Retro Review: 'Happier Than Ever' - Billie Eilish (2021)
There’s obvious growth, yet Happier Than Ever lacks the playful nature of its predecessor. It’s a downright drag at times...
(Originally posted on Luna Paper)
Billie Eilish is getting older.
When an artist attempts a more ‘mature’ sound, it can be met with intense pushback from fans. Some have already declared this Billie’s ‘flop’ era (Billie’s response? ‘eat my dust my tits are bigger than yours’).
But after scoring a hit debut album – 2019’s WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? - and several Grammys, as well as having the eyes of the whole world on her, it’s understandable that the singer would be feeling pretty disillusioned.
And yet, for all the bold statements Eilish makes on Happier Than Ever, it’s an oddly soft and quiet record.
‘There’s reasons that I’m thankful, there’s a lot I’m grateful for/But it’s different when a stranger’s always waitin’ at your door,’ she sings on ‘Getting Older,’ her vocal gorgeously restrained atop pulsating beats, craving pity as she muses about music now feeling like a chore, a means of keeping her employed.
‘NDA’ has an eerie twang and thick fuzzy reverb, Eilish recalling the time she invited a ‘pretty boy’ over to the secret house she first bought when she was 17. She advises a ‘gold-winged angel’ to keep her head down and turn back now before the industry swallows her whole. ‘Your Power,’ as well, cautions all young female artists who enter the industry, sounding like a more lowkey take on Paolo Nutini’s ‘Candy’ as Eilish’s woozy vocal drifts atop a sparse guitar melody.
But later, she’s in love with her future. In fact, she can’t wait to meet her, her soulful longing set to a slick groove. Released as a single over a year ago, it makes you wonder if the rest of the record’s jadedness set in before or after it was recorded.
‘Oxytocin,’ meanwhile, is the closest Billie gets to the dark, shadowy roots of her debut with its jittery synths and suggestive lines like: ‘If you only pray on Sunday, could you come my way on Monday?/'Cause I like to do things God doesn’t approve of if She saw us.’ ‘Therefore I Am’ also has a snarky, theatrical flair as Billie tells the haters: ‘Stop, what the hell are you talking about?/Get my pretty name out of your mouth.’
Heartbreak also reigns supreme on Happier Than Ever.
‘Lost Cause’ is a slinky, sultry mix of RnB and trip hop that fits Billie like a glove as she bemoans a deadbeat lover with no job, who can’t even be bothered to accept her flowers at the bottom of the stairs. ‘I Didn’t Change My Number’ is a balmy hip-hop-lite number that sees the singer’s friends warn her about a potential fuckboi on the horizon, leading into the chintzy keys of ‘Billie Bossa Nova.’
There’s also a lot of commentary on body image, objectification and sexuality that might feel like well-worn sentiments to most people, but are particularly profound to a 19 year old still finding her feet.
Not the Billie doesn’t make good points: ‘Do you know me?/Really know me?’ she asks on the spoken word ‘Not My Responsibility, taking aim at those who picked apart her body online. ‘If I wear what is comfortable, I am not a woman/If I shed the layers, I’m a slut.’ On ‘OverHeated,’ she spits ‘All these other inanimate bitches, it’s none of my business/But don’t you get sick of posin’ for pictures/With that plastic body?,’ a line that will no doubt be used against the singer by a few petty cunts on Twitter, while the gentle finale ‘Male Fantasy’ has her deconstructing porn (‘I hate the way she looks at me/I can’t stand the dialogue, she would never be’).
Yet it’s the title track that gives us a glimpse into what the record could’ve been had Billie decided to join the current pop punk renaissance. Strip away the twee ukulele and you could have a thundering rock opera tailor-made to be screamed from the rafters. When Billie proclaims ‘Cause I’d never treat me this shitty!/ You made me hate this city!’ it truly feels cathartic. It’s a much-needed burst of energy on an otherwise subdued album, some decent fury from a young woman with so much to say.
Billie Eilish has been through a lot, and I wouldn’t wish such a fate on any teenager on this godforsaken earth.
The album is more indebted to jazz, RnB and cinematic strings, her storytelling more rooted in real world horrors compared to the monsters under the bed When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? teased. She even does some pretty compelling vocal turns.
There’s obvious growth, yet Happier Than Ever lacks the playful nature of its predecessor. It’s a downright drag at times (16 tracks), some songs – like ‘OverHeated’ and ‘Everybody Dies’ - just drifting aimlessly until they eventually lose steam.
But with a tremendous amount of pressure on Eilish and her brother/longtime collaborator, FINNEAS, they’re kind of damned if they do, damned if they don’t. So, in the end, they keep things tranquil yet strangely tame.
This isn’t quite Billie’s ‘flop’ era, Happier Than Ever will be a mega-success, regardless. I wouldn’t even call it a sophomore slump. But why so much restraint? Why ease up on the quirks we came to know and love on her debut?
She wasn’t kidding when she told us: ‘I’ve got a lot on my shoulders.’ Hopefully Billie will completely obliterate that weight by the time her third album rolls around…