Billie Eilish
Happier Than Ever

“B” FOR "BILLIE"-

You're at the beach, in Salento, Sicily or Liguria, trying to decide between a burraco tournament and another if the Orietta Berti-Fedez-Lauro trio or Ornella Vanoni and the two very light Sicilian artists are more influential; meanwhile, in Los Angeles, the greatest artist of our time releases her second album, breaking through the global mainstream music scene for the second time and even more deeply. For those who still don't know her because they're too distracted by crosswords, she is Billie Eilish and last July 31st, her second album, Happier Than Ever, was released. An incredibly beautiful and true thing that sets the sound for the next 3-4 years and consecrates the "little" B, who talks about the behind-the-scenes of her greatness, to greatness. Period. (and new line)

The album tells how the happiness achieved from success brings with it inevitable compromises that highlight the beauty of the achievement, remaining in fact the most sweet and beautiful thing, in its graceful danger. Here, we see Billie again, on the line between good and evil, happiness and sadness, without one there's no shadow of the other, and without shadow, nothing exists at all, neither identity, nor sun.

Billie knows this, and she knows many other things too (Getting older). An artist knows what it means to be an artist, an artist knows that the only way to be one is not to shy away from breaking down walls, oceans, barriers, and she knows that when they fall, she can also fall. Billie is 19 years old, she is sharp, she is attentive, she knows who she is, an impressive thing at her age, she hasn't been swayed by the idea that early success can destroy an entire career. And she had the courage to talk about it, to bring out the monsters and behind-the-scenes, not to fall for the flattery of the glossy and half-truths of a world made of glitters; by doing so, she has created an even more indissoluble bond with her audience and a pact of sincerity with her artistic figure, always perfectly candid and authentic in her light and dark shades.

Has it always been like this the relationship of teen divas with success?

On August 8, some years ago, in 2000, the single of another great B, Lucky, by Britney Spears was released, the story of a beautiful woman, at the peak of success, who, despite having everything a person could desire, was unhappy.

If there's nothing missing in my life, Then why do these tears come at night? She said.

Britney, like Billie, experienced the peak of success at a very young age, many magazines have made this parallel between the two blonde Bs with the advent of Billie's new album that talks about this very thing, the relationship of the 19-year-old from Los Angeles with success, how insidiously some dynamics resulting from it infiltrate everyday life but from which she distances herself to masterfully reinforce once again her strong personality that underlies both the first and second album, obviously with the necessary differences deriving from the contextualization of the two albums. In interviews, Billie distances herself from the star born from the Disney Club studios, rightly so, claiming how Britney's story is infested with people who have corroded her mind to the point of taking control of it, people who did not truly support her, starting with her work group, through her manager, who resigned last July 7, up to the family, particularly her father who has kept her under legal guardianship for over 13 years (a world, that of legal guardianship in America, as insidious as it is criminal and heinous, as seen in J Blakeson's recent film I Care a Lot from last year).

The FreeBritney movement speaks of a delirious and difficult-to-understand reality, on which it is difficult to express opinions especially if one does not have the legal basis to do so, but it is a burdensome situation that shows us how success can actually overturn a person's intimate experience, identity, and well-being. Talks that seem recycled and overused, retrievable from the cesspool of public opinion, especially far from those who every day have their coffee and punch the clock, from those who on July 31, 2021, are likely on vacation ready to take a plunge, truly uninterested in the release of the second album of the youngest and most influential artist of the 21st century, who in a week has already reached the top of the charts. But so it is. It couldn't be otherwise, neither one way, nor the other, however this discourse on fame always resurfaces and in all its forms, often coinciding too often with tragedies that could have been avoided (Amy).

Billie is not Britney, in common they have a letter and the glossy blonde, to which Billie has returned just for this occasion; we indeed feared from the first photos before the release that she would sell out to the Monroe imagery, languid lips, timeless beauty, a sinuous and vintage body, but Billie has remained herself, indeed she is that to the nth power, and she talks about herself and what she experiences, a project that keeps faith to what Finneas O Connor said about its creation: “pure in its intentions”.

As usual, Billie pays no attention to clichés, and is a pioneer of the new trendy music, of what will come out, of the rock that is played returning, of the guitars that are heard, a language free from schemes that bows to the identity of the solid artist, just as the single Happier Than Ever sounds, an interpretatively strong ballad, melodically delicate that ends in a rock piece following the trail of Rodrigo, of Willow.

It is a truly eclectic and varied work that pays no attention to trends and goes against every pop scheme, among drum and bass, hip hop tracks, unconventional ballads, folk, psychedelia, and rock.

According to the Italian site Rockol, «this album represents the artistic experimentation of Billie and Finneas, who want to bring new and original pop music, without paying attention to specific schemes»

The album should be listened to from beginning to end, with attention and involvement, preferably free from the conviction that if a person is born a Bad Guy they must die that way because, as this album shows us, identity is true when it is free, and if a song can start bossa and end rock, then Billie confirms herself to be a great artist precisely in her ability to completely renew herself while always highlighting the uniqueness of her capital B, not comparable to that of the star of Lucky nor to her own, of Bad Guy. And take it.