billie eilish

Heavy interview. That Red Rocks show sounds wild.

the quote from finneas about the particular instrumentation that does and does not work with billie's voice was very astute, I thought, the sort of observation that makes you (well, me) go back and re-listen and sure enough

the no. 1 artist in the country!

what an amazing ascent. i hope she's handling it

I can see Bad Guy used in a lot of tv/movie preview montages and stuff

― (•̪●) (carne asada), Wednesday, April 10, 2019 2:30 PM

it's pretty ubiquitous on every MTV show commercial and reality TV montage

the new Cannonball

roisin murphy is a fan

https://www.hotpress.com/music/electric-picnic-news-roisin-murphy-answers-questions-ahead-ep-22786372

Billie Eilish fascinates me – it’d be interesting to see what she’s doing live. About the rest of them, I couldn’t give a God’s curse.

lol bless her

the new Cannonball

That holds up.

absolutely

new song (kinda):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDTx6dSZl74

it's written by Billie and her brother Finneas and sung by Tate McRae (dance prodigy and youtube musician who has a pretty big following). it sounds more like Billie's don't smile at me material than anything she's recorded since, and I wonder if she originally intended to release it herself.

Finneas has also co-written a song with Rebecca Black, but we really don't need to talk about that.

...We don’t?

Finally getting around to this album. There's definitely something there, even if I find it hard to get over one of her middle names being Pirate

I like the middle name "Pirate" because it makes me feel less guilty for ripping her music off slsk :P

I feel like Billie doesn't get enough credit for being one of the most successful fanbase hijackers in history. in 2015 Melanie Martinez was the unchallenged queen of melodic, trap-influenced, slightly non-mainstream "edgy" teenpop aimed almost exclusively at 12-16-year-olds, and Billie rose to fame with a similar formula in 2017-2018 at a time when a lot of Melanie's fans had either outgrown her, cancelled her, or grown tired of waiting for a new album. a sizeable chunk of Billie's EP (COPYCAT, My Boy, Party Favor) is practically a tribute to Melanie, who was imho a more direct musical influence on her than Lorde or Lana. the difference between the two is that Melanie has boxed herself into the role of children's entertainer due to her single-minded obsession with dark childhood whimsy, whereas Billie's music has matured and evolved to the point where boomer critics and listeners have begun to take her seriously

^tbf this is mostly conjecture, and it's party undermined by the fact that people actually seem to care about Melanie's just-released multimedia monstrosity

Absolutely otm if the example of my elder daughter is typical. Although I listened to Martinez with a mental eye-roll whereas it was instantly clear Billie was in a different league.

My elder daughter confirms that Billie absorbed Martinez's fans after some sort of scandal? But that Billie does it better.

haha, I appreciate the front line reporting from both of you. it looks like Billie namechecked Melanie Martinez shortly after the release of her EP (and a couple of months before Melanie was accused of raping a former friend), but even then she felt the need to disclaim that she didn't really listen to a lot of Melanie's music. she's right about 'Soap' being a good song, but I'm glad she never fully embraced the "Bop It is a metaphor for our sex life" school of songwriting, and there's very little of that on her album

i think the tomboying of martinez’s aesthetic (which when i saw her was very “nine year old left flat after her birthday party”) is a factor here too. the big mr yuk green sweatshirts and baggy shorts are much more accessible and appealing as an emulatabke look

Aaaah she was the one I was thinking about when trying to find the closest relative to Billie Eilish’s sound and completely blanked. Had no idea she was that popular it’s been a while since I heard anything about her. I wont be watching that k-12 video because it’s too long for me as I’m not a big fan of her so it’s not particularly directed to my interests but I feel glad that an hour and a half musical video is faring rather well in views. It’s an interesting way to deliver a conceptual album and hope it inspires other artists to present ambitious multimedia projects like this one. Last year it was Whack World. But we need more musical movies out there.

Having someone like say Janelle Monae or FKa Twigs or Grimes or Beyonce, hell even Billie Eilish do a multimedia album like this would be interesting.

uh Whack World is a god tier video album - the Martinez one is embarrassingly awful.

Her SNL performances were good, I thought (at least by the standard of SNL performances)

the rotating room set for Bad Guy was pretty darned cool

Agreed

I don't like this at all.

i think i like this more than anything on the album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCTMq7xvdXU

Yeah that’s really nice.

Very nice indeed, ended up playing it a couple times in a row. Could easily envision a great Koze-style remix, too.

good drag name: billy eyelash

that's all

pleasantly surprised by how lovely this is

Tricky Eyelash is even better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZyybvVx-js

new video for one of my favorite songs of the year

cw if you don't enjoy watching people getting burned by cigarettes

lol whatever snowflake!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my niece who turns 13 next week is a superfan (seeing her in Boston and NY next year), i was fed videos at Thanksgiving

I was fed turkey

turkey w/ Eilish vids as a side

"everything i wanted" is so nice to listen to at this time of year

Xanny def my fave song on the record.

There's something vaguely Roxy Music-ish (Stranded era or so) about it, but I can't be bothered to pinpoint exactly why. Ferry could probably do a decent cover?

i am liking what i have heard from billie.
get a lot more CREEP vibe than LDR, but i think we can be pretty certain billie has never heard CREEP.

Are u still accepting late arrivals on the Billie Eyelash train?

I tried listening to her last year & barely finished Bad Guy before I was like NOPE SUCKS IDG THIS MUSIC etc. The quiet breathy INTENSE way of singing that sounds like your back teeth are clenched is not my fave & i thought this was that (but clearly isnt) Then I saw her on the Grammys last night & was so mesmerized by her performance & (many) acceptance speeches that i was like, fuckit, she seems really cool: imma give this kid another try.

Aaanyway: Having now *listened* to the album all the way through, I love it and 15 year old me is crawling out of her corner to love this too.

She really harnesses the ugly/awkward/painful internal suck of being a teenager but not in a way that alienates; i don’t know how or if it’s just me but it feels much more self-conscious & confessional than an agressive, isolating declaration. I think that’s the real joy of digging into her music is that, forgive my teen metaphor but, I picture Billie’s world of this album as something more like a sleepover for the ppl who dont get invited to sleepovers & where what you reveal during the RIL DARK truth or dare doesnt repel or repulse but brings ppl closer

great post VG

I picture Billie’s world of this album as something more like a sleepover for the ppl who dont get invited to sleepovers & where what you reveal during the RIL DARK truth or dare doesnt repel or repulse but brings ppl closer

when will the Bond theme leak?? supposedly it's completed (well, composed)

vg otm

this album and billie rule imo

otm

Yes to all of that. I have to listen to the record in private though because my stepkid loves her so much and she won’t think it’s cool if her parents are listening to it too haha.

Am I the only one who thinks Eilish sounds a lot like the singer from Superorganism? Nifty record, but "wish you were gay" is a terrible song. Like, damn why is that on the album - oh wait it was a single?! Yikes.

Kinda surprised at the strong opinions in this thread. The record is okay, definitely a "right place right time" record, but damn. Mostly though, reading this thread is an interesting exercise in watching people feel self consciously old.

it may feel that way but it can’t be, I’m too old to exercise

(also I continue to like this record a lot and think it is genuinely striking, despite all the ambient Discourse insinuation that I am a mark and/or a corporate shill for doing so; at this point I honestly prefer the days when people would call me a dumb bimbo for liking pop music, rather than just implying I am one and also accusing me of false consciousness)