Hit Me Hard and Soft

Hit Me Hard and Soft is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Billie Eilish, released on May 17, 2024, through Darkroom and Interscope Records. It is her first full-length studio album release since 2021's Happier Than Ever. Eilish co-wrote Hit Me Hard and Soft with her brother and frequent collaborator Finneas O'Connell, who also produced the album.

The album received praise from critics, most of whom complimented the songwriting, vocals and production. It topped the charts in over 20 countries, including Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. In the United States, Hit Me Hard and Soft debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, and charted all 10 of its songs in the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. The track "Lunch" was released as the lead single concurrently. To support the album, Eilish will embark on her seventh concert tour, Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour, set to commence in September 2024.

Background and recording
Eilish co-wrote and recorded her second studio album, Happier Than Ever, at her brother Finneas O'Connell's home recording studio, located in the basement of his Los Angeles residence. Recording took place weekly between April 2020 and February 2021, with the track listing finalized by the duo during the album's creation. Released on July 30, 2021, Happier Than Ever was met with critical acclaim and commercial success, topping the Billboard 200 and nominated twice at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards. Eilish surprise-released her second extended play (EP) Guitar Songs in July 2022. The following year, she released "What Was I Made For?" for the soundtrack to the fantasy-comedy film Barbie (2023); she was inspired to write the song after seeing unfinished scenes of the film during its production. The song won an Academy Award for Best Original Song and Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Best Song Written for Visual Media.

In December 2021, Eilish began formulating ideas for her third studio album with O'Connell. In an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music, she mentioned that she hoped to start writing the album in 2023. In December 2023, Eilish said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that the album was "almost done". Three months later, she confirmed that the album had been mastered.

The album art, which was shot by underwater photographer William Drumm, depicts Eilish falling through a door frame into dark blue water. Eilish described the photoshoot, which took six hours to complete and involved her being repeatedly submerged for two minutes at a time with a weight attached to her shoulders and without goggles or nose plugs, as being one of the most painful experiences of her life.

Promotion and release
Various news articles reported billboards teasing snippets of lyrics for the album that appeared in multiple cities in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States in April 2024; although it does not mention the artist's name, her signature "blohsh" was recognized. The promotional billboards display cryptic lyrics, such as "She's the headlights I'm the deer" or "Did I cross the line?". Eilish later changed her profile picture to a "blue circle" and shared another image with the caption saying "Do you know how to bend?". Eilish added her followers to an Instagram feature that lets limited accounts see exclusive stories, called "Close Friends". The post features a "lo-fi" image showcasing the artist's hand, and an image of her new midriff tattoo. On April 29, 2024, Eilish announced Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour, her seventh concert tour, in support of the album. The tour is set to start on September 29, 2024, at the Videotron Centre in Quebec City, Canada. The 2025 leg of the tour is set to start on February 18, 2025, at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre.

Eilish previewed the songs "Lunch", "L'Amour de Ma Vie", and "Chihiro" during a surprise DJ set at Coachella on April 13, 2024. In an interview published on April 24, she told Rolling Stone that she would not release singles prior to the album's release. She explained that she does not like singles from albums because she "really [doesn't] like when things are out of context" and compared Hit Me Hard and Soft to "a family", adding that she "[doesn't] want one little kid in the middle of the room alone". In May, a preview of "Chihiro" was featured in a Fortnite trailer revealing Eilish's second in-game outfit. The song was also made available as a "Jam Track" to use in the Fortnite Festival mode alongside "Lunch" and "The Diner". Furthermore, a snippet of "Birds of a Feather" was featured in a promotional clip for the third season of the Netflix series Heartstopper. On May 15 and May 16, Eilish held a listening party events for fans respectively at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and Kia Forum in Inglewood, in both cases premiering the album in its entirety.

Hit Me Hard and Soft was released on May 17, 2024. The album was available for cassette, CD, digital download, streaming and vinyl LP. "Lunch" was released as the lead single in tandem with the album's release. An extended version of "L'Amour de Ma Vie" (Over Now) was released as a promotional single on May 22, 2024. On May 19 and May 22, Eilish released for digital download the isolated vocals, slowed & reverb and sped up editions of the album, respectively. The music video for "Chihiro", directed by Eilish herself, was released on June 6, 2024. "Birds of a Feather" impacted US contemporary hit radio as the album's second single on July 2, 2024.

Critical reception
Hit Me Hard and Soft received critical acclaim. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized score out of 100 to ratings from professional publications, Hit Me Hard and Soft received a weighted mean score of 89, based on 22 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". In a five-star review, Helen Brown of The Independent praised how the album "whispers its way through a marvelous maze of music to deliver some big emotional wallops." Neil McCormick from The Daily Telegraph agreed in his own five-star assessment, opining that the "heartbreak masterpiece" is "rich, strange, smart, sad and wise enough" to stand in comparison with Joni Mitchell's Blue (1971).

Writing for The Guardian, Alexis Petridis complimented Hit Me Hard and Soft's "beautiful" melodies and "distinctive" lyrical touches, but wondered if some of its elements could be "a little too opaque" for its own good. NME's Thomas Smith felt that although Eilish wrote the album for herself, she created a record that will "resonate harder" than anything she has done before.

Streaming
On its release day, Hit Me Hard and Soft received 72.7 million streams on Spotify globally, becoming her biggest streaming debut on the platform. It also debuted with over 500 million streams globally on its first week of release, marking Eilish's biggest streaming week ever.

United States
Hit Me Hard and Soft debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 with 339,000 album-equivalent units moved in its opening week, which contained 191,000 pure album sales. Although it is her first studio album to not debut at number one, it marked Eilish's largest first-week units in the US, as well as highest pure sales. All ten of its songs debuted in the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100.

Internationally
In the UK, Hit Me Hard and Soft debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart with 67,100 album-equivalent units, being her biggest opening week in the region surpassing her debut album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, which debuted with 48,400 album-equivalent units in 2019. It also marks the second-biggest opening week for any album in the UK in 2024.

In Germany, the album debuted atop the German Albums Chart, becoming Eilish's second number one album in the country since Happier Than Ever topped the chart in 2021. In Australia, Hit Me Hard and Soft debuted at the top spot on the ARIA Albums Chart, marking Eilish's third album in a row to accomplish this feat in the country. In France, Hit Me Hard and Soft entered at the number one spot of France's SNEP albums chart with 27,710 units, becoming her second French number-one album. In Spain, it debuted atop the albums chart published by Productores de Música de España, making it Eilish's second album to peak at number one in the country.

In Brazil, all ten tracks from Hit Me Hard and Soft debuted on the Billboard Brasil Hot 100.

Personnel

 * Attacca Quartet – strings
 * Amy Schroeder – violin
 * Domenic Salerni – violin
 * Nathan Schram – viola
 * Andrew Yee – cello
 * Dale Becker – mastering
 * Thom Beemer – string engineering
 * David Campbell – string orchestration
 * Jon Castelli – mixing
 * Billie Eilish – vocals, keyboards, synthesizer, glockenspiel, vocal editing, engineering
 * Finneas – vocals, keyboards, synthesizer, glockenspiel, drums, guitar, bass, programming, arrangement, orchestration, production, engineering, vocal editing, string arrangements, scoring
 * Aron Forbes – mixing, engineering
 * Katie Harvey – mastering assistance
 * Brad Lauchert – mix engineering
 * Andrew Marshall – drums, percussion
 * Noah McCorkle – mastering assistance
 * Chaz Sexton – drum engineering