Back catalogue: Pop

Review: Contemporary pop starlet Billie Eilish's third studio album, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT is her most daring work yet. It's a diverse yet cohesive collection of songs that work well as a listening whole from front to back, and they all live up to the album name as they deliver both hard and soft hits lyrically and sonically while bending genres and defying trends at the same time. With the help of her brother and collaborator, FINNEAS, they wrote, recorded, and produced the album in their Los Angeles hometown. Following her hugely successful first two albums WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? and Happier Than Ever, this is another great expansion of Billie Eilish's artistic universe.

Review: Billie Eilish has been uncharacteristically secretive about her upcoming LP 'Hit Me Hard and Soft' despite the past whirlwind success of her career that has catapulted her into having heaps of Grammy awards - least of all the current reigning song of the year for the Barbie movie. In truth, all we know about this album is that it's her third, that (as with everything the singer has done) her brother and fellow artist FINNEAS is the executive producer and that the album has reportedly got ten tracks, no thanks in part to a leak by magazine Rolling Stone that drew the public ire of Eilish. Part of the rollout was Eillish's public condemnation of the out-of-control music industry practice of excessive vinyl variants, which has resulted in her offering eco-only discs - though of course she will be releasing multiple variants herself, her point still stands. It's a rare opportunity to get on board with an album without the raging industry tactics behind it, just an album dropped all at once on the day - as it should be, we'd venture.