The conundrum any woman musician coming of age in the public eye seems to face is how to move from girl to woman, from teen angst to mature being and all the mess of sex and bills that come with it.
Billie Eilish seems to have had to contend with this more severely than most, as everyone and their dog has an opinion on her clothes, her music, her very existence. On her second album, Happier Than Ever, she comes across as someone who is well acquainted with her true self and unafraid to bare it all.
The record leans heavily on the sparse compositions and acoustic flourishes that are proliferating through pop right now. Where Eilish’s 2019 debut, When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go, was coloured by bombast and swagger – an album that said “I am teenager, hear me roar (then cry) (then roar again)” – Happier Than Ever looks deeper and asks, “I roar, but why?”
The musical influences have matured too: SoundCloud trap is out and deconstructed dance, bossa nova (!) and industrial scratches are in. I wonder if it might be a good time to trial a new producer, as Eilish and producer/brother Finneas Eilish’s interests and influences diverge: the music sometimes pulls into a trancey, experimental direction that leaves the vocals sounding a bit like they’ve been stuck over the wrong track.
But Eilish’s ability to tap into a grimey, uncomfortable feeling deep in your soul and translate it into shimmering harmonies and breathy, conversational prose has remained. She sings so close to the mic (often with a vintage crackle) that you feel she is whispering existential questions and romantic insecurities into your ear.
“Oxytocin” is all bedroom beats and sighs as Eilish officially enters her femme fatale era while “I Didn’t Change My Number” is indignant and flirtatious. Just when you think you have a handle on the album – great, understated, philosophical – you’re hit with “Happier Than Ever”, a roaring, heartbroken wail of a track that stands out completely from everything else on the album it is named for. It’s huge and amazing. I listened to it three times in a row.
The album addresses, too, the commentary around her body (the soundtrack from her short film serves as a kind of interval) and “Getting Older” is a reminder that she’s human, not just a totem. The line “Things I once enjoyed just keep me employed now” feels like we’ve robbed her of something.
For all her soul-baring and straight talking, Eilish still feels like a mystery, shrouding her vocals in spiralling, twisting, warping music. The line “Happier Than Ever” might have turned out to be a kiss off, but she deserves it to be true.
Songs to stream: Oxytocin, Happier Than Ever, Halley’s Comet
