Review: Billie Eilish: dont smile at me (2017)
In pop music, 2019 can be remembered as the year an oft-injured, foul mouthed teenager who still lived with her parents rose to stardom and captivated the world. But Billie Eilish had already built a considerable amount of buzz before then. In the four years between the release of her breakout song “Ocean Eyes” and the release of her debut LP When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, Eilish racked up over a billion streams and views, performed on Ellen and The Tonight Show, starred in viral videos and participated in an Apple ad campaign. What When We All Fall Asleep merely do was unleash Billiemania to the wider public. And smacked dab in the middle of that path to greatness? Eilish’s 2017 debut EP dont smile at me.
Compared to When We All Fall Asleep, dont smile at me is a more melodic, but conventional, alt-pop fare, with an overall sulkiness that captures the EP’s misanthropic title. With additional writing and production work from her brother Finneas O’Connell, the EP utilizes wider vocal range and less of the whispered, The xx-styled singing that permeates her full-length debut album. As a random teenager once put it, the EP’s music certainly resembles that other sad pop artists, the most obvious influences being Lorde and Lana Del Rey. Even though dont smile at me doesn’t have the most original sound, it nevertheless captures the same melancholy and yearning that made Lorde and Lana so effective. How much should originality matter if the music still compels?
Speaking about imitators, “Copycat” opens the EP strongly with a crunchy trap-influenced diss at her ripoffs, sporting boasts such as “You’re italic / I’m in bold” and a piano-driven bridge that delivers a parade of seemingly sincere “sorrys” before ending it with a whispered punchline: “sike.” Granted, this song is targeted at an imitator who had “crossed the line” as opposed to someone merely paying tribute to her style, but it’s an still interesting choice to write an otherwise solid song such as “Copycat” while owing so much to other musicians, both sonically and visually. On the next track, the soulful ballad “idontwannabeyouanymore,” Eilish goes from taunting to insecure, as she tries to comfort herself with advice such as “Don’t be that way / Fall apart twice a day.” The highlight of that song, and the reason why “idontwannabeyouanymore” is probably the EP’s strongest track, comes in the emotional chorus, which links her insecurity to supermodels who are “told a tight dress is what makes you a whore,” with the word “whore” intoned in a surprisingly gorgeous manner. It’s simple and dramatic without being annoying or boring, a beautifully reassuring ballad for the dejected.
The funky, though somewhat middling, “My Boy” jolts the EP out of its brooding and returns the EP to “Copycat”‘s spitefulness, this time against an ex-boyfriend. “Watch” is the EPs most Lorde-like track, with a mellow verse and an anthemic chorus filled with layered vocals, the type of song structure that evokes the Kiwi’s “Team” or “Glory and Gore.” The ukulele-driven “Party Favor” is ostensibly about a breakup, with Eilish warning her ex to stop calling her. But with lyrics such as “You’ll single out the wrong words / Like you mishear all my songs,” it can also be construed as a song about obsessive fans, or maybe articles like the one you’re reading right now that tries to overly dissect her words.
This leads into the EPs next two highlights: “Bellyache” and “Ocean Eyes.” Bright Spanish guitars and danceable bass beats hide the fact that the song follows a young murderer on the run. Eilish sings in a detached and carefree manner, someone who doesn’t realize the gravity of her actions as evident with the lines “I’m too young to go to jail / It’s kinda funny” and “Thought that I’d feel better / But now I got a bellyache.” Name-dropping V for Vendetta and (probably) referencing the Pixies when she asks “where is my mind?” further reinforces “Bellyache”‘s sense of lost innocence and the narrator’s flippant delusion. “Ocean Eyes,” Eilish’s breakout song that was originally released in 2015, stuns with her lovelorn, soothing vocals. While much has been made about Eilish being only 13 when “Ocean Eyes” was released, Finneas’ youth should also be noted here, as he was a not-as-young-but-still-pretty-young 18 when he wrote and produced this song. With lyrics juxtaposing “napalm skies” with hypnotic “ocean eyes” and ambient, hazy instrumentals, Finneas’ work amplifies the song’s aquatic feel, helping distinguish “Ocean Eyes” from the countless other break up songs out there.
Unfortunately, after 7 solid pop tracks, the EP ends weakly with “Hostage,” a plodding, repetitive ballad that resembles Lana Del Rey’s “Video Game” without the majesty. The expanded edition, which adds 3 additional tracks, also don’t do much to avoid a dull ending. “&burn,” a subdued rework of “Watch,” changes the vocals and melody of the original song to be less anthemic and more stilted, sapping some of the catharsis of the original song. Not even an appearance from Vince Staples is able to elevate the track, as his verse fails to mesh with the rest of the song. “Bitches Broken Hearts,” while anticipating Eilish’s mumbling singing style on When We All Fall Asleep, also suffers from the same dullness as “Hostage,” but at least it’s kind enough to add a brief piano outro.
Sandwiched between “&burn” and “Bitches Broken Hearts,” though, is the alluring and gloomy “Lovely.” Eilish harmonizes wonderfully with Khalid on the track, singing below Khalid’s register in the verse before soaring above him in the chorus with an angelic, yet desperate voice. Somber strings and pianos enhances this sense of confinement, with the outro’s cello solo feeling like a final surrender, a manifestation of lines: “But you never go away / So I guess I gotta stay now.”
Being aware of Eilish’s future success, one may get nostalgic listening to dont smile at me, in that much of the EP can be seen as intimate early drafts or appetizers for When We All Fall Asleep. The trap influence and taunting attitude on “Copycat” reappear on “You Should See Me in a Crown.” A funky bassline similar to “My Boy”‘s would later accompany “My Strange Addiction” and “All the Good Girls go to Hell.” “8” maintains “Party Favor”‘s ukulele, tempo and lyrical themes while dialing up the heartbreak. “Everything I Wanted” improves on “Bitches Broken Hearts” by adding more liveliness, while “Bellyache”‘s murderous narrator is, well, a bad guy. And then there’s poignancy of the “a tight dress is what makes you a whore” line in “idontwannabeyouanymore,” given the commentary that would arise in the years after dont smile at me‘s release over Eilish’s Aaliyah-like fashion choices.
Judging from the lack of 2017-era reviews for dont smile at me from major publications, this EP certainly got the “silent-majority rock” treatment so many other popular alternative artists received during the 2010s (yes, her music is considered to be alternative rock now), a treatment that led to the surreal situation where indie acts that could barely scratch the Billboard 200, acts such as Julia Holter, The Men or Cymbals Eat Guitars, would receive far more Metacritic entries and reviews than alternative chart mainstays such as Walk the Moon or Twenty One Pilots (this EP is also absent on Metacritic). But dont smile at me mostly showcases an artist who’s able to capture the vulnerability and beauty missing from a lot of mainstream alternative music and present in those indie acts (and Lorde and Lana Del Rey), the type of earnestness that gets you notice and respect from “real” publications (though starring in tearjerking viral videos, mastering social media and being allowed to act like a typical teenage edgelord certainly helps a lot). As “Copycat” put it, all those other acts are italic while Eilish is bold. dont smile at me, even with its weak ending, is alternative music that dazzles and comforts, a release that deserves all the fans and stans it brought in. It signals a girl ready to kick through that wall, leap into glory and mesmerize the planet.
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