At just 22 years old, it’s hard to believe that Billie Eilish is already a veteran pop star who’s three albums and seven years deep into her career — but here we are. Hit Me Hard and Soft, her third and most skillful studio LP yet, arrived promptly at midnight Friday (May 17), bringing with it 10 new tracks about life under the spotlight, complicated friendships-turned-romances and Eilish embracing her sexuality.
From the emotional accountability on “Wildflower” to the self-scrutinizing “Skinny,” Eilish’s latest set finds her fully in possession of the narrative maturity she was grasping at on her 2021 sophomore effort Happier Than Ever, which spent three weeks atop the Billboard 200. But with gothic allusions to death and criminal activity on songs like “Birds of a Feather” and “The Diner,” and shades of blue adding darker dimension to even the happiest moments on the album, the project also makes good on the star’s promise that Hit Me Hard and Soft would mark a return to the charms of her No. 1 hit debut record When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
“This whole process has felt like I’m coming back to the girl that I was,” she told Rolling Stone in April of making the album with her brother and producer, Finneas, whose best work to date is displayed on HMHAS. “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.”
Keep reading to see how Billboard ranks the songs on Eilish’s new LP Hit Me Hard and Soft, from worst to best, below.
