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

KENNETH CAPPELLO / COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

“I’m the bad guy…duh,” Billie Eilish says sarcastically and matter-of-factly on “bad guy,” her debut album’s second track and snapping, thumping, hypnotic opening song.

WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO Album artwork (Interscope)

It’s that seemingly small line that effectively captures Eilish’s persona and helps explain what’s made her a viral sensation and 17-year-old threat to the pop music throne.

Eilish is at once brooding, sarcastic, nihilist, playful, and sincere. Her lyrics are simple, open to interpretation, and surprisingly effective. These collective traits are rare, and are reminiscent of artists like Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain - a fact that’s not lost on that band’s drummer and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl.

….what I’m seeing happening with my daughters is the same revolution that happened to me at their age. My daughters are listening to Billie Eilish and they’re becoming themselves through her music. She totally connects to them.

It’s not that Eilish and Cobain sound the same - far from it. But they do connect to their fans in very similar ways, through very similar means.

Eilish embraces her silly side and general weirdness, is open about her fears, depression, and night terrors, all the while using sarcasm, nihilism, and the innate rebellious nature of youth to shape her music and by extension, build a loyal following.

Not unlike Cobain - who could be goofy at times, and deathly serious at others. People that simultaneously care about everything and nothing all at once. Life’s a joke, and they’re in on it. Mocking labels, expectations, and societal norms at large, whether through playfulness or disturbing imagery - it doesn’t matter which. Both tools are equally effective.

WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? embraces all of these things, and does so in a way that’s both random and coherent. The album bounces back and forth between an atmospheric, haunting indie horror soundtrack - complete with ominous synths, heavy bass, and the occasional distortion - and the vulnerable, melancholic croonings of a singer-songwriter cut from the social media generation.

Everything is done with purpose; from the opening track “!!!!!!!,” which is nothing more than a skit where Eilish jovially discusses removing her Invisalign braces, all the way down to the way the tracks are titled - all lowercase; a recent trend for younger artists that serves as a symbol of a relative disinterest and casual refusal to participate in even the most basic songwriting norms.

Songs like “bury a friend,” “all the good girls go to hell,” and “my strange addiction” dip their toes in the dark side of pop, with a healthy dose of gloomy lyrics and equally macabre imagery, while tracks like “i love you” and “goodbye” showcase a milder, more sensitive, more stripped down Eilish. She’s an eccentric Tim Burton stop-motion animation character. A fashion-risk-taking, electro-pop Lana Del Rey.

The album is dark and upbeat, playful and vulnerable, random and purposeful, weird and natural. It makes for a refreshing listen, and lives up to the hype that had been bubbling for over a year.

“I’m gonna run this nothing town,” she declares confidently on “you should see me in a crown.”

There’s a new queen establishing her reign over the pop music kingdom, and she couldn’t care less about it.

The apathy only adds to the allure.