Billie Eilish Essentials

Billie Eilish started writing songs when she was around 11, exploring a strain of melancholy, minimal and slightly surrealistic pop. Writing and recording with her producer brother FINNEAS, Eilish hit full flight with 2019’s WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?, an experimental opus exploring mental health and totally upending notions of what constitutes pop right now. The darkly pulsing “bad guy” and the spectral piano ballad “when the party’s over” mined complicated lyrics within stripped-back arrangements, bolstering the album’s Grammy fortunes and later inclusion on Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums list. Her 2021 follow-up Happier Than Ever charted a path further into self-discovery—see the title track’s cathartic slow burn and distorted climax—after which 2023’s Oscar-winning tear-jerker “What Was I Made For?” felt downright existential. Even when swinging freely through moods and musical approaches on 2024’s HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, she spikes the seemingly jaunty and carefree “LUNCH” with a hungry proclamation of queer desire. For someone who always sounds like she’s whispering closely guarded secrets in our ears, Eilish’s songwriting only seems to be growing more personal.