Happier Than Ever- Billie seems to hide herself which may make her happy but fails to excite us.

Billie Eilish- Happier Than Ever- (2021)

With a handful of EPs and stand alone singles, it is easy to forget that Billie Eilish is technically only on her sophmore album. In addition, her debut was such a gaglomerate success that it feels like she is unstoppable. Happier Than Ever attempts to remind you that there is a young girl (newly a woman) underneath all that success and the world she is stepping up to is not all it is cracked up to be.

The album gives us an insight into the life she has been experiancing these past few years and the darker experiances that have occured. This album isn't dark in the same way her debut was as the demons, bad guys and nightmares here are usually the fans and internet trolls that she has experianced on the way- so it is much more self referential than relatable. In a way, that is the main draw back of the album. The theme of celerbity is so alien to the listener that often the tracks feel hollow. Moreover, Billie has a nasty habit of telling the listener in bland uninteresting ways rather than showing through the production and vocal delivery all the things that many artists have sung about previously. For a sophmore album, where artists usually assert themselves into the art, there is a clear hole missing that is shaped like Billie; the themes of celebrity are often so vague and hollow that they could be about anyone, so you lose who Billie actually is and why she is so important to the musical landscape currently. If you are already in love with Billie, then this will be an insightful look into her life. But, if you don't know much about her, then this album will just inform you that she is a celebrity and like every other celebrity she finds fame difficult. It is definitely not the bold and unique style that her debut was.

Alot of the best tracks come when Billie is experimenting with form and genre and are found more in the middle and end of the album. Therefore, the album takes a little while to get its footing as it starts off weak and gets better and better with each track. But, overall the quality is a mixed bag as you feel like you are getting into the groove of things and then a shoddily placed single or a repetitive theme drags you back to boredom. It is like Billie had an album written and then had to decide where to disperse the singles and just chose random places that really ruin the pace, story and vibe that she was aimining for. More often than not, the main problem with the songs is the lack of variety or bold interesting choices, which inately feels weird to say because the three or four excellent songs are some of the boldest and most interesting songs to be released in a while by a main pop star even if they often resemble critic darlings like Phobe Bridgers and Fiona Apple. It is clear there has been enough experimentation here to show Billie has legs in the industry if she just refined her subject matter and removed the fluff.

After reaching the heights that were thought of as unreachable with her last album, one does not think the predicted muted success of this album will make Billie happier than ever, but if these lyrics are anything to go by less success sounds like the only thing that will make her happier than ever.

Album Review- 5/10

Track By Track-

1. Getting Older: Artists need to learn not to bite the hand that feeds them. Yes, their life is tough and being a celebrity is not all that it is set up to be, but ultimately, tracks about their suffering just don't sit well. Calling your fans deranged when you are only on your second full-length album isn't cute because you haven't built up the respect and longevity to warrant such a bold statement. It just feels a bit like you can't handle the heat of the kitchen so you should get out, it is all a bit whiney after you've just been presented with the biggest success of your life because of your fans. A fan just can not relate to a track like this because it is so specific to the life of a celebrity that it is so alien- it is why many artists struggle past their first album because they lose this sense of relatability to real working people. The production is dull with one beat continued throughout that aims for a swirl of life occasionally when it remembers it is meant to be trying. The singing is dull at a whisper that you've heard Billie do countless times before. So, it needed interesting and in-depth lyrics to make it work, but they clearly didn't hit the mark. (3)

2. I Didn’t Change My Number: A slight speed up of pace where Billie denounces the person she no longer gets along with. It is more relatable and the production is more interesting, so it is an improvement on the last one. The song is short in length, but the lyrics stop even sooner so the production has to do much of the heavy lifting as the lyrics sum up to "I don't like you anymore" and nothing more. However, the repetition of the same few beats and nothing more leave the song feeling foundation level not just in the lyrics. It is neither exciting nor bold enough to make an impact. It aims for dark but just feels underbaked. (4)

3. Billie Bossa Nova: Trying to juggle celebrity life and keeping a relationship secret and personal between the two parties is a more unique take on the "celebrity woe is me" rhetoric found across the album. Billie is going for a sensual whisper delivery as opposed to her usual whisper delivery, so she is trying to add some flair on this track, and that is appreciated. The production's high pitched piano melody adds a dreamy fairytale esque feeling to the track as she dreams about how easy it would be to just be with the person. Mixed with the toned-down and slowed Latin vibe to the production, the song is on the edge of sexual which recreates the feelings Billie is discussing in the lyrics. It is the best so far but needed to be bigger or bolder to truly alite the track. (5)

4. ​my future: The lead single of the album, a reconciliation of all the problems that she raises on the previous three tracks. Hopefully, this is the end of the celebrity melancholy on the album as this more hopeful sound is much more interesting. To be honest it is so semantically different to the previous three tracks it is a breakneck change of beliefs that feel less like natural character growth and more like haphazard course correction. It would have been nice to explore how Billie got from hating everybody, such as her fans and her life, to then being excited about her future. The lyrics are just too vague to accommodate this drastic change. About halfway through, the track picks up pace and she discusses how she is 'supposed' to feel, but these suposions are exactly what she is describing on the previous tracks, one would hope that is clever irony that she's done deliberately but at the moment it feels like an oversight. (6)

5. Oxytocin: An epic lust anthem that perfectly captures the dirty energy with the invigorating passion of a sexual experiance. The jittering production spasms across the ears dragging you into the world of big bold Billie that is ready to get what she wants. It is exciting and dangerous as she describes how you don't want to see it but you can't help but look- just like how you can't help but move your body to this production. Billie and the production perfectly sell the story they are aiming for and capture the moment and the feelings in a visceral way that brings the listener along with them- it is easily the stand out song on the tracklist so far. (9)

6. GOLDWING: Opening with a gospel religious cermeony is certainly needed after the devilish nature of the previous track. This more experimental Billie was certainly missed on the first 4 tracks of the album as the change up keeps you on your toes and inturgued to the very last second. The gorgeous repetition of "goldwing" in the background maintains the religious bigger-than-this atmosphere that asserts your need for attention. Billie describes the tension of being young and innocent in the music industry, which by following the sexual discovery anthem Oxytocin the tracklisting adds underlying danger to being a young adult in a manipulative world. It is good but it packs so much into such a short track length that it doesn't fully go anywhere or explore what it needs to. Oh and I hate the "That's good" at the end that sounds like the end of a vocal take and Billie has forgot the mic is till on. (7)

7. Lost Cause: Another case of a single released before the album that feels out of place of the narrative Billie is building up. The last two tracks felt they were going in an interesting direction exploring sexuality and innocence in the celebrity world in an experimental way, but now we are just blandly boyfriend dissing out of nowhere. It is like Billie had an album written and then had to decide where to disperse the singles and just chose random places that really ruin the pace, story and vibe that she was aimining for. The music video tries hard to suggest this is Billie's fun female empowerment anthem that is a totally new direction for her, but in reality it sounds like any other slow whisper bland Billie song that had come before but with vague less interesting lyrics about a none discript love interest that she is over now. (3)

8. Halley’s Comet: And we are back on track with the experimental and interesting section of the album. Wow, what a beautiful little ballad about not wanting to love somebody but being out of control with your emotions. The production is rich and glossy and beautifully slow to give you time to enrich yourself in the narritive and Billie's soft vocals. Moreover, the lush instrumental break that goes up and down like it could stop at any moment but never does perfectly symbolises the feelings Billie is going through. Admittedly, the experiance is of a young niave version of love that is vague enough to be about any teenager in her brother's room, but as Billie is so young you can forgive that bleeding into her work. Luckily, the production does enough to make this feel granouise and bigger than it actually is. (7)

9. Not My Responsibility: Again, the first rule of being a celebrity is not to talk about being a celebrity. It is really simple, as soon as you start attacking the sytem that made you, the illusion is shattered, you become insulor and uninteresting, listeners do not relate and just hear desperation and weakness. The first thing an artist is asked is "what do you have to say" and if Billie has already run out of interesting things to add to the conversation that she relies on attacking everything then she will not last. It is not rebelious or strong, it is dull and recycled as every artist has recited the same thing over the years. There is no indivdual in this conversation, there is no added depth, it has been said before and will be said again. You can't have your cake and eat it to. There are ways of going about it, this is not one of them. The interesting production is good as it resembles a ticking clock attached to a bomb ready to explode, but the rest is not. (2)

10. OverHeated: At this point I am so bored of hearing about how Billie does not enjoy being a celebirty, it is tiresome. Maybe on your fifth or sixth album this would be an interesting insight into a celebrity's life, but on your sophmore album you've got so much left to prove that you deserve to be here for me to care about what you have to contribute to the musical landscape. Where is the brass, the fire, the atmosphere, the darkness, the spunk, the individuality, the uniqueness of her debut rather than this same premise recycled on nearly every song so far. The chorus and beat is fine in isolation to the rest of the album but as track 10 of the same message it is hindered by the wait of the others. (5)

11. Everybody Dies: This album has so many tracks, not all of them necesary. As this one takes the same strutcure as Halley's Comet, you start to wonder if the creative bank of ideas had been dripped dry by this point. Whereas the simple no-structure structure of Comet feels exciting like a thought memo on a note pad which makes semnatic sense for the song, here it just feels lazy. I recognise we are experiancing the death of the chorus in music and minimilaism is infecting everything, but something needs to elevate a song from a notepad memo when it is not a relevant melodic decision. It is another adequate Billie Eilish ballad that goes nowhere, does nothing and feels like a waste of space. (3)

12. Your Power: A rich jazz-like track that has a muted production but heart felt lyrics of abuse and loss of innocense. It is a deep reflective listen to a pain that often resembles numbness rather than rip roaring rage or sadness. It is an experiance from start to finish, but Ellishe's full and rich vocals lack the raw vulnerablility of a voice crack or grit that would set this song to a true emotional rollerocaster. It feels too glossy and put together to truly get accross the pain of the lyrics. I can imagine a live performance of this where Billie becomes more vocally vulnerable and free will be where this song becomes even better. It is not bad by any means, but it could be even better. (6)

13. NDA: The best single released before the album, NDA may not be relatable in any way but it has the grit and fire that means the listener can at least attempt to sympathise because the vocal effects allow us to hear her pain. The swirling synths and ticking beats truly recreate the manic mind of Billie as she contemplates whether she has made a mistake. And those heavy syths over the chorus pound the listener over and over until they realise the pain she is going throguh, it is uncomfortable but an oh so glofious way that the production works with Billie and the lyrics to tell the story. It is not just Billie telling us she is suffering but her showing us at the same time which is a trick severely missed on the other tracks. Also, it is not just the generic woes of celebrityhood which we have heard before, but instead a more specific insight into the kind of things the normal public take for granted. (8)

14. Therefore I Am: Easily the most successful single released before the album, Therefore I am resembles the most recognisible song structure on the album so is therefore the most catchy and in turn most likley to be a success. So, the fact it was only a moderate success for Billie does not give hope for the longevity of the album. But, either way, it is a fun shout out to all the people that use your name for the wrong reasons. The chorus is fun as hell. In the context of the album, where she has spent more time shouting at fans, it seems less like she is talking to her clebratory peers but more her fans for talking about her without even knowing her- the album deifnitely adds a twist to it. It still as fresh and revealing almost a year after release. It doesn't endeer you to Billie as she does sound cold, but it does make you feel like a bad bitch to sing a long to. (7)

15. Happier Than Ever: Sounding like a Phoebe Bridgers deep cut, this is the most deserving of critics praise song. Taking the logical and reserved initial feelings of realising you aren't happy to then slowly build that into the rage and suffering that occurs afterwards- it is easily the most interesting take on a break up Billie has done. At times sounding inspired by Olivia Roderigo, Billie sounds really good with a punk rock veil and should deifnitley explore it further in the future. To be honest, though the reveal from jazz to punk is iconic, the first half is not necessary as the true meat and intrest peaks in the second half. It most deifnitely sounds like a closing song though, so it is weird that it isn't. (8)

16. Male Fantasy: Again, sounding like Phoebe Bridger (which is weird as she is working with Lorde and Taylor Swift, so seems to be the in thing right now). In her higher register, Billie actually sounds really good it is surprising she doesn't use it more often. The song is quaint and probably the best straight ballad on the album. It definitely leaves you on a lasting note different than what would have been with Happier Than Ever and this is probably more reflective of the album than the other. It is clear there has been enough experimentation here to show Billie has legs in the industry if she jsut refined her subject matter. This, this is interesting and playful yet painful. It is a relatable slice of overthinking that works succinctly with the rage at the end of Happier Than Ever. Also, Billie has enough vocal vulnerability in this song that you actually feel it. (8)