Howdy pals. Welcome to my very first edition of Music of the Month! I’m still figuring out what this is actually going to look like, but I hope you like it! This is going to have much fewer jokes than my Building of the Weeks because I do so happen to be very passionate about listening to music. Without further ado, here’s my monthly music recap!
Album of the Month
HIT ME HARD & SOFT
Billie Eilish - 2024
10 songs
Duration: 43 mins 45 sec
Genre: Pop
Producer: Finneas
⋆ top songs ⋆
Third Place:
L’AMOUR DE MA VIE
Runner Up:
BIRDS OF A FEATHER
First Place:
THE GREATEST
This is how I feel listening to THE GREATEST:
I truly believe we are the most spoiled we have been in a long time when it comes to new music. So many wonderful albums are out right now and there’s been a HUGE rise in female pop stars. While this album came out in May, I’ve been rocking with it all June long.
There are a handful of “tricks” musicians do when crafting songs/albums that I eat up every time and this album has a delicious combination of them.
♫ Great album art ♫
Billie talked about the lengths she went through to get that shot in this interview with Stephen Colbert. She really puts herself through the ringer for her art and I gotta respect it. Other examples of this include her using real spiders for the you should see me in a crown music video and using tubes of black ink extremely close to her eyes for the when the party’s over music video. I personally see a connection with this imagery to the layout of the album, but I’ll get into that more ~later~.
♫ Songs that have two (or more) sections ♫
Great examples of this are in the songs BITTERSUITE and L’AMOUR DE MA VIE. They contain several parts or “acts” to them and in BITTERSUITE’s case flow really nicely into the next song. The multiple sections and near-seamless transitions create an almost disorienting effect, like “how many songs even was that and where in the album am I?” When this technique is done well, you can tell a larger story in just one song. Doing this can also make albums seem longer, which is useful in cases like this where there are only 10 songs.
♫ Reoccurring melodies / callbacks ♫
I looove when songs reference other songs from the album or from previous albums. This love heavily originates in my love for musical theater and the subtle story telling it can create. My favorite cases of this are in SKINNY and BLUE, the first and last songs on the album, respectively. The endings of both contain the main melody from THE GREATEST, which I theorize to be the climax of the album. Connecting the beginning, middle, end is veeerryyy theatrical and it makes my heart so happy.
⋆ Track List Breakdown ⋆
I have two theories as to why the order of the track list is the way it is. One is just my silly theory and one makes more sense.
my silly theory
With the album art being a picture of Billie sinking deeper and deeper into a dark body of water, I can’t help but slightly feel a parallel to the order of the songs on this album. In order for this theory to actually work, however, two songs would need to be swapped. If you switched SKINNY and THE DINER, then the songs progress from pop-ier sounds with more dance beats into deeper and darker tones. This parallels really well with the concept of falling deeper into darkness, and would also tie really well into the final song, BLUE (and no, not just because water is blue lol). The ending of BLUE includes echoes of Billie’s voice that sound almost like you’re hearing it from afar or even ~underwater~. Idk guys, this is just a fun silly goose idea from my silly goose mind.
the theory that makes more sense
In a few interviews, Billie has spoken about how this album feels the most like “her” instead of a character she created. She said she had to pull from experiences dating back to her adolescence. With that in mind, the order of the songs seems chronological.
The main “meat” of the album (in my opinion) lies within tracks 4 through 7. They depict the feelings of falling in and out of a deep love. Track 4, BIRDS OF A FEATHER, symbolizes the head-over-heels, all-encompassing feeling of love. WILDFLOWER talks about conflicting feelings over your new partner’s ex. THE GREATEST is a power ballad about wanting to make a relationship work so badly, but that energy not being reciprocated. L’AMOUR DE MA VIE captures the hurt and the indifference we force upon ourselves after a brutal heartbreak. There are some connections you can make about a particular relationship Billie was recently in and the controversy that followed. I won’t get into all of that though because I would like this to ~not~ be a gossip blog.
I spoke about the beginning and final songs on this album being connected. SKINNY is Billie’s way of reflecting on how her body was so heavily discussed and criticized in her adolescence and the mental health impact that had on her. Connecting this song to BLUE (both having a similar ending) is fascinating to me because BLUE is actually a new take on an unreleased demo from Billie and Finneas called “True Blue”. Both the album’s bookends being connected to her younger self really solidifies the theme of reflecting on past experiences with a new, wiser mindset.
—— New Artist Watch ——
Melt
Melt is a New York City based band with a handful of songs and an EP out. Formed back in 2017, they have toured with Sammy Rae & The Friends (an another amazing band!!!). Their new single “Plant the Garden” is perfectly addicting. The lead vocalist, Veronica Stewart-Frommer, is out of this world. The rest of their debut album is out in September & I can’t wait!!
Devon Again
Only 22 years old and originally from Colorado, Devon Again hit the LA music scene in 2021. Her angelic voice is paired with a delicious combo of electronic music and grungy guitar. I love her lyricism - it’s young and it’s messy in the best way. She has a new song, Cherry Cola, that comes out TODAY!!! Her songs ‘HEAD’ and ‘gum v6.4’ are my current faves.
—— on my rotation ——
Role Model - The three singles from his upcoming album (coming out July 15th, I’m so excited)
Billie Eilish - HIT ME HARD & SOFT
Devon Again - All of her songs
Lizzie McAlpine - Older (would’ve been album of the month tbh but way too sad)
The aperol spitz playlist - makes me feel very rich
Okay pals, that’s all for this month! I’m so excited to finally bring this idea into existence.
Here’s where you can find all of the Music of the Months on my website: collection!
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