Review Summary: It’s certainly another step forwards and upwards for one of our only real musically emotional geniuses.
Billie Eilish self-describes Happier Than Ever, her newest record. Happier than Ever is a companion disc. There isn't a markedly different approach to either, though since both were recorded at once we shouldn't really be expecting it in the first place. Instead, Eilish has kept behind songs with an increased sense of inhibition and humour, an album that doesn't wander very far but is more welcome to the new than its supposed mother; as such, it may not be as mature, but manages to reach greater, more varied heights as a result.
First single "Your Power" is about as child-like and unabashedly quirky as Eilish gets, but it isn't alone in its playfulness as even a glance at song titles like "NDA" (which actually turns out to be one of the record's most somber and serious moments) can let on. Even with the lighter moments that sporadically surface, however, there is always an anchor to keep it from going too far; "Oxytocin" in particular takes odd lyrical turns into albino monkeys and surrealistic pig-man love-children--coming off as much saturday morning cartoon as raunchy late-night cable. Lyrically, the record is a bit of a let-down at times compared to the first record's more stern tone, especially during its more ridiculously non-sequitur moments, though the overall feel that Eilish edited herself very little in what came out during the song's writing adds to the unique appeal of this CD, and does at least give some credence to his stoned ramblings about it being the child of the two records.
Though we get a few more of these slight detours in the last half, like the harmoniously haunting "Therefore I Am" or the brief "Everybody Dies," most of the record does still follow in its "mother's" footsteps. "My Future," a gorgeous ballad, opens with a delicate overture, encapsulating both the timeless quality of Eilish's sound and the innocence being portrayed on this record specifically. "Lost Cause" leaked sometime before Rejoicing as an untitled cut and is untouched here; the guitar work is exceptional and his vocals ethereally rising with each brief "chorus."
It's hard to not fall into the predictable "she should've just cut it into a single release" criticism, and while issues of editing do make for some interesting conjecture, Eilish's disc, her sophomore effort has enabled her to purge himself of a great deal of beautiful music for us to sift through--certainly worth the effort to save the exclusion of half of the material. The two records may be separated temporarily by minor personality traits alone, but it's hard to argue that both constitute one incredibly promising sophomore effort from Eilish, even if her ambition is already getting the better of him. Hell, most artists wait five-six years before attempting their own White Album, and even Lennon drew the line at pig-loving.
