When We Fall Asleep Where Do We Go? - Billie Eilish: Review
Billie Eilish
is an american singer-songwriter that blew up at a young age with her 2016 smash hit single Ocean Eyes. She dropped an EP in 2017 entitled Don't Smile At Me that was met with mixed reviews but contained a number of hits and set her up for a number of big singles leading up to the release of When We Fall Asleep.
Review By Lavender:
I've been pretty vocal about my feelings on Billie Eilish so far, with each new successful single and her mediocre EP last year pop at large was willing to accept her as one of their own. Simultaneously she was catching the ire of critics across the board for her often formless and trend chasing pop ballads.
The truth is that there are far too few moments across this album when Billie's performance and the production surrounding it benefit each other in a positive way, No track is as good an example than the first full song on here bad guy. The instrumental has some very captivating moments during the verses and Billie's breathy, not even trying vocals completely underwhelm the track and suck it don into nothing. But on the chorus when she explodes into an effort-full performance there is some absolutely awful warbly and jagged vocal distortion layered over her voice that is both stomach churning and head scratch inducing, but serves as the nail in the coffin of a very rough opening song.
xanny has an identical problem of horrible bass oriented instrumental that clashes in an awful way with her melodramatic and whispered vocals. Another decent hook is completely ruined by ear grating vocal effects. And just in case you were curious if it really was the horrible production elements ruining everything the song has a beat switch-up into a generic trap refrain in the second half that gets infinitely better once Billie is able to sing clearly over it, but by that point the song is already ruined. Later on in the album ilomilo is one of the most average songs from a songwriting and production perspective that is torn apart by more horrible production choices. The bass is so ineffective and out of place that I am amazed any major label actually let this be released, this track in particular seems obviously incomplete and purposefully badly mixed for no good reason.
When the production isn't the issue, the songwriting or performance is. Ignoring bad lyrics is just something you have to take into concern when listening to pop music as it's clearly marketed towards the widest audience possible but sometimes Billie pushes the envelope. wish you were gay has a pretty solid instrumental and a decent performance but some big turn offs to go with it. Not only are the lyrics a problematic hike through some out of taste comparisons and horrible lyrical cliches, but the chorus sets up a killer moment but fails in the worst way to grab you right at the hook and leaves one of the flattest moments on the entire project in its wake. when the party's over is a clear Lana Del Rey ripoff that is decent in the beginning but once any high note or passionate moment comes along it becomes unfortunately clear that Billie is not the type of performer Lana is in the context of this type of tune. listen before i go is in a similar category but a little bit more interesting, it to could be greatly improved by competent production though.
8 is by far the worst song in the tracklist here and is so cheap that it may as well be a novelty tune. Not only is the opening baby vocals and ukulele instrumental absolutely throw-up inducing but the song barely gets any better from there. It's an average pop ballad at its core that isn't anywhere near worth hearing given all of the bad production elements around it.
Despite my many complaints about the songs on this album there we're five tunes that I actually unequivocally enjoyed. The first of which was you should see me in a crown the lone singles that had me excited for this project. Its got a jagged and obtuse instrumental the perfectly fits her performance and the breakdown that transitions from the verse to chorus may be my favorite moment on the entire project. The result is one of the best and catchiest songs on the project. all the good girls go to hell is a far brighter and poppier track than much of what it around it. Even this isn't perfect as the bouncy beat and bubbly vibe aren't helped by a completely lifeless performance, and the pretty solid hook is followed by a short but difficult to get through bridge that brings back our old friend awful vocal distortion.
bury a friend is the most complete song on the entire album if you can ignore the lyrics. Her performance is captivating and perfectly fits the great instrumental and the entire thing is enjoyable pop bliss that has grown on me a lot since I first heard it. And the song that basically serves as the closer is i love you a pretty captivating ballad that relishes in its slowness and finally fits the lowkey elements of the performances Billie gives across this album, and with no trendy high hats of ridiculous bass it's one of the few ballads that is actually allowed to be a ballad.
To me there is one track that perfectly summarizes everything wrong with the project. my strange addiction is a decent song with a fantastic hook, the only problem is its built around some awful, cringy samples from the U.S version of The Office. So much of this project has good elements at its core that are the foundations of good pop music but in an attempt to chase a target audience or give Billie a more relevant image almost all of the songs here have horrible trendy elements tacked on top of them that sometimes dilute and sometimes completely ruin otherwise good tracks. Billie has the writing and singing talents to make it in the pop world and certainly has the fan base given her success at a very young age, but on When We Fall Asleep Where Do We Go? she is the victim of some of the most thoughtless and asinine trend chasing production choices I've ever heard in any kind of music that makes the entire project a difficult slog, most of which is not worth returning to. 3.5/10
For more pop check out my review of Ariana Grande's thank u, next here.
