dont smile at me & Singles
1. COPYCAT
This song is a lot more impressive in its musicality than its lyrics to me. I
really enjoy the harmonies in the chorus, as well as whatever synth bass thing
is in the background. I like that you can hear Billie's voice clearly in this
song and it never fails to impress me that regardless of the style, her voice
sounds fantastic. Personally I don't find any deeper meaning to this song, but
it's fun to listen to. 5/10
2. idontwannabeyouanymore
You can tell that from a young age, she was acutely aware of the societal
pressure on women and impossible beauty standards, "if teardrops could be
bottled / there'd be swimming pools filled by models / Told a tight dress is
what makes you a whore". The most relatable line in this entire song is the
title line, "tell the mirror what you know she's heard before / I don't wanna
be you anymore". Lyrically this song conveys a really strong message, and is
likely something most young women can relate to. I like their choice of
instruments in this song, I feel like it creates the right atmosphere for this
song, somewhere between mourning and frustration. 8/10
3. my boy
A song about a classic topic, dishonest boyfriends. Not much to say there,
musically I enjoy the instruments (again). The layering in the bridge is quite
nice, and I like the choice of removing a lot of the background instruments
for the very ending of the song. This song is okay, but nothing incredible to
me. 6/10
4. watch
I like the sounds of lighting matches (I think that's what it is)! Not sure
why but that addition seems so perfect. The lyrics are a pretty surface level
recount of unrequited love, and once again I enjoy the melody and instrumental
decisions they made. This song continues the general vibe I get from this
album, which is that I like listening to the music because it sounds good, but
there isn't a ton of emotional stimulation so far. 5/10
5. party favor
I do like the stylistic choice of making the first part of the song sound like
it's through an old landline phone. Same comments as the previous songs for
the most part, fun to listen and sing along to but that's about it. 6/10
6. bellyache
Right off the bat, the guitar and knocking sound is super catchy. This song is
the first one that goes to the kind of "wtf" territory when you look at the
lyrics. "My friends aren't far / in the back of my car / lay their bodies",
like girl you were just singing about crappy boyfriends and now you're
suddenly a murderer? Definitely a jump in topic. I really like the way she
sings the line "where's my mind?" throughout the song, and then the transition
to "maybe it's in the gutter" is nice. This song, besides
idontwannabeyouanymore, feels like the first real lead-in to her darker,
stranger style of her other albums. 7/10
7. ocean eyes
It's the song! For those who don't know, this song is what really set her
music into the spotlight and skyrocketed her popularity. When I learned that I
was honestly surprised, because the song isn't nearly as good as most of her
stuff on WWAFAWDWG, but it's certainly a fantastic display of her vocal
ability. I especially love her voice in the choruses. For some reason I can't
imagine the current Billie singing this song, it's just such a jump in her
style and maturity. Regardless, this song is quite nice to listen to, and
while still being pretty superficial with the lyrics, I do like putting it on
every now and then. 7/10
8. hostage
At this point it's pretty obvious that she wrote this album with mainly
relationships on her mind. She was about 15 or 16 when she released this
album, so I suppose it makes sense, but I still find it weird to listen to
teenagers (children basically) talking about relationships so seriously. The
song is okay, maybe I'll like it more when I have more personal experiences to
relate to the lyrics with. 5/10
9. &burn
So this is a remix of watch, I like this version quite a bit more than watch.
It's still got the fun lighting matches sound effect and the same vibe, but
with shaper edges and a bit more of something that I can't quite find the word
for right now. My least favourite part is definitely the interlude by Vince
Staples since I'm not really one for rap-style music, but the rest of the song
is cool. 7/10
That's it for that album. It's cool to listen to on occasion, but really
doesn't have a major impact on me. Her other two albums are quite a bit better
in my opinion.
Since this album is short, I decided to also go over her singles in this post,
I'll try to do them chronologically and I'm going to skip any that she ended
up including in an album (e.g. ocean eyes or my future).
A. Six Feet Under
Yet another song about a relationship. The song is really pretty though and I
like listening to it in the evening or on rainy days, plus it's nice to really
hear Finneas' voice in the song as well. Also her hair is silver on the art
for this single and I absolutely love it. 7/10
B. Bored
This song was played on the TV show 13 Reasons Why, and just to be super
clear, I do not support that show whatsoever and I'm listening to this song as
if it's completely separate from the TV show. That aside, this is another song
where I don't have much to say about the lyrics, but I like listening to the
song. There's a bit of a pattern with how I feel about her older music, huh?
5/10
C. bitches broken hearts
I think this song is kind of underrated, plenty of people don't even know it
exists, but it's a pretty chill song to listen to. The instrumental at the end
is definitely my favourite part, I'm a sucker for some good piano. 5/10
D. lovely
This song is super pretty to me. I don't really listen to Khalid's music, but
he complements Billie's voice in this song well. The pre-chorus is my
favourite musically, especially "all night or a hundred years". I think if she
wrote this song before dont smile at me was released then it would've been
included on that album, since it fits well with the rest of the album to me.
7/10
E. come out and play
Another pretty song! This song feels like like waking up on a winter's morning
with a friend who slept over and it's snowing outside and you're a bit shy but
your friend is getting close to you and you're actually comfortable with them
and I don't know what I'm rambling on about. I like the song. 8/10
F. WHEN I WAS OLDER
The opening vocals are really cool to me, and then the transition from "paler
than it should ever be" to "I'm on my back again" is great musically. The bass
adds a great foundation for the vocals and rest of the instruments. This song
is the first one that really gravitates to the style of her music that I like.
Very enjoyable to listen to. 8/10
G. everything i wanted
There's two options here: write an essay about the song, or write barely
anything. We're gonna go with the second option to spare y'all my rambling.
This song is my favourite of her singles, it's fantastic in every way, and
really resonated with me when it was released (and still does). 9/10
H. No Time To Die
This song was written for the James Bond film that was released somewhat
recently. Definitely different from her usual style, but that's to be expected
since this was for a film. I'm somewhat familiar with other past opening songs
for James Bond films, and she really nailed the style here. The song isn't
really my type, but I'm impressed by her wide range of stylistic ability and
how well her voice handled the song. 7/10
I. Lo Vas A Olvidar
This was for a TV show I believe, with the artist ROSALÍA. I'm surprised at
how good Billie's pronunciation is in this song (there's a lot of Spanish in
it). I read the translation of the lyrics once but I'm not familiar with the
TV show it's for so not much commentary there. I do think the song is pleasant
to listen to. 5/10
Overall we ended up with these average ratings for her music:
6.2/10 for dont smile at me
8.2/10 for WWAFAWDWG (not counting !!!!!!!!)
7.4/10 for Happier Than Ever
6.8/10 for various singles
I think the average ratings for dont smile at me and WWAFAWDWG are pretty
accurate to how I would rate the albums as a whole. 7.4 feels a bit low for
Happier Than Ever, although there's some tracks that I'm not the biggest fan
of, the album as a whole deserves more like an 8. An average for the singles
is kind of meaningless since they're not meant to be collected together
anyways, but 6.8 does reflect that I generally enjoy the music on her albums
more.
I loved doing these and I finished my last exam for the summer yesterday so
I'll likely write another one for a different album and artist soon. There's
two I really want to do so it'll be a surprise for now :)
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