Album Review: Billie Eilish Asks WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?

If Bjork had a baby with Nirvana, and then that baby grew up to make a horror, disco film, it would be Billie Eilish. She has an incredible way of making weirdness cool, which is the dream. Absolutely everyone is weird, and, if you think you are not, then you are probably the weirdest person ever. Thus, her debut, When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, is like a haunted house of pop dreams.

There is something attractively grunge and ghoulish to Billie Eilish’s sound that, immediately, grabs your liking. Every bassline and synth feels like a rose plucked from a grave, and it is a beautiful, befitting image for a young woman that sings to depression. So many youths suffer from anxiety, and now, more than ever, young women are speaking to their woes beyond men. We are trying to love our selves, our bodies, our friends, our family, our lives, and our dreams: not just guys. Thus, “xanny,” “bury a friend,” and “bad guy” sound like pop operas plotting the fall of Caesar, except, in this version, The Emperor is all that darkness you let dominate you.

Eilish’s level of melodrama makes you engulf this record. Still, “you should see me in my crown,” “All The Good Girls Go To Hell,” “ilomilo,” and “my strange addiction” have rhythms that make you want to dance and bounce like you are in a trop-nightmare. Again, Billie never sheds her feeling of unease; taking the idea of “having an edge,” and making it feel like a blade. Even the softness of her notes in tracks like, “when the party’s over” or “i love you,” drop like sullen tears. She annotates her voice as if she is seducing mournfulness, and the result is beautiful tracks that will be hymns for any young person who thought they would be liked by the “popular kid,” assumed they would get invited or accepted into the “cool club,” or believed self-love would be instant.

Eilish is so unafraid to be different, and that is why she has gained the admiration of so many young people. She has become an icon to Generation Y and Z, and this is her debut album. Fortunately, it lives up the hype, and is unlike any album your will hear because it makes turmoil feel commercial. From “8” to “listen before i go,” her voice flutter and feathers with thought; using her airy range to breathe depth into the pain and promise of being young. To Buy Billie Eilish’s When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? Click Here.