There’s less than a month to go until the May 17 release of Billie Eilish’s third studio album, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT. It’s been nearly three years since her masterpiece sophomore project Happier Than Ever and despite holding off on any lead singles this time around, the atmosphere and excitement around this era is palpable. In the lead up to the long-awaited drop, let’s recap the HIT ME HARD AND SOFT album rollout so far – everything we know and everything we’re wanting.
THE BILLBOARDS
The lyrics were the first to be teased for this album, with mystery posters and billboard displays projecting suspected lyrics across cities all around the world. Featuring Billie’s signature ‘blohsh’ symbol but otherwise anonymous, we’ve seen “She’s the headlights I’m the deer,” “Did I cross the line?” and “Man am I the greatest.” Lyrics from fan-favourite unreleased song ‘true blue’ were also spotted as per coordinates listed on Billie’s website: “I try to live in black and white but I’m so blue.”
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THE OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT ON INSTA
PSA: This is basically entirely exclusive information, because not to brag but I’m on Billie Eilish’s close friends list … we’re basically besties.
Earlier this month Billie posted an official album announcement, teased with an 18-second visual that gave us our first real glimpse into this era. It seems that she’s picking up right where we left off at the end of the ‘Happier Than Ever’ music video in 2021 – underwater. Visually there is a clear connection to – or perhaps transition from – that body of work. The audio accompanying the teaser clip is fatalistic and disorienting, it definitely qualifies a correlation with the building pressure of sinking in deep water. The vibes also hint at a turning point here, with a hand reaching out to save Billie in the black accompanied by a liberated sonic shift. Here we get our first teaser of a jazzy beat; basically if a fusion of ‘Billie Bossa Nova’ and ‘ilomilo’ were catapulted through the decades to be amped with a retro synth and bass.
She’s also taking a different approach with the drop this time and has told us we won’t be getting any singles prior to the full-body release.
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THE AESTHETIC
The album cover aesthetic of Billie immersed in electric blue water facing a white wooden door at the surface is the clearest indication we’ve been given to the visuals for this era. Billie also released a teaser of her hand-crafting the bold red paint splatters on the CD collection – a super stark and personalised visual contrast to the base imagery. This chaotic energy hints to the dichotomy we know Billie can bring to her work where it’s least expected (see: the ‘Happier Than Ever’ bridge). Speculating on the clashing cohabitation of these ideas isn’t too out of pocket either – after all the album title in itself is calling for a hit of both softness and grit.
Billie’s personal style, particularly her hair colour, is known for signalling the vibes of upcoming eras. We’ve had everything from neon green roots for WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? to the shaggy, warm platinum blonde for Happier Than Ever, but this time around she’s rocking a clean dark brown, which hasn’t been as much of a centrepiece in indicating where her evolution has landed artistically.
However, some fans have identified the cheekiest hints Billie has been dropping all along in her fashion picks – tracing back to the closing of her last tour in December 2022. Billie’s outfits from those live shows in LA feature graphic prints of unfamiliar phrases which can now be identified as lyrics to HIT ME HARD AND SOFT’s sapphic track ‘lunch’.
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THE SOUND
Billie told us in her Insta announcement that we wouldn’t be getting any singles, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been treated to a couple of teasers. The first was a very fun (approved) leak of a song snippet titled ‘CHIHIRO’ in an interview with Apple Music host Zane Lowe. TikTok was super quick to jump on the funky bass guitar clip, looping the short preview on repeat to try to satisfy fans’ impatience and excitement. In this interview Billie also confirmed she is directing a music video for track ‘lunch’, video-calling in from the production set!
Billie also hosted a surprise Coachella Party at The DoLaB that saw her preview three new songs in full!! From what was heard, the production pushes new realms with some fans describing the tracks as ‘soft club’, with those vibey baselines and some teased sparkling synth instrumentals. Finneas and finesse are basically the same word for a reason, and we can’t wait to see how the pair have pushed their sound in new directions this time! Media releases have stated the album “hits you hard and soft both lyrically and sonically while blending genres and defying trends along the way.”
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THE TRACKLIST
Billie also unveiled the final tracklist on Insta this week, revealing a 10-song package (a.k.a tens across the board already). The tracklist is the last and biggest piece in the puzzle to the vision of this project as a cohesive body ahead of hearing it. Titularly, there’s lots of thematic connections between emotive spaces (‘The Diner’, ‘Bittersuite’) and allusions to nature (‘Birds of a Feather’, ‘Wildflower’). We also have a french title, ‘L’amour De Ma Vie’, translating to ‘Love of My Life’ which raises big questions!
The opening track is titled ‘Skinny’, which may connote a literal interpretation relating to body image in the way tracks like ‘OverHeated’ and ‘Male Fantasy’ have explored – or it may take us in a different direction entirely. The closing track ‘Blue’ is also a very welcome sign to long-term fans for the studio version of our long beloved and teased ‘true blue’. In her interview with Zane, Billie also compared the vulnerability of releasing music to feeling as “if your nudes leaked”, highlighting that this project feels like a particularly personal exposure.
Overall this album feels transformative sonically, while delivering Billie’s signature authenticity that will excite long-term stans while inviting an expansive reception with the hints at its fresh direction.
The countdown is on to HIT ME HARD AND SOFT. Make sure to pre-save Billie’s upcoming album here!
