Billie Eilish will release a new album next month, entitled Hit Me Hard and Soft. The album’s announcement comes after the singer-songwriter had teased earlier in the year that there was “lots of music coming” in 2024, as well as a post to her Instagram grid with the caption “my album is mastered”.
Listeners will not get a chance to hear any of the album’s songs prior to its official release on Friday, May 17 via Darkroom/Interscope. The only thing that has been shared with the album’s announcement is a cryptic 18-second trailer, which depicts Eilish floating underwater before she is pulled away by a hand out of frame. The trailer can be viewed below.
Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft trailer
As with her two previous albums, Eilish co-wrote Hit Me Hard and Soft with her brother Finneas O’Connell – who also served as the album’s producer. Though no track titles have been revealed, listings for the new album describe it as “her most daring body of work to date”.
“Billie Eilish’s third studio album… [is] a diverse yet cohesive collection of songs,” it reads. “Ideally listened to in its entirety from beginning to end, [it] does exactly as the album title suggests; hits you hard and soft both lyrically and sonically, while bending genres and defying trends along the way.”
Eilish’s last studio album, Happier Than Ever, was released in July of 2021. It was one of the most successful albums of that year, hitting number one in 24 different countries and going 13 times platinum globally. The album was also supported by a world tour, which brought Eilish to Australia for a sold-out arena tour in September 2022.
Since the album’s release, Eilish has released only a handful of songs. A two-track released entitled Guitar Songs, containing the tracks ‘TV’ and ‘The 30th’, was released in 2022. In 2023, she released a cover of Drake‘s ‘Hotline Bling’ as well as her original composition for the Barbie soundtrack, ‘What Was I Made For?’
The latter has become one of the most successful and acclaimed songs of Eilish’s career. It won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song, as well as a Grammy for Song Of The Year. It also came in seventh in the triple j Hottest 100 of 2023 – a countdown Eilish has previously won with her 2019 single ‘Bad Guy’.
Further Reading
Billie Eilish Review – Zero Pretence at Popstar’s Melbourne Arena Gig
Billie Eilish Gets Restraining Order Against Man Found Shirtless Outside Her House
Watch Billie Eilish Perform a Solo Piano Cover of Ben Folds’ ‘Still’
