Off the back of her breakout EP “Don’t Smile at Me”, Billie Eilish crashes onto the music scene with her debut album “WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO”. With this album she’s not only here to make music, but to make a statement as the voice of a new kind of pop music. With it’s loud and bombastic basslines, it’s full and atmospheric backgrounds, and it’s quiet yet defined vocals, Billie and her producer/brother Finneas O'Connell pull out all the stops on making this a truly memorable album.
While Billie may be the star, the production sits on this record as the not-so-hidden co-star. A real highlight of many of the songs on here has to do with the incredibly creative things going on in the background. From the blurry voice manipulations on “ilomilo”, to the gradual merging of voices on “bury a friend”, to the “audience participation” sound clips on “wish you were gay”, Finneas doesn’t shy away from being bold in much of the tracklist. This pays off in a lot of ways as would-be average pop songs are transformed into memorable bangers.
The cover art does a good job on setting the scene of the project as dark and haunting. But while many of the tracks on this thing are certainly shrouded in a thick cloud of edginess, you’ll find that what’s being put out here is actually pretty intimate and personal from Billie. It seems that Billie even wanted to make a point of this as the two closing ballads, “listen before i go” and “i love you”, are perhaps the saddest and heaviest songs on here and really demonstrate her range.
Even if you aren’t the target audience, if you’re a fan of pop music then what’s not to love? The music is dynamic, creative, mold-breaking, and most importantly enjoyable to listen to. In terms of debut pop records, “WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO” ranks as one of the best in recent times and secures Billie Eilish as a pop star to be on the lookout for.