By Brent Bigelow
Billie Eilish is way cooler than you, or me for that matter.
She wears baggy clothes, dyes her hair cool colors, wears emo spike necklaces and couldnât care less about your opinion. Oh, and by the way, sheâs only 17 years old!
Eilish has the pop world in the palms of her hands right now and she can do no wrong. She has more personality than most musicians, her interviews are entertaining as heck and sheâs raw and real. Oh, and sheâs 17 years old!
Itâs not overly important but worth mentioning that the album was produced by Finneas OâConnell, Billieâs brother. Also worth mentioning that thereâs this huge conspiracy that Billie Eilish is an industry plant musician since both her parents work for record companies and that theyâve groomed their children into little hit making machines. But as I said, not important but worth mentioning.
Letâs talk about Billie Eilishâs debut album, âWhen We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?â
The first two songs, after the Invisalign shoutout, are the best songs on the whole album bar none. Thatâs not a slight on any of the other records but âbad guyâ and âxannyâ are so good they put the other songs in the rearview mirror.
âbad guyâ is absolutely filthy. The song chugs along with a pounding bass drum, a wicked bassline and hauntingly sexual lyrics. This is clearly Finneasâs best beat of the album. It reminds me of a LMFAO club banger mixed with a Nine Inch Nails song. Absolutely filthy!
Billie went all out with this song telling the world that sheâs the bad guy in relationships. The lyrics are provocative, suggestive and comical at some points.
With a chorus like, âSo youâre a tough guy, like it really rough guy, just canât get enough guy, chest always so puffed guy. Iâm that bad type, make your mama sad type, make your girlfriend mad tight, might seduce your dad type. Iâm the bad guy. Duh!â
Sheâs definitely the bad guy and Iâm all for it. Also, the music video that accompanies the song is pretty stellar too.
The next highlight of the album is âxanny.â âxannyâ is an anti-Xanax and cigarette song, which is the unpopular thing in popular music. Artists and musicians have this fixation with Xanax and pills and a lot of musicians are overdosing, for example Lil Peep. Billie asks, âWhat is it about them? Am I missing something?â She says sheâs âbetter off without themâ and those on Xanax are lazy and âtoo intoxicated to be scared.â
Billie depicts herself sitting at a table surrounded by second hand smoke, drink a canned Coke and sheâs the only one not stoned, in the chorus and stating âI donât need a xanny to feel better⊠Donât give me xanny, now or never.â
The lyrics of the song are perfect and donât need changed. The only issue with the song is the ridiculously massive bass kicks in the chorus. The bass is so loud it actually distorts Billieâs soft and delicate voice. Billie croons her way through the entire song like Frank Sinatra with a jazz piano noodling in the background and then all of a sudden your speakers are blown. But for Billie to be 17 and writing lyrics like this shows her talent, which is a trend for the album.
The lead single for the album, âyou should see me in a crown,â is okay. When it originally was released it didnât blow me away, and it seems to be one of the less intriguing songs on the album and doesnât stand out at all.
The last of the stand-out songs for me is âwish you were gay.â The best part of this song are the lyrics, again. Billie continually wishes the boy she likes would come out as gay that way she would get rejected because he isnât into girls instead of something specifically wrong with her. Absolutely fantastic outside the box thinking by Billie. In an article by NME, Billie said the boy she was singing about eventually came out to her as gay. So I guess she got her wish.
âWhen We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?â is a really good album. Worth buying on vinyl? I donât think so. Iâm perfectly content listening to this on my phone. There are some songs on the record that blend and sound too much with the other songs but âbad guyâ, âxannyâ and âwish you were gayâ are truly amazing pieces of lyrical masterpiece.
