This morning, The Recording Academy, made public the new nominations of the 67TH Annual Grammy Awards, these nominations include Billie Eilish and her new Album “HIT ME HARD AND SOFT” (Third Studio Album)

The nominations are: “Record of the Year”, “Best POP Solo Performance” and “Song of the year” for Birds of  Feather (the fourth track of the album); “Album of the year“, “Best POP Vocal Album” for her new Album; “Best Dance POP Recording” for L’AMOUR DE MA VIE [OVER NOW EXTENDED EDIT]; and finally “Best POP Duo/Group Performance” for Guess with Charli xcx.

Billie Eilish never stops to amaze us. She is only 22 but she has already broken the world records becoming the first artist to have three Albums nominated as “Album of the Year”, the youngest to win two Oscars beating Luise Rainer who won her second Oscar at 28 years old, nominated Woman of the year at only 17. Billie Eilish started recording music in her room and now she is an Icon in the music industry.

On August 20th she came first in the long list of most streamed artists in the world beating Taylor Swift and The Weeknd, Eilish announced it on an Instangram post where she says:

1 in the world on Spotify I really can’t believe this, I love you all so much this is the craziest thing ever.

The new album talks about the real Billie Eilish, the child that the media and the fame killed years ago. This album is for Billie, the path/road that leads her to her goal: to find her true self. In an Interview with Rolling Stone, she says:

I feel like this album represents meI feel like this album represents me. […] The protagonist is not a character. She is the When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? version of me. She tells about my youth and who I was as a child. […] It’s like I’m going back to being the girl I was. I mourned her as if she were dead. I looked for her in everything, and it’s almost like she drowned, the world and the media’s fault. I don’t even remember when she left anymore.

The varied themes afforded in the album are important ones like body shaming, the fear to grow up, sexuality, friendship and much more.

The most famous tracks are: Birds of a feather, Chihiro, Wildflower and Lunch.

The first one was  described The Los Angeles Times  as a “breezy neo-new-wave jam” because the musical atmosphere recalls the pop sounds of the 90s, with a touch of melancholy and obsession. The title comes from the English proverb “birds of a feather flock together”, which is used to express that people with similar traits and interests gravitate towards each other.

The second one is ispired on the animated film “spirited away”, and the name of the song is the same of the protagonist of the film: Chihiro. It talks about the fear of ending a reletionship.

Wildflower talks about her past, especially  something that the singer did in the past: date her best firend’s ex. We all know, thatone of the unwritten rules of friendship is precisely this. In the song Billie talks about a girl who cried on her shoulders because of her boyfriend who is most likely the singer of Neghborhood Jesse Rutherford, thus finding herself in a love triangle in which she does not know how to act.

I should put it all behind me, shouldn’t I?
But I see her in the back of my mind, all the time…Like a fever, like I’m burning aliveLike a sign
Did I cross the line?
You say no one knows you so well, but everytime you touch me I just wonder how she felt. 
Valentine’s day crying in the hotel, I know you didn’t meant to hurt me so I kept it to myself.
Finally, Lunch is the single of the album. It talks about her sexuality and more specifically about a relationship with a girl, she describes an attraction that evolves from a physical desire to an authentic feeling. The meaning of the song refers to the sexual experience with the person with whom she feels attraction and the text, very explicit, describes being electrified by the taste of the girl and continues imagining that it can be consumed as if it were a meal.
Furthermore, the album is completly connected in itself: at the end of the first track (SKINNY) there are violins that play the theme of the sixth track (THE GREATEST) as well as in the last track (BLUE). In the eigthth track (THE DINER) we can listen the note of the piano that are in LUNCH. Even, to demonstrate how his music in general is all connected to each other, in Birds of a feather there are some bits that are taken from the second album Happier than Ever.
Antonio Cinquegrana
III A Linguistico