NEWS
When we all wake up, where do we go? Billie Eilish opened her eyes in 2019 to find herself the biggest sensation in pop music, when she was still just a kid on the edge of 17. Her blockbuster debut album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? made her an overnight legend, the kind who accepts her Grammy awards from Smokey Robinson and Ringo Starr. She was suddenly the world’s most high-profile teen, the object of strangers’ gazes, a target for mind-blowing amounts of misogyny. The homemade bedroom tunes she cooked up with her brother Finneas were recognized as instant classics, even when Billie was baring the Invisalign of her soul.
Her excellent sophomore album, Happier Than Ever, feels downright heroic, the work of an artist refusing to stay still. Absolutely nobody was out here saying Billie Eilish needed to push even harder and get even better — nobody but Billie. It’s a dark, painful, confessional album where she’s choosing not to settle into the role of America’s beloved kooky kid sister. She’s got trauma to figure out and secrets to share, but she’s not watering it down for anyone. The way Billie avoids reprising any of her “duuuh!” jokes is as bracing as Taylor Swift choosing not to do any of her trademark laughs on Folklore or Evermore.
“Getting Older” is an astonishingly assured way to introduce the new 19-year-old Billie, murmuring to the minimal electro pulse like the mall-rat niece of Julie London or Björk. She details the way fame has messed up her life, the way heading toward her twenties has messed up her life, and the way she’s struggling to leave her backlog of turmoil behind. “Things I once enjoyed/Just keep me employed now” is the most disenchanted post-breakthrough hook since Nirvana kicked off In Utero with “Teenage angst has paid off well/Now I’m bored and old.” It sets the tone for the whole album.
In “My Future,” Eilish sighs, “I’m in love with my future/Can’t wait to meet her.” That sentiment is all over the album — it feels like Eilish is writing these dark, often disturbing songs as love letters to that future self of hers, to document her fucked-up doubts, fears, and confusions in detail. For her and Finneas, the music has expanded, going for a Nineties coffee-shop techno-folkie slink, with bits of smooth-jazz guitar or tongue-in-cheek lounge organ. “Billie Bossa Nova” is a delight, with a coy samba groove that glides on digital castanets. But the emotional candor of the song is still dead serious, with Eilish warning, “You better lock your door/And look at me a little more.”
“NDA” goes into detail about the terror of having stalkers and paparazzi on her trail, with eerie pizzicato strings, while “Male Fantasy” ends the album with tough talk about looking at porn and seeing nothing but lies. Most disturbing of all is “Your Power,” a song about being abused and exploited by an older man she trusted, with powerful taunts like “She was sleeping in your clothes / But now she’s gotta get to class.” “Happier Than Ever” isn’t the but-it’s-fine-now statement that the title suggests — that would feel like a cop-out on an album like this. Instead, she slices up an ex, snarling, “I don’t relate to you/Because I’d never treat me this shitty.”
“Oxycontin” is her lustiest, wittiest moment, where she invites her nightmares to dance and keep up with her, with the beats escalating as her whispered come-ons get more intense. Her brother Finneas is a perfect musical foil for her, an all-time brother/sister power-sibling duo. He’s become a star in his own right, yet he’s also like the Bernie Taupin in this partnership — a built-in connection to the non-celeb world.
But the Billie Eilish who won the Grammy for Record of the Year this March — and whose first words on reaching the stage were “What’s up, Ringo?” — is a classicist pop scholar with an unbeatable feel for how songs work. She’s always been a shameless fangirl who’s learned her shit from the greats. She’s not the first rookie pop star who’s ever responded with an album about the down side of fame. But nothing on Happier Than Ever feels like a cliche, even when it’s sentiments you’ve heard before. (People Online? Still horrible, ever since Ricky Nelson sang “Teen Age Idol.”) Her candidly politicized reads on misogyny are powerful, especially from a 19-year-old who has to do her learning in public, making art out of trauma she has every right to keep to herself.
For all but a tiny minority of her gigantic audience, Billie’s not just a musically brilliant, wildly imaginative singer-songwriter. We relate because we root for her, because we listen with affection and identification. We’d all rather see her in a crown, running this nothing town. But the most striking thing about Happier Than Ever is that she’s refusing to coddle her audience, refusing to protect us from her darkest moments. It’s a high-risk move. But by now we should know not to expect anything less from an artist like Eilish.
NEWS
Harry Styles paid tribute to the late David Hockney and reflected on his time in One Direction last night (June 12), as he kicked off his record-breaking residency at Wembley Stadium.
Hockney – whose painting of Styles was displayed at the National Portrait Gallery in 2023 – died on June 11, aged 88, and the musician honoured him during his set by sharing a quote from the painter on the big screens.
“What an artist is trying to do for people is bring them closer to something, because of course art is about sharing,” the quote read. “You wouldn’t be an artist unless you wanted to share an experience, a thought.”
Styles’ gig last night marked the first of 12 gigs at Wembley, which will see the star break the record for the most shows at the venue in a single tour. Coldplay previously held the record, delivering 10 gigs at the stadium last year as part of their Music Of The Spheres tour.
The London residency follows the Together, Together tour beginning in Amsterdam in May, and will be followed by stops in São Paulo, Mexico City, New York, Melbourne and Sydney. He will be supported by a different artist in each city, joined by Shania Twain in London, who delivered a set of hits and new tracks from her upcoming album, ‘Little Miss Twain’.
As the sounds of Simon And Garfunkel’s ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ played over the stadium PA, Styles made his way to the stage, kicking off his set with ‘Are You Listening Yet?’, from his latest album, ‘Kiss All The Time. Disco Occasionally’. Between renditions of ‘Golden’ and ‘Adore You’, he addressed the crowd for the first time, saying: “Our job tonight is to entertain you. Your job is to have as much fun as you possibly can.
“If you want to sing, if you want to dance, please feel free. Please feel free to be whoever it is you’ve always wanted to be tonight. We’ve got each other’s backs.”
Throughout the night, Styles subtly reworked some of the songs on the setlist. He dedicated ‘Taste Back’ “to all the ravers in the house”, as a snippet of Underworld’s ‘Born Slippy’ was interpolated into the song, while a brief burst of Talking Heads’ ‘This Must Be The Place’ was introduced to ‘Treat People With Kindness’. During ‘Dance No More’, the pop star’s band played part of the groove from Happy Mondays’ ‘Step On’, while Styles sang a snatch of Gorillaz’s ‘Clint Eastwood’.
There were also nods to Styles’ days in One Direction early in the set. As the musician left the stage after ‘Fine Line’, the string section on stage played a medley featuring clips of the group’s hits ‘Night Changes’ and ‘History’, plus Styles’ own track ‘Falling’. After ‘Keep Driving’, he took the time to reflect on Wembley’s connections to his and the boyband’s journeys.
“Just outside of this building, just next door, is Wembley Arena, and 16 years ago, my sister brought me to London for the very first time for my X Factor audition,” he said. “So driving here today, and any time I come through Wembley, means so much to me, ‘cause right in that building next door, I was put into a band. We were called One Direction.
The Together, Together setlist features a different surprise song each night at the start of the encore. Last night, Styles treated the Wembley audience to ‘Little Freak’, taken from ‘Harry’s House’, for the first time since 2023. After the song, he spoke to the audience for the final time, saying: “I don’t know if you’ve been listening to me for a week, or a month, or a year, or five years, or 10 years, or 16 years, or whatever it is, but you have changed my life over and over again. Thank you so much for being here and allowing us to do these shows. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
“Finally, 16 years ago, my mother signed me up for the X Factor without my knowledge. I wouldn’t be here today if she hadn’t done that. She’s here today – thank you so much. You’ve changed my life, all of you.” Referencing a lyric in ‘Dance No More’, he added: “Remember – respect your mother.”
‘Are You Listening Yet?’
‘Golden’
‘Adore You’
‘Watermelon Sugar’
‘Music From A Sushi Restaurant’
‘Taste Back’
‘Coming Up Roses’
‘Fine Line’
‘Italian Girls’
‘American Girls’
‘Keep Driving’
‘Ready, Steady, Go!’
‘Dance No More’
‘Treat People With Kindness’
‘Pop’
‘Season 2 Weight Loss’
‘Carla’s Song’
‘Aperture’
‘Little Freak’
‘Sign Of The Times’
‘As It Was’
The Together, Together, London residency continues at Wembley Stadium tonight, with further dates on June 17, 19, 20, 23, 26, 27, 29 and July 1, 3, and 4. Visit here for any remaining UK tickets and check out doors and stage times here.
The gigs will see Styles donate £1 from every ticket sold to LIVE’s levy to help protect UK grassroots music venues and support emerging talent, and before Styles’ headline performance, the big screens at the venue encouraged fans to support Music Venues Trust.
The tour is in support of the star’s latest album, ‘Kiss All The Time. Disco Occasionally’, which was released in March. In a four-star review, NME described it as “an album that you’ll really want to spend a lot of time with, letting all its layers envelope you”. It added: “It’s the most exploratory album of his career so far, trying out new things and steering his ship in new directions.”
Meanwhile, Styles has also curated this year’s Meltdown Festival at the Southbank Centre. The line-up chosen by the star includes Stephen Fretwell, Nilüfer Yanya, Orlando Weeks, Bar Italia, Dev Hynes, Jon Hopkins, Getdown Services, LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, Soulwax and more, as well as an intimate gig from Styles himself.
The festival kicked off earlier this week (June 11) with a performance from Los Angeles’ Warpaint, whose show was their first in nearly two years. During the gig, they shared fan favourites like ‘Love Is To Die, ‘Billie Holiday’ and ‘Disco//Very’, plus a cover of Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’.
