Darkroom - Interscope Records

It goes without saying that this second album was hotly anticipated. Having shot to international superstardom with When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? and having already taken five Grammy Awards, Billie Eilish has flipped the script without changing the fundamentals. Her tortured dark pop has evolved with the ironically-titled Happier Than Ever. "Almost none of the songs on this album are joyful", she points out. Take the cover, where she poses as Our Lady of Sorrows, this gifted but tearful icon chooses to clothe yesterday's sorrows in soft and voluptuous pop sounds. Where the last album was all about nightmarish fiction, this more intimate work takes a realist turn. Very eclectic musically, sometimes vintage, sometimes futuristic, its sixteen tracks rack up one surprise after another: Billie is never where you expect her to be.The sequences are carefully worked-out. Eilish oscillates between slow tempos (Getting Older, Billie bossa nova) and haunting EDM beats on Oxytocin – the hormone of love – or minimalist sounds (as on OverHeated), making for an amazing mix of genres. Thus, among Grimes-like syncopated choruses (GOLDWING), autotuned R'N'B (NDA) in the style of 070 Shake, folk ballads (Halley's Comet) and spartan soundscapes (Not My Responsibility), she manages to slip in the guitar-vocals number "Your Power", an emotional peak on which she speaks about suffering abuse. Accompanied by her brother, Finneas O'Connell, an enjoying a slick production job, Billie Eilish has created a masterful record which she hoped would prove timeless. That ambition is easy to understand when she mentions Frank Sinatra, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Julie London as influences. "It was the most enriching and deepest experience I have ever had with my music," she says. Fortunately, at just 19, there are likely to be many more. © Charlotte Saintoin / Qobuz

It goes without saying that this second album was hotly anticipated. Having shot to international superstardom with When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? and having already taken five Grammy Awards, Billie Eilish has flipped the script without changing the fundamentals. Her tortured dark pop has evolved with the ironically-titled Happier Than Ever. "Almost none of the songs on this album are joyful", she points out. Take the cover, where she poses as Our Lady of Sorrows, this gifted but tearful icon chooses to clothe yesterday's sorrows in soft and voluptuous pop sounds. Where the last album was all about nightmarish fiction, this more intimate work takes a realist turn. Very eclectic musically, sometimes vintage, sometimes futuristic, its sixteen tracks rack up one surprise after another: Billie is never where you expect her to be.The sequences are carefully worked-out. Eilish oscillates between slow tempos (Getting Older, Billie bossa nova) and haunting EDM beats on Oxytocin – the hormone of love – or minimalist sounds (as on OverHeated), making for an amazing mix of genres. Thus, among Grimes-like syncopated choruses (GOLDWING), autotuned R'N'B (NDA) in the style of 070 Shake, folk ballads (Halley's Comet) and spartan soundscapes (Not My Responsibility), she manages to slip in the guitar-vocals number "Your Power", an emotional peak on which she speaks about suffering abuse. Accompanied by her brother, Finneas O'Connell, an enjoying a slick production job, Billie Eilish has created a masterful record which she hoped would prove timeless. That ambition is easy to understand when she mentions Frank Sinatra, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Julie London as influences. "It was the most enriching and deepest experience I have ever had with my music," she says. Fortunately, at just 19, there are likely to be many more. © Charlotte Saintoin / Qobuz

It goes without saying that this second album was hotly anticipated. Having shot to international superstardom with When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? and having already taken five Grammy Awards, Billie Eilish has flipped the script without changing the fundamentals. Her tortured dark pop has evolved with the ironically-titled Happier Than Ever. "Almost none of the songs on this album are joyful", she points out. Take the cover, where she poses as Our Lady of Sorrows, this gifted but tearful icon chooses to clothe yesterday's sorrows in soft and voluptuous pop sounds. Where the last album was all about nightmarish fiction, this more intimate work takes a realist turn. Very eclectic musically, sometimes vintage, sometimes futuristic, its sixteen tracks rack up one surprise after another: Billie is never where you expect her to be.The sequences are carefully worked-out. Eilish oscillates between slow tempos (Getting Older, Billie bossa nova) and haunting EDM beats on Oxytocin – the hormone of love – or minimalist sounds (as on OverHeated), making for an amazing mix of genres. Thus, among Grimes-like syncopated choruses (GOLDWING), autotuned R'N'B (NDA) in the style of 070 Shake, folk ballads (Halley's Comet) and spartan soundscapes (Not My Responsibility), she manages to slip in the guitar-vocals number "Your Power", an emotional peak on which she speaks about suffering abuse. Accompanied by her brother, Finneas O'Connell, an enjoying a slick production job, Billie Eilish has created a masterful record which she hoped would prove timeless. That ambition is easy to understand when she mentions Frank Sinatra, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Julie London as influences. "It was the most enriching and deepest experience I have ever had with my music," she says. Fortunately, at just 19, there are likely to be many more. © Charlotte Saintoin / Qobuz

It goes without saying that this second album was hotly anticipated. Having shot to international superstardom with When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? and having already taken five Grammy Awards, Billie Eilish has flipped the script without changing the fundamentals. Her tortured dark pop has evolved with the ironically-titled Happier Than Ever. "Almost none of the songs on this album are joyful", she points out. Take the cover, where she poses as Our Lady of Sorrows, this gifted but tearful icon chooses to clothe yesterday's sorrows in soft and voluptuous pop sounds. Where the last album was all about nightmarish fiction, this more intimate work takes a realist turn. Very eclectic musically, sometimes vintage, sometimes futuristic, its sixteen tracks rack up one surprise after another: Billie is never where you expect her to be.The sequences are carefully worked-out. Eilish oscillates between slow tempos (Getting Older, Billie bossa nova) and haunting EDM beats on Oxytocin – the hormone of love – or minimalist sounds (as on OverHeated), making for an amazing mix of genres. Thus, among Grimes-like syncopated choruses (GOLDWING), autotuned R'N'B (NDA) in the style of 070 Shake, folk ballads (Halley's Comet) and spartan soundscapes (Not My Responsibility), she manages to slip in the guitar-vocals number "Your Power", an emotional peak on which she speaks about suffering abuse. Accompanied by her brother, Finneas O'Connell, an enjoying a slick production job, Billie Eilish has created a masterful record which she hoped would prove timeless. That ambition is easy to understand when she mentions Frank Sinatra, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Julie London as influences. "It was the most enriching and deepest experience I have ever had with my music," she says. Fortunately, at just 19, there are likely to be many more. © Charlotte Saintoin / Qobuz