Album Reviews: Solange and Billie Eilish

There are artists and there are albums that require time. The first time I ever heard the Pixies Doolittle album for instance I just felt overwhelmed. After a few listens I got it and it all clicked. That is a bit how I felt about Solange's last album A Seat At the Table, and I felt like I was ready for this album. But after many listens nothing for me ever clicked with this album. Maybe if I had heard it in February it would have had a different fit than it does now at the end of summer, but I just never could find a groove with this album. I have heard a few people talk about how much they like it, but for me it just doesn't work.

I think this album is meant to be a deep soul study and so probably requires a complete dive into it, and so if you like Solange I would say give it a good try and see if you can connect. For me I give it 1 star out of 5.

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Ok so there is a lot to unpack here about Billie Eilish. I had never heard of Billie Eilish until I put this album on my list of albums to listen to. Then I read a piece about her the other day on USA Today about how she was really upset about how a magazine portrayed her. Then I read this about her on allmusic.com and I realized I'm really old because this idea makes no sense to me. "On the heels of a sold-out headlining tour, she issued her debut album, 2019's When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?"

OK so here is the deal, she is headlining a tour and she has never put out an album. To me this makes no sense at all, then you look at her on youtube and find that she has over 20 million subscribers. That is a lot. That puts her ahead of Beyoncé for instance. She has literally become a headlining act simply based off of what she has done on youtube. I know this idea has been around for a while, think Justin Bieber, but the difference there was the rush to get him into a studio to make an album. Now the album is secondary.

OK all of that said what do I think of this album. It definitely takes a few listens before you find a groove with it. There is no real cohesion to the album and it feels like a collection of 14 songs and they are all over the place in terms of influence and musical styles, but in the end I think of artists like Bjork and Kate Bush. I know that is high company but I think she views herself as much of a performance artist as a singer and I think that was always true for Bjork and Kate Bush.  That means there is a lot of experimentation her with sound and lyrics.  Sometimes I think it works and other times it feels a bit overdone.

Where this album works for me is that at least once Billie Eilish really hits with a great song. I'll put the video for it at the end here.  This is a debut and she is very young.  I'm curious to see what she'll do next.  But with so much success on a platform like youtube I'm left to wonder how important the idea of an album even is to her.

This is an OK album with moments here and there, but you have to give it a few listens before you'll come into her world. Definitely not a real fun summer album, more of a dark brooder.  I give it 2 out of 5 stars.

It's not true
Tell me I've been lied to
Crying isn't like you
Oh-oh-oh
What the hell did I do?
Never been the type to
Let someone see right through
Oh-oh-oh

Maybe won't you take it back
Say you were tryna make me laugh
And nothing has to change today
You didn't mean to say "I love you"
I love you and I don't want to
Oh-oh-oh

Up all night on another red eye
I wish we never learned to fly
I-I-I
Maybe we should just try
To tell ourselves a good lie
I didn't mean to make you cry
I-I-I

Maybe won't you take it back
Say you were tryna make me laugh
And nothing has to change today
You didn't mean to say "I love you"
I love you and I don't want to
Oh-oh-oh

The smile that you gave me
Even when you felt like dying

We fall apart as it gets dark
I'm in your arms in Central Park
There's nothing you could do or say
I can't escape the way, I love you
I don't want to, but I love you
Oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh