Billie Eilish’s The Diner: Welcome to the Gothic Sci-Fi Circus

Billie Eilish has been busy with her tour, winning Oscars and taking the world by storm with her Barbie track. Her new record Hit me Hard and Soft is an example of an evolving artist defining her voice. This is a fully fledged record with a variety of styles and genres, which shows off Eilish’s range and talent. Having said that, the tracks that really connected with me were when she branches out to push pop even further and give you a track that only Billie Eilish could come up with. The Diner is one such track that plays with style and production in a way that challenges what a pop song truly is.

The music and production on this track is all over the place and keeps you guessing. There are gothic circus vibes with her vocal wayyyyyyyy in the back of the mix to such an extent that the lyrics become nothing more than a polite suggestion. However, as her vocal increases and the synth kicks up a dark cloud descends over the track and you feel like Pennywise is the sound engineer. The syth, bass, percussion, tweets and chirps all give the track this dark sci-fi vibe. Much like her record When We All Fall Asleep, Where do we Go? the musicality in this track breaks pop down to such an extent that you begin to question what pop is? This is where Eilish and this record excels, pushing pop music to the edges.

Lyrically this track fits a major theme on the record, which is love and obsession. Eilish sings about a woman she is in love with, but this this is a celebrity she only knows from afar. She sings about being on the corner and stalking this woman from the street. It is unclear if she is the woman and it is about obsessed fans of hers or something totally different, but it fits within the rest of the record’s dark look at love. On this record, love is something people want, but can also be weaponised to bring pain. Not the cheeriest theme, but a mature look at love that’s interesting.

This is an expertly made record that showcases Billie Eilish’s overall musical talent. When she sings on this record she is both fragile and beautiful and when she is deconstructing pop she brings that same punk energy she always had. She is definitely an artist on the rise and I am excited for her future projects.

Listen to The Diner