Eilish’s 2019 debut album, “When We All Fall Asleep, The place Do We Go?,” mapped gothic nightmares, adolescent obsessions and lingering traumas together with an occasional giggle. Her second, “Happier Than Ever” in 2021, reacted on to the eye, shock, exploitation, stalking, exhaustion and newfound energy that success introduced her.
“Skinny” is a hushed replace on Eilish’s superstardom. “Am I performing my age now?/Am I already on the best way out?,” she sings, together with ideas on her physique form, discovering unhazardous love, her sense of isolation and a resigned response to social media: “The web is hungry for the meanest type of humorous/and someone’s gotta feed it.”
But at the same time as “Skinny” connects again to “Happier Than Ever,” it’s a transition — a parting look as Eilish strikes from her very particular person scenario towards her model of extra generalized pop songwriting.
For an artistically self-conscious hitmaker like Eilish, the proverbially “tough” third album requires self-redefinition, rethinking the previous and difficult fair-weather followers. On “Hit Me Exhausting and Tender,” Eilish and Finneas additional develop their sonic territory, reveling in electronics and plush subtleties, whereas they alternately honor and warp pop buildings. On the similar time, Eilish takes on a extra typical task: to jot down songs, significantly love songs, that don’t should be all about her.
The album is a concise, 10-song set, a deliberate distinction to prolix streaming-era albums like those launched recently by Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. Eilish selected to not put out advance singles, and he or she has urged followers to take heed to the album as a complete, like an analog-era LP as an alternative of a monitor listing to be cherry-picked. Simply in case 10 songs appears ungenerous fairly than disciplined, Eilish makes a pre-emptive wisecrack; tacked onto the top of the final track, “Blue,” a seemingly informal Eilish asks, “So when can I hear the subsequent one?”
