Billie Eilish‘s new album Hit Me Hard and Soft has officially made contact, arriving on streaming services promptly at midnight Friday (May 17).
Produced as usual by the pop star’s brother and longtime collaborator, Finneas, the 10-track set marks Eilish’s third studio LP, following 2019’s When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? and 2021’s Happier Than Ever, both of which spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. No singles preceded the project, with the 22-year-old singer telling fans from the moment she announced it, “i wanna give it to you all at once.”
That meant that fans were given the full project all at once on Friday — or, as early as two days before it officially dropped, in the case of those who were lucky enough to attend one of Eilish’s listening parties in New York City and Los Angeles. With songs spanning the lovey-dovey early stages of a relationship to the brutal aftermath of a breakup, embracing sexuality and self-confidence and navigating life under the spotlight, Hit Me Hard and Soft is undoubtedly the young star’s most varied, mature album yet. Fans of her debut era, however, will especially love the new album, with Eilish telling Rolling Stone in April that she sees it as a return to the enigmatic, blue-haired teenager she used to be.
“This whole process has felt like I’m coming back to the girl that I was,” she told the publication. “I’ve been grieving her. I’ve been looking for her in everything, and it’s almost like she got drowned by the world and the media. I don’t remember when she went away.”
Stream Billie Eilish’s new album Hit Me Hard and Soft below.
