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Third album, not just any number, often identified as the album of maturity, the one signifying make or break; perhaps now in a fast-paced world that demands immediate results it's no longer this way, but in the collective imagination of many it still is. Billie Eilish certainly could not be exempt from this expectation.
Once again, the fear of a commercial stumble was lurking around the corner, but Billie probably has her own dignity and didn't let herself be swept away by the dreaded surrounding vortex this time either. On the contrary, this time she even went deeper, further refining and enriching what she had already shown. And I add that the little connection there was with commercial music has been substantially severed, that "urban" touch that could be found in some past tracks is not reconfirmed here, the electropop track with a certain commercial potential is not found here, here there is no "I Didn't Change My Number", "Oxytocin" or "Therefore I Am," for example.
Billie continues to be as she has established herself: velvety, delicate, elegant, she relentlessly continues to have nothing to do with the surrounding music scene. She seems to have emerged from another era, when you hear her voice caressing your ears you think more of a jazz singer than a pop singer, but even the instrumental side certainly doesn't align with the rubbish one is forced to endure in the twenty-first century; in all honesty, when you hear the relaxed guitars and elegant strings of "Skinny" or the acoustic caresses of "Wildflower" and "The Greatest" you would never guess that the singer is a young girl dressed as a rapper or skater, rather it is easier to think of a modern and more poised Édith Piaf, indeed this child prodigy now grown up has a vocal and stylistic elegance of yesteryear.
Analyzing the style adopted, you really realize that it's not a fashionable album, no faux-Latin hot rhythms, no pseudo-rap, no autotune, no prevailing monotony nor disarmingly poor arrangements; instead, we have a moderately varied album, with soft guitar and bass parts that never really become rock, synth loops borrowed from a certain indie scene, refined strings, and as mentioned, caressing acoustic guitars, while when it veers into electronics, it's done in a never vulgar manner. A characteristic that immediately caught my attention is the unusually intricate structure of some tracks, detached from the typical song form and surprisingly divided into multiple parts. "L'Amour de Ma Vie" is a succession of two fundamentally distinct and completely different compositions that fit together perfectly, the first flows into the second with frightening naturalness, a fine jazz-pop in the first part and, completely opposite, a real synth-pop with a distinctly '80s sound in the second. But it's nothing compared to what is heard in "Bittersuite" and "Blue," two tracks that absolutely couldn't go unnoticed to a prog faithful listener like me: within them, you can identify three sections, they are small suites synthesized into 5 minutes, in essence, it's progressive pop! Probably just making the tracks a bit complex is not enough to talk about prog but here one relies precisely on a typical genre trope. Who knows if Billie will enjoy it, who says that by daring this way we won't have a new Kate Bush in the future... Guys, this is art-pop!
In all of this, the incredible thing is that despite this distance from classic pop tropes this artist still achieves amazing success! What does it mean? That people also have a more intimate, reflective, and refined side and don't just love to let loose? That a sophisticated product, if well marketed, can reach high places? Or simply that in reality, Billie's offering is still catchy and not as challenging as it seems? Well, who knows...
In any case, once again, well done Billie... or well done Finneas? Because it’s well-known by now that the writing is shared with the brother, that behind a soloist there is practically a duo; I would be really curious to see what she would do on her own. But if this partnership guarantees such a level, I would say it's just fine this way.
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