I wonder if LDR's album was delayed at all by the record company due to Eilish's continually rising star? she says it'll be out in September now but it was supposed to be out at the beginning of the year. The one time I saw LDR btw (before the last album) she played the Shoreline in the bay area, it was sold out, and the crowd was insane; I was completely not expecting that.
― akm, Friday, 12 July 2019 21:46 (four years ago) link
Shallows is a banger
― flopson, Friday, 12 July 2019 22:22 (four years ago) link
she prob hasn't even heard the xx
This is really interesting, I never would have made this connection... I hear the musical similarities, but I feel like they occupy entirely separate aesthetic universes somehow.
― stan by me (morrisp), Friday, 12 July 2019 22:34 (four years ago) link
LDR's kind of weird because a lot of of her continuing fame comes from her huge social media presence. Also massive on youtube.
― frustration and wonky passion (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 12 July 2019 22:37 (four years ago) link
there are so many kids out there who are over so much of what they *perceive* as the usual gorgeous rich pop star bullshit and Eilish feels more real and her extreme I can’t even-ness is something they’re really into.
def true for my 12yo stepkid, a diehard BE fan. These are kids whose parents started instagram accounts for them even before they could hold a phone, and have grown up realising that they can't look like Ariana or Taylor no matter how much they tried.
Eilish, eye-rolling at everyone in her sneakers and baggy outfits, feels more real to them, like a cool girl at school they could actually hang out with.
related: this girl Joana Ceddia is the biggest Youtuber/IG-er among kids right now, and the most striking thing about her is how much she *doesn't* look like an IG influencer - charmingly goofy/intentionally "ugly" selfies shot in her badly lit bedroom with no filter.
― Roz, Saturday, 13 July 2019 09:32 (four years ago) link
I can see her possibly running into a followup problem. Either she goes for a more streamlined pop approach, losing a lot of the support from critics and the indie audience or she goes even more leftfield, losing her mainstream following by msking her "The Dreaming" or "Neither Fish or Flesh".
Being this experimental at such a young age, I can see her following the second path and becoming a David Sylvian/Talk Talk style mainstream-gone-cult act.
― The GeirBot (Geir Hongro), Saturday, 13 July 2019 09:48 (four years ago) link
I checked out a few of her videos... they’re well done and I agree more compelling than just listening to the tracks alone; and I get the anti-fashion thing & see why kids like her. It’s still not something I could personally get into, and feels so specifically sub-Lorde to me, but yeah.
― stan by me (morrisp), Saturday, 13 July 2019 21:09 (four years ago) link
The videos are what first got me into her. "Hostage" is one of her best, I think. The astonishing Radio One Big Weekend set sealed it; her Glastonbury set didn't quite get there, but friends who were there tell me her vocals were buried in the mix, so that must have lessened the impact.
― mike t-diva, Saturday, 13 July 2019 21:19 (four years ago) link
To quote treesh from upthread, there's a (mild) bleakness to billie eilish's aesthetic that I don't hear in Lorde at all so the former has my preference by default. I haven't seen any of her videos.
― pomenitul, Saturday, 13 July 2019 21:27 (four years ago) link
“Hostage” is a good video, I like the song too
― stan by me (morrisp), Saturday, 13 July 2019 21:28 (four years ago) link
The Glastonbury crowd was a broad range of ages but there was definitely a large group of (mostly) young girls and some actual children who knew every single word and sang them all back to her very loudly. You could just tell that there was a real and intense connection and that something was happening.
― Matt DC, Sunday, 14 July 2019 14:15 (four years ago) link
The Bieber verse/chorus on the "Bad Guy" remix has such flat and familiar flexes compared to everything that makes this song work.
― ... (Eazy), Sunday, 14 July 2019 23:49 (four years ago) link
Yeah, the remix is awful.
SO ICY
― triggercut, Monday, 15 July 2019 04:45 (four years ago) link
this album is really good!
― k3vin k., Monday, 15 July 2019 10:15 (four years ago) link
it’s funny reading this thread and seeing all the surprise that something this popular could be this good and weird, because listening to her record yesterday — and this was afaik my first exposure to her — my first thought was “the teens are into this? it seems that every young woman I know is into her
geir otm
― k3vin k., Monday, 15 July 2019 11:24 (four years ago) link
I might have drinked a couple ot glasses of wine tonight, but speaking as a very cynical person: this video of her reacting to her fans covering her songs and then her fans reacting to her reactions makes me love everyone involved. Great idea by glamour, her fans react very honestly and she seems overall very charming and cool. Kind of weird this is a really long video (almost 20 mins!?) when the real audience that is directed to would lose interest way before it ends. Hell, I lost interest and was loving the idea but 20 minutes is just too much... love the concept, but I would either trim it down or divide it into two or three parts.
https://youtu.be/21Z4RIOFhMA
I kind of hate that fucking youtube keeps pushing Billie Eilish content on my feed daily just because it knows I mostly tune in for music-related content. She’s making her familiar and likeable to me even though I still feel very lukewarm about her music.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 17 July 2019 05:33 (four years ago) link
Sorry if my post is hard to read. English is not my first language and my opinions are not very interesting.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 17 July 2019 05:34 (four years ago) link
your English is better than a lot of native English speakers and I, for one, always enjoy your posts, Moka.
the "reacting to Billie listening to my cover" video got me, too. very cute all around.
― alpine static, Wednesday, 17 July 2019 05:54 (four years ago) link
<3
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 17 July 2019 06:42 (four years ago) link
finally gave this album a couple listens and i like it! she's definitely a direct descendant of lana del rey in terms of music and persona (as expressed thru the music--i'm unfamiliar with the social media/celeb news side channels) but manages to make it her own.
― diamonddave85 (diamonddave85), Monday, 22 July 2019 17:36 (four years ago) link
I hear absolutely no connection to Lana Del Rey here
― brigadier pudding (DJP), Monday, 22 July 2019 20:32 (four years ago) link
Me neither, I don't really get where that's coming from...
― the last Berry La Croix in the work fridge (morrisp), Monday, 22 July 2019 20:34 (four years ago) link
idgi either.
― pomenitul, Monday, 22 July 2019 20:35 (four years ago) link
Be it only in terms of perceived (in)authenticity, they're treading very different grounds imho.
― pomenitul, Monday, 22 July 2019 20:36 (four years ago) link
they're more like each other than, say, ariana grande or any of a half-dozen other woman-led vocalist acts
that is, discounting the new charlie's angels song tie-in (?)
― untuned mass damper (mh), Monday, 22 July 2019 20:55 (four years ago) link
Haven't heard it myself yet, but I overheard my daughter and her friends dissing the new collab with Justin Bieber? They didn't blame her, just him, whose voice was apparently "wrong" for the song.
Me, I think Billie Eilish fits comfortably in the mode of singers that sound like they just woke up, which is not a bad sound.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 22 July 2019 21:00 (four years ago) link
not a baaaaaad sound
DUH
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 22 July 2019 21:15 (four years ago) link
Daughter and her friends OTM
― Greta Van Show Feets BB (milo z), Monday, 22 July 2019 21:23 (four years ago) link
They sound nothing alike obvs but I get Lady Sovereign flashbacks when I see Eilish.
This feels very Lana-ish as far as showing power and agency through performative choices:
I like it when you take controlEven if you know that you don'tOwn me, I'll let you play the roleI'll be your animal
― ... (Eazy), Monday, 22 July 2019 21:26 (four years ago) link
You guys and your "lyrics," I swear! ;D
(It also sounds like Ke$ha, does she remind you of her as an artist?)
― the last Berry La Croix in the work fridge (morrisp), Monday, 22 July 2019 21:32 (four years ago) link
to clarify, it's mostly in her vocal delivery and ~vibe~ that i hear LDR but it might be that i'm just ignorant of some common ancestor of the two. also, i'm a LDR fanatic so the comparison is meant as a compliment! i'll do some more listening and come up with some concrete examples in the next few days
― diamonddave85 (diamonddave85), Monday, 22 July 2019 21:37 (four years ago) link
Her vibe is more Fiona Apple than LDR to me
― Greta Van Show Feets BB (milo z), Monday, 22 July 2019 22:04 (four years ago) link
For me, Lorde is such a hugely obvious musical antecedent, I have a hard time calling anyone else to mind.
Just listen to "Watch" (from Eilish's 2017 EP) -- if you had told me this was a Lorde track, I would have absolutely believed it (it's a great track, btw):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dobJDxPEzM
― the last Berry La Croix in the work fridge (morrisp), Monday, 22 July 2019 22:14 (four years ago) link
I've found that like BE's earlier stuff a whole lot more than the new album.
― the last Berry La Croix in the work fridge (morrisp), Monday, 22 July 2019 22:16 (four years ago) link
If you can find some topping-from-below lyrics from Ke$ha, go for it...
― ... (Eazy), Monday, 22 July 2019 22:56 (four years ago) link
Realized that the Ellish/Lana connection I was making was partly between Bad Guy and the "I'm your man" persona in "Mariner's Apartment Complex."
― ... (Eazy), Wednesday, 24 July 2019 22:55 (four years ago) link
LDR? Are you guys serious?
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 24 July 2019 23:12 (four years ago) link
the only LDR I hear is in the croony bridge to "Bad Guy" which is clearly a joke, since the track goes sicko mode trap breakdown after it
― like, I’m eating an elephant head (katherine), Wednesday, 24 July 2019 23:24 (four years ago) link
the connection might be dependent on how familiar you are with ldr deep cuts? i don't want to make any assumptions though.
i hear some "ride" in "when the party's over", some "lolita" in "you should see me in a crown". the chorus of "my strange addiction" reminds me of one i can't put my finger on. borrowing classic rock melodies is another of ldr's tricks and i definitely heard the "people are strange" melody somewhere on the album. to a lesser extent, i hear some trip hop w/ modern beats vibez on the album which (as far as i know) ldr helped pioneer. also she cites ldr as an influence so there's that too
― diamonddave85 (diamonddave85), Thursday, 25 July 2019 00:18 (four years ago) link
In fairness, I despise virtually everything I’ve heard by Lana Del Rey so I have invested zero time in investigating her deep cuts
― brigadier pudding (DJP), Thursday, 25 July 2019 00:29 (four years ago) link
TBF, me neither.
― the last Berry La Croix in the work fridge (morrisp), Thursday, 25 July 2019 00:45 (four years ago) link
I don't hear it myself, but fwiw BE herself says LDR is one of her favourite artists and a major influence.
― Roz, Thursday, 25 July 2019 00:49 (four years ago) link
It's not so much about their sound as their relationship to men.
― ... (Eazy), Thursday, 25 July 2019 01:04 (four years ago) link
Oddly enough the artist she reminds me the most is Emilie Simon but I'm not sure if she was popular at all in the US so it might be an obscure reference.
According to quora: If you like self-made artists, listen to Clairo, Cuco, Gus Dapperton, the Marias, mxmtoon, Jessie Reyes, Cosmo Pyke, Khalid, Kali Uchis. If you're looking for more like Billie's style: Troye Sivan, Hailey Kiyoko, Lana Del Rey, Madison Beer, Marina and the Diamonds, Lorde
https://www.quora.com/Where-should-I-check-to-find-more-artists-like-Billie-Eilish
haha self-made. I also think Lorde is the closest, popular reference.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Thursday, 25 July 2019 03:03 (four years ago) link
mmm Emilie Simon's discography isn't even complete on spotify, it's missing it's debut from 2003 which is the closest reference to Billie Eilish I can think of, so yeah I guess she's not that popular.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Thursday, 25 July 2019 03:09 (four years ago) link
She also sounds similar to Soko in my mind.
She reminds me to a lot of french pop singers from the 00's.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Thursday, 25 July 2019 03:11 (four years ago) link
Exhibit A:
Emilie Simon - to the dancers in the rain
ASMR, whisper vocals + baroque melodies on synths + beats
also see: flowers, i wanna be your dog (stooges cover), desert
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Thursday, 25 July 2019 03:16 (four years ago) link
Thanks Release Radarhttps://soundcloud.com/cameron-hurley-667779930/bad-guy-by-billie-eilish-in-the-style-of-blink-182
― MarkoP, Friday, 26 July 2019 04:33 (four years ago) link
I was listening to Bad Guy the other day and it kept reminding me of something that I couldn't put my finger on. But then it hit me: AronChupa and Little Sis Nora.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zokn4WDPcHE
Not in terms of any direct melodic or rhythmic swipe, you understand. Sparse basic dance pop. Pseudo-goth video vibe. European folkish melodic hook.
I dunno. No one else will hear it the way I hear it probably, but I just wanted to put this out there.
― ☮ (peace, man), Friday, 26 July 2019 11:49 (four years ago) link