“HIT ME HARD AND SOFT” is the third studio album of Billie Eilish produced by her and her brother FINNEAS, the album has earned critical acclaim and was one of the biggest female pop albums of 2024, Billie has stated in several interviews that “HIT ME HARD AND SOFT” is the album that feels “purely me and not a character.”
the album came 3 years after her sophomore album “Happier than Ever” I will do my best to review this album from an unbiased perspective, Eilish has stated that she did not make this album in hopes of commercial success, but instead to make it for herself, However this album became her most successful album and brought her many new fans. With the release of this album, Eilish became the most streamed artist on Spotify for a brief period in August of 2024 out streaming big names like Bruno Mars, The Weeknd, and Taylor Swift.
SKINNY- 9.8/10 The opening Track of “HIT ME HARD AND SOFT” offers a commentary on body image, An amazing way to open an album in my opinion, This song more showcases Eilish’s ability to encapsulate how being a young woman feels, This is one of the most relatable on the album, This song is especially impactful considering the extreme body shaming Eilish had experienced very early in her career, Eilish was in the spotlight relatively early, around 17 years old, and during this she was frequently called overweight or not feminine. In the track, Eilish sings, “People say I look happy Just because I got skinny” This lyric is actually a lot more meaningful than it seems, It applies to the shaming Eilish went through, but also in general, people view women especially as beautiful or happy only if they’re thin. Another lyric that really stands out on this song “But the old me is still me and maybe the real me And I think she’s pretty” This lyric’s meaning is that, the old version of her, is still who she is despite the change in her appearance. This track is an amazing way to introduce an album, absolutely no notes here except it could be longer,
LUNCH – 8/10 This is a very fun and energetic song, a shift from the slower, and more sad opening track, this song openly discusses queer desires, From Eilish, who got massive amounts of hate in 2021 for queerbaiting, This song is very interesting to see from her, This song also shifts from Eilish’s usual style of writing. This is definitely the most fun song on the album, as well as one of the ones that became extremely popular on literally all social media, even though I don’t personally relate to this song, it’s a good song and is on almost all of my playlists, the only reason I took off points is because it got super overplayed, but that’s not a reason to not like it,
CHIHIRO – 10/10 In my opinion this is the best and most interesting song on the album, the production is really unique and interesting to me personally, the lyrics and writing style is instantly attractive to me as a listener, I absolutely love this song, may even be my favorite song of all time, The meaning of this song is kind of up to interpretation, it can be what you view it as, For me personally the best part of this track is around like halfway, I love the way the vocals are almost blurred – this part is genuinely insane to listen to on good quality speakers or headphones. First listen to the album and this is the track that instantly stood out to me as one of the core points of the album, The style of this song is closer to her earlier work for sure but still feels so much different and new, The track has good replay value, I never get tired of this track, absolutely amazing no notes here at all
BIRDS OF A FEATHER- 7.9/10 This became the most popular and streamed track of the album, growing to over 3 billion streams on Spotify and becoming the most streamed song by a female artist in the platforms history, It was also the top streamed song of 2024, You can really tell how popular this one is, It’s different from Billie’s Usual style and is more pop coded than most of Billie’s other tracks. I personally don’t think this is the best song on the album, I do really really like it but it’s very overplayed, even though it’s overplayed, I never skip the song. This track showcases Billie’s vocal ability in a way she really hasn’t used much in her career yet, and she does this extremely well. This is also the song that gave Billie several new fans. I absolutely love this song, no notes writing or production wise, all I took off for was how overplayed this became.
WILDFLOWER- 8/10 Honestly such a beautiful and well written track, The vocals are also really well performed, Billie really does know how to take any types of emotions and put them into a song. It even won a Grammy award in 2026 for song of the year, almost two years after its release, I love how the second chorus has more vocals than the first time it really ties together with the meaning, First listen to the album, when it released I instantly knew that this one was going to be a favorite, Even though It got played a lot and was on radio multiple times, I will never not love this track. I have really no criticism of this one or really any of this album
THE GREATEST – 10/10 This one is another one of my favorite songs on the album, if not my absolute favorite, then again its really hard to pick my favorite, since the release I’ve streamed this song over 1000 times, This song is in my opinion the “heart” of the album as well as the saddest on the album, The type of vocals used really perfects how this song feels, I feel this song never got the hype it deserved, In my opinion. Instantly this song connected with me. This is in my opinion the strongest song on the album lyricism wise, you can easily tell how much effort was put in this track, again I have absolutely no notes for this one, I love it so so much. If you are wanting to listen to only one song from this album this should be the track you choose to listen to
L’AMOUR DE MA VIE- 9.9/10 This is one of the most creative and interesting songs on the album, It’s split into two unique parts, That’s probably my favorite thing about this song, The first part is kind of slower, I don’t know how to describe it but its super enjoyable to listen to for me personally, some people don’t really like the first half but I personally really like it. The second half of this track is a higher energy kind of dance pop inspired thing sort of, Definitely not what I’d expect from Billie but I do like it. It’s really interesting to see her experimenting with her music style on this album. This song, like many others on the album, didn’t really get the attention I believe it deserved, honestly so overlooked.
THE DINER- 10/10 Again, This one is also really underrated, and another one of my favorites on the album. It’s unique in the fact that it’s not in Billie’s perspective, This was definitely one of the most interesting songs on the album at first listen, The production style of the track really helps with the kind of dark theme the lyricism follows, I never really heard people talking about this one that much, honestly I was really surprised by, I expected this one to be the super popular one. This is definitely very close to how Billie’s style was in her first album which is really cool to see as someone who has been a fan for a really long time
BITTERSUITE- 10/10 Where do I even start? This song is absolutely amazing and literally perfect in every single way. I was so impressed by the production of this track. I love how it kind of changes and progresses with the song instead of staying the same. The instrumental is amazing and so unique and interesting to listen to, Instantly this became a favorite on the album for me, this one is also one of the super underrated ones on the album if not the most underrated. Deserves so much more, no notes literal perfection.
BLUE- 9.99/10 The perfect way to close an album, a perfect end to one of the most beautiful albums and closing tracks ever in my personal opinion, the track takes instrumentals from both SKINNY, and THE GREATEST, and references lyrics from every single song on the album, It really feels conclusive and a meaningful ending. For me and many other older Billie fans, this song is extra special, It takes lyrics and inspiration from an early track meant for her first ep that ended up being unreleased, and an unreleased song from Happier Than Ever, the two songs were put together and modified to make an absolutely amazing outro to one of the best albums of all time
Replayability- 5/5 Paws
Overall- 5/5 Paws
Lyricism- 5/5 Paws
Production- 5/5 Paws
Enjoyment – 5/5 Paws
Rating- 5/5 Paws
