BILLIE EILISH: When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
It’s a little disconcerting to stumble upon a teenage musician who’s enjoyable without even a trace of guilty pleasure. We’re so accustomed to the Biebers and the Mileys and the Timberlakes being awful in their younger years, that we feel the need to apologize for any enjoyment of their latter-day songwriting. So what to make of somebody like Billie Eilish, who is already so musically nuanced and mature that her age seems like some kind of misprint. The kid’s got a future.
On When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, the 17-year-old Los Angeles native has delivered a full-length album of playfully creepy electro rock gems. Pretentious title aside, it’s an album of amazing restraint. The production is just as minimalistic as her breakout hit Ocean Eyes. The vocals that you’ve heard on first single You Should See Me In A Crown are every bit as magnificent and atmospheric across the rest of the collection. And while Finneas O’Connell, Eilish’s older brother, co-writer and producer, has had a pretty big hand in her music, there can be no dismissing her sheer, startling presence as a performer. Eilish compliments even the juiciest beats with masterful delicacy.
Bad Guy is a hooky, unapologetically sexy opening track. Wish You Were Gay applies the faintest touches of piano and acoustic guitar to Eilish’s lounge-act delivery. My Strange Addiction adds soundbites from The Office (!) to her playful, suggestive cooing. It’s easy to see why rock and roll gatekeepers like Dave Grohl and Thom Yorke are already fans. Eilish is perfectly weird enough to try anything, and yet nothing seems forced or tacked on. (OK fine, maybe those Office soundbites are a little tacked on. But kudos to Eilish for referencing a classic show that was already off the air by the time she was 11.)
There’s already some pretty heavy talk about this young woman being The Heiress to Rock and Roll. And sure, we’ve heard that all before; it seems like only a year ago, we were all trying to decide whether Greta Van Fleet was the second coming of Zeppelin or a bad karaoke act. But no matter where she goes next, Billie Eilish has already delivered on a lifetime’s worth of potential. When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? is one for the ages. A
