Billie Eilish has some answers to the question on her disquieting new album, “Happier Than Ever,” and despite that title they’re hardly advertisements for the journey. In one song she laments the relentless scrutiny of her physical appearance; in another she describes the strangers — “They’re usually deranged” — who show up uninvited at her door. (That Eilish’s album dropped the same week Simone Biles went public about the pressures of the Olympics — and then was called weak — says plenty about whose mental health our culture prioritizes.) “Your Power” is the slowest-and-lowest moment on “Happier Than Ever,” but as a whole the album is softer, quieter, more languid than Eilish’s trap-inflected debut. On “Oxytocin,” Eilish rides a jackhammering club groove with giddy menace; “Therefore I Am” lurches playfully like early Eminem.

Source: Los Angeles Times August 02, 2021 20:39 UTC