make an album that's worth a damn. Fortunately for me, and this list for that matter, Hit Me Hard and Soft is an album that's worth a damn. This is a great album right here! I've always liked what I've heard of Billie's music, but I'm really glad that I've now heard a full album of hers. Not to suggest that I "didn't get her" before today, but I feel like I really get the appeal of her as an artist now. Her voice is really nice. It's on the breathier side, but she fits the songs really well and she's got a solid amount of range. The songwriting is quite good for an album like this. The album explores its lyrical themes well, with a romantic focus that persists just enough throughout the album for it to feel cohesive but not so much that it gets tiring. The music is really great. It's really easy for artists nowadays to lean too much into the genres and trends that they've been pigeonholed in, so for Hit Me Hard and Soft to be on the more eclectic side is respectable. You have more upbeat songs like "Lunch" and "The Diner" balanced very well by more lowkey songs like "Wildflower" and the closer "Blue." The songs are also pretty catchy, which is still something to consider when making a pop album. "Birds of a Feather" is probably the catchiest one. It's no wonder that it's become the most popular song on the album. It's deserved though. It's a really lovely song. I've got to give props to both Billie and her brother/co-writer/producer Finneas O'Connell for the vision behind this album and their careers at large. Hit Me Hard and Soft is an enchanting album with many sides to it that all work for me. It's a great listen and a great starting point for this new batch of albums. It's a shame that it'll mostly go downhill from here, unlike Billie Eilish's career which I can only assume will be safe for the foreseeable future. As long as she keeps making music as good as this, I'm sure she'll be fine. Strong 4/5.

I am not a fan of pop music, generally, and I am certainly not in its core demographic, but I find it criminal that Taylor Swift is the biggest pop star in the world when a talent like Billie Eilish is producing magic in the same era.

Poppy shoe gaze and fun

Too sparse. Terribly boring and uninspired. Perhaps more than that it is tedious. Not a fan of her whisper singing style/mixing. Don't really enjoy the song arrangements. I don't think a release this recent belongs on a list like this. It would be wiser to pick albums from the 2020s once we hit 2030 or later. I personally don't think this will have legs in the decades to come. There is no hard or soft, there is only bland. A really looooooong 43 minutes.

Bleh

Lunch is really fun but I feel like this is all way too slow for me.

Sie legt hier ein Album vor, das sich wie ein stiller Stromschlag anfühlt: weich, aber mit Nachhall. Die Songs gleiten zwischen flüsternder Intimität und präzise gesetzten Pop‑Momenten, die nie protzen, sondern wirken. „Lunch“ schneidet mit spielerischer Frechheit durch die Luft, „Birds of a Feather“ schwebt federleicht und trifft trotzdem mitten ins Gefühl. Finneas baut ihr Klangräume, die minimal wirken, aber voller feiner Details stecken. Ein modernes Pop‑Werk, das sich nicht aufdrängt, sondern bleibt.

I don't like heavy synths with her voice very much. She was drowned out at points in Chihiro for example, but I guess that's intentional. My favourites were Birds Of A Feather, Wildflower and Blue.

This is so intentionally an album that I kind of get why it's in this list, despite it being far too recent to cement it's place in the canon. Jazzy, dark, and impeccably produced. The back half is a textbook lesson in how to construct a suite of deep cuts a'la Abbey Road

Album #1101 (1,001 challenge): "Hit Me Hard and Soft" by Billie Eilish (2024) "Hit Me Hard and Soft" is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Billie Eilish. Alternative pop and bedroom pop are the Wiki-listed genres. Eilish co-wrote the album with her brother and frequent collaborator Finneas O'Connell, who also produced the album. Most of the instruments were played by the siblings too with Eilish credited with vocals, keyboards, synthesizers, glockenspiel, vocal editing and engineering and Finneas with vocals, keyboards, synthesizers, glockenspiel, drums, guitar, bass, programming, arrangements, orchestration, production, engineering, vocal editing string arrangements and scoring. Commercially, the album reached #2 in the US and #1 in the UK and, critically, it had universal acclaim especially for its production, songwriting and vocal performance. Guitar strings open the album in "Skinny." Eilish with high-pitched tender and soulful vocals as she confronts public scrutiny over her body. A ballad with harmonizing backing vocals and an added string quartet at the end. The first-released single "Lunch" funks things up with the bass and beat. Guitar slashes. Layered synth melodies. Dance beats develops. Eilish is attracted to another woman. "Chihiro" was named after the character in "Spirited Away." More subdued with synths, piano and glockenspiel. The song gets louder with a dance beat. A swirling synth outro melody. "Birds of a Feather" opens with electronic beats and a repetitive synth melody. Clear pop lead, backing and layered vocals. A lovely chorus in a love song. "Wildflower" begins in a more melancholic tone as Eilish expresses guilt as she got together with a girlfriend's ex-boyfriend. The song builds with the drums get louder. Eilish has even more delicate vocals in "The Greatest." Acoustic guitar and another song that builds. This album has well-constructed pop songs - ballads, dance songs and straight-forward pop songs. Mostly electronic beats and synth melodies. Layered with strings and more background synths. Eilish with lovely lead and backing vocals showing her emotional range in intimate and personal songs. This is a solid album and I think I'd give it a slight edge over her debut "When We're All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?", the other Eilish album that I've listened to. So, if you're in the mood for a solid modern pop album, this is a good choice. 4 out of 5

Rating: 4.8/5 Short Review: What a gorgeous, atmospheric album. Billie and FINNEAS create something intimate yet surprisingly adventurous, moving effortlessly between whispered vulnerability, electronic experimentation, and explosive emotional moments. The production is immaculate, and the transitions between songs are fantastic. Ten tracks, almost no wasted space. Favorite Track: CHIHIRO That hypnotic bassline, the shifting electronic textures, and the way the song gradually builds into something almost otherworldly. Absolutely mesmerizing.

I felt bored and unmoved throughout the entirety of this album.

Honestly this album was less pop and more chill than I expected from William Eyelash. Smooth and relaxing, it gets two thumbs up.

The sampling, production, and electronically manipulated vocals are everything we've come to expect from the best team of music producers alive in the 21st century. This album is formulated with everything it needs to achieve optimized mass appeal and generate maximum revenue. If I were a 14 year-old girl, none of that would matter to me and I would love this album. To me, this is yet another artsy pop album by an artist in the prime of their career's popularity.

I liked this but I do want to say that it's pretty derivative of another style. I don't think the artists here ripped anyone off but man did this album remind me 90's French trip-hop/lounge group Telepopmusik. It's got the same style of minimalist instrumental beats/songs, somewhat breathy vocals, and the overall "chillout" vibe. I do think Billie is a better singer when she outright uses her whole voice, but otherwise its' really close to something that's already been done. That said it was done 30 something years ago and with a whole team rather than two "kids" in a bedroom or minimal studio. It goes to show how accessible the technology to make music has become, which is a good thing. Also I really like Telepopmusik so it isn't meant to be a diss or anything. A few less whispery and breathy songs would be nice but otherwise it's not bad at all.

Not everything here was convincing enough to turn me into a Billie fan, but I think I understand the hype a little bit better now. It's moody and dark, and she puts a lot of care into her production and lyrics. I really liked "Skinny" and "Bittersuite", while tracks like "Lunch" and "Wildflower" didn't do anything for me. Still, it has an enjoyable atmosphere, even if this genre isn't really my thing.

Really good, both lyrics and music. Would've preferred "When we all fall asleep...", though. It's more diverse and as much as I am happy for her, I like her darker lyrics even better.

I've heard bits of Billie Eilish's music on social media but not really familiar with it. I enjoyed the album and will check out others.

Sometimes I really like BE and sometimes...not.

you can be popular and good, actually

Beautiful, dreamy, creamy. Loved it, but hoped Billie might occasionally get me out of the emotional infinity pool for a little chair dancing.

Great album. Such deep instrumentals and a brilliant use of her voice

I remember crying my eyes out when the album first came out, good memories from 2024 lovely to see this album added to the list :)

Although I may like the album “Where do we all go when we fall asleep” I can’t deny this is great. I’m starting to get fatigued by all these artists that lazily whisper songs but with Billie it works.

I was not expecting to like this as much as I did, and now I am rethinking my blanket ban on 2020s music. This is a great album, with variety in songwriting, style and speed. The feeling of being underwater in "L'Amour De Ma Vie" is captured brilliantly through whispery vocals, for example, and the album shifts smoothly between various tempos and moods.

Not my cup of tea, but its nice.

Don't know how I haven't heard this in full yet!! Target dem for this I suppose but she does have a great voice

Really enjoyed this. Was a little whiny at times, but overall a great listen. BIRDS OF A FEATHER is a great song, there weren't any other standouts but I liked this a lot overall. (4)

++: Lunch, Wildflower, The Diner, Bittersuite, Blue +: Skinny, Chihiro, The Greatest +-: Birds of a Feather, L'Amour de Ma Vie 7,3/10

I'm a little suprised this album was included instead of "When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?", which I think is the more important and memorable album from Bill's Eyelashes. But this is a great album, and at least one of her records should be included on any list of essential listens.

I'm a sucker for Billie

De feel van deze plaat was echt goed. Beetje dance beetje emo, blijkbaar ben ik een simp… Misschien vind ik poppy emo dance toch wel leuk?!

Ik had hier wel wat meer van verwacht, in mijn beleving was Billie Eilish wat leuker en spannender. Ff gecheckt; dit is het enige album van Billie in de lijst. kvind daar niet heel veel van maar ik vind andere nummers van haar wel leuker. Dit album heeft iets teveel ballads waarbij er dus ook niet echt veel nummers eruit springen, t zijn niet echt memorabele songs in die zin. Productioneel is het wel erg goed en ik hou ook van de aandacht die is besteed aan de kleine details, de tweede stemmetjes, instrumentkeuze, maar goed, dat kende we ook al wel van haar.

It's not really my bag, but I like how the saturation is faded a little and it sounds like it might be from the future.

Decent.

Oh no! I loved this! What's happening to me?

Not this one. The first one was world changing. This is just meh.

Whoa, what an unexpected pleasure. The first three tracks are by any definition great, especially Skinny. Skinny takes on all of my criticisms of 21st century pop; a beautifully crafted song which moves around, tricks you into thinking this is it, and then slides off into something else. And you can hear her voice! See is that hard, can we collectively turn the autotune off please? The emotion evoked, the passion and the way she moves to the...wait for it...the bridge is fantastic. And Lunch, clever, funny, raunchy, she's clearly good with her tongue in so many ways. The whole thing works, really good playing and good song writing, Blue was a great classic album finisher. I'm impressed but more importantly I really enjoyed it and have kept playing it.

Not a fan of the breathy vocal style, nor of the drum machine. The sweeping synth leaves me cold too. Sadly, the more I listen the less I like.

For anyone complaining that music isn't as good today as it used to be, I say bollocks. That last St. Vincent album was great, and so is this. I'm not at a 5-star, just because it's a little too stuck in the whispery vibe, but damnit, that's what Billie Eilish does and the songs and performances and production is killer. Eilish speaks to her generation, of depression and loneliness and desire and empowerment — it's as full of inconsistencies and humanity as it can be.

Yeah, this was great. I think she's one of the best artists out there right now, and this is a fantastic selection. My daughter turned me on to her many years ago, before she found mainstream success, so it's been cool to watch her career take off.

I like Billie and her brother when I hear an individual song but this whole album was a little too same note

I don't get why this is so rated, it's ok but nothing great

‘When We All Fall Asleep…’ should’ve been a tap-in addition to the previous update of the list, a few years ago. It achieved that rare combination of huge commercial and critical success, while bringing some genuinely new sounds to the table and having an aesthetic all of its own. It helped set the direction of modern pop music from a bedroom rather than a boardroom, plus it was, y’know, good. So naturally the list compilers missed that open goal and appear to be trying to make amends here, with Eilish’s third album. Fortunately it still ticks a lot of the same boxes (commercial and critical success, being quite good) so I’ll excuse that faux pas, though I maintain that the best moments of the debut are stronger than anything on HMHAS, and also Finneas’ signature production is much starker and more attention-grabbing on that first record. What we get instead, for balance, is a much lusher set of songs (of arguably more consistent quality) that showcases the pair’s musical growth and takes us in a number of quite disparate and experimental directions, all while feeling cohesive. There are just less of the angsty teenage horror film vibes of the debut. 3.5 / 4

3.4 - Though not without some standout moments, like the operatic climax on “The Greatest” and the trance breakdown at the end “L’Amour De Ma Vie”, this record bops at a pleasant, if liminal, pace. It feels like popping a Xanax before a long flight.

Really rather chill piece of work - almost too chill entirely for my liking. Definitely not her best album and puzzling to choose this above one of her first two. 3.0

A fine album, but Billie Eilish will likely never produce anything as good as her career-starter, "Bad Guy." Kinda like Lorde and "Royals".

Little too whispery for my taste but can see why she is so popular

The low vocals are tiring. A couple of tracks where she actually sings full voice were very welcome.

I didn't love it and I didn't hate it, it was an OK listen. I'm not a fan of all the breathy/whispery vocals though.

I liked this pretty much, mostly

I am starting to notice a trend that the creators of AOTD don't seem that familiar with modern music, so they just choose the most famous or listened-to albums, while they might pick more esoteric albums from their generation, because they are more familiar with music from that time.at least that's the impression I've gotten so far. Not to say this was completely void of noteworthy musicianship, but it's also fairly generic. I was most impressed by the instrumentals and production, but that can be attributed to Billie's brother. When it comes to her, I acknowledge that's she is a skilled singer, but I don't love the whispering indie vocalist style. I appreciate that they sometimes have a dark and sinister vibe that is unique to their songs, but much of it is generic. I think I have to give it a light 3 for objective quality, though

Mopey, modern wallpaper music, featuring sedated/lethargic, breathy, marbles-in-the-mouth singing (which seems - why? - to have become common lately). Thought I might have liked this one better (and glad, at any rate, to have had the opportunity to check out Billie Eilish), so I'm disappointed to have to give this one a 2. Also, all of the songs kind of sounded the same. Perhaps that was intentional (a thematic suite or something?) but, for me, that made it less enjoyable/interesting. I liked the strings at the end of the last song. More of that.

compact, savvy production. typical lyrical pop tropes I could get into it more if it didn't lean so heavily on sad, whispery melodrama. I know I'm not the target audience (sad girls) I like "BIRDS..." and the ending to "THE GREATEST" which has a satisfying crescendo to contrast all the moping light 3 to high 2

Good sound in places, but overall not my cup of tea.

This was an interesting one. There are parts of this album I really enjoyed, but there's something I can't quite put my finger on that keeps me from fully getting into it. Maybe it's her style of singing, or maybe it's just not my thing. There's plenty of good stuff here, but for whatever reason, it never quite clicks with me. Overall, just not for me.

I was not expecting to like Billie Eilish. I’ve never listened to her before and lumped her in with every other pop figure of modern times. Her singing seems so effortless and the production is more than I expect from a pop album.

This was pleasant dream pop with some good angst in it and i can see why she is popular but its not exactly ground breaking is it?

Best: BIRDS OF A FEATHER Green: LUNCH, CHIHIRO, BIRDS OF A FEATHER, THE GREATEST, L’AMOUR DE MA VIE, THE DINER Yellow: SKINNY, BLUE Red: BITTERSUITE

The creepy weird Billie Eilish music I was expecting and hoping for didn't really show up until late in the album. The rest of it was ok, but nothing spectacular that made me want to re-listen. I'd maybe return to some of the songs on here, but not the album as a whole.

I listened through this album twice. I liked it a little more on the second listen, but still, it was nothing too amazing. It was good though. I never listened to Billie Eilish beyond the singles before, but I'm not seeing what's so great. I did think that the last song starts going in a direction I wish I heard more on the album though. I'll keep my ear out for other releases down the line. 3/5

It's pleasant. Not much more to say.

I could eat this girl for lunch. But seriously folks, I liked this a lot more than I thought I would. Solid pop. 4.75

I really liked her debut album but this was just boring.

Another curious choice...it is fine but I have to imagine there are other albums more deserving. 2/5

For better or worse, Billie Eilish changed pop music in the 2010s. While the xx and Lorde helped pioneer alternative pop in the late 2000s, Eilish's edgy and deadpan delivery on her Don't Smile at Me EP and When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? LP gave the subgenre a fresh coat of paint and subsequently became the defining sound for pop music at large. Her debut album became such a huge success that the Recording Academy felt compelled to grant Eilish all four of the big general category awards at the 2020 Grammys, a feat not seen since....Christopher Cross. Oh god, that does not bode well for her. Well thankfully Eilish is no yacht rock flash in the pan, has her subsequent releases saw greater introspection and refining of her established alt-pop sound. This was in tandem with brother FINNEAS, of course, who has been Eilish's primary collaborator for both songwriting and production. Together, the pair weaved in more complex subtleties into their music that could easily be missed if you weren't paying close enough attention. Even the radio hit Birds of a Feather was grounded by a delightful bassline that most causal listener probably didn't even pick up on. But not me, because I'm different and I listen to full albums which makes me a more analytical and cultured thinker of pop music unlike those common peasants of lower appreciation for the arts. I spit on them from my ivory tower because they don't appreciate Billie Eilish like I appreciate Billie Eilish, so you can remember that next time someone talks about how much they like Birds of a Feather. Now, where was I? Hit Me Hard And Soft is easily Eilish's best work to date and highlights her strengths both as a songwriter and as a performer. She does the whisper vocal things exceptionally well but then she also does normal singing to keep the whisper-singing from getting on anyone's nerves. The tracklist stays fresh from groovy bops to more sensitive emotional jams, and it has a distinct production style to boot. It baffles me how many radio pop hits sound extremely similar to one another and are equally bland at that, so I find the songs on here to be refreshing to say the least. A well-earned addition to the list, I think.

Not Billie Eyelash's best album and a surprise to find on this list, though it's decent enough.

billie eilish definitely deserves a spot on this list. one of the premier pop singers of the last decade and has some pretty innovative and creative production from her brother, finneas. this one is probably her best and most complete album from front to back. definitely soft at times, but the back end gets kind of fun and upbeat too. definitely glad this one's on here now.

This album stayed in my playlist for a long, long time. It's my favorite record of her.

I'm not into modern Pop, but this album isn't half bad at all. 3/5

Best Song: Lunch. This song felt nice and upbeat in a way that provided a good contrast against the relatively "heavy" material of the rest of the album. Worst Song: L'AMOUR DE MA VIE. That sudden transition to full synthpop felt really jarring and forced. Overall: Billie Eilish has a great vibe, even if the album does start to feel a little "same-y" by the end. And it certainly has been very influential.

I think I hit 4 accidentally. I like Billie but do not think this is her best album. I loved Lunch and Love of my Life.

Chill out room vibes pop

Too much breathy singing.

Very solid pop album. Good chill vibes and a minimalist musical approach make for an interesting experience. Didn't 100% work for me, but still absolutely worth a listen. Almost ethereal in production, and very unique. Top tracks: Birds of a Feather, Wildflower, The Diner