“Am I going out already?”

The 10-track release sees the once-in-a-generation pop artist rewriting the rules once again: If Eilish’s debut record introduced the world to her brilliant horror-pop, complete with her macabre humor, Off There were -kilter beats and teenage Invisalign slaps, and her second wiped away those black tears for pop crooning and bossa nova ruminations on the expectations of fame, her third is a blend of both, with bold new surprises.

“Hit Me Hard and Soft” in some ways proves Eilish to be an outsider in contemporary pop: it is an album that can be listened to and enjoyed in its entirety, in contrast to the music industry’s current single-centric model. Works. And she earns that distinction, with full sound, courtesy of her brother, producer and lifelong collaborator Phineas O’Connell, who is now joined by Andrew Marshall on drums and the Ataka Quartet on strings.

Opener “Skinny” followed their award-winning “Barbie” song “What Was I Made For?” The song’s message also has a similar kind of resonance — she confronts body image, singing “People say I look happy / Just because I got skinny” — from her 2021 short “Happier.” The film and spoken word interlude echo “Not My Responsibility”. More than ever before.”

A string section leads “Skinny” into its coda, reminiscent of Eilish’s performance of the song “Barbie” at the 2024 Oscars, where she was joined by an orchestra.

From that point on, everything changes. The definition of fake people is “Hit me hard and soft.” Think a song is going in one direction? Guess again.

In the final five seconds of “Skinny”, pulsating drums enter the equation, a rhythm that leads into the Sapphic anthem “Lunch” – a soon-to-be fan favorite.

Then there’s the languid bass and airy refrain of “Away from Me” on the midtempo “Chihiro,” presumably named after the 10-year-old protagonist in Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli classic, “Spurred Away.” That song, like other songs on the album, starts soft and ends hard. A sensuous climax of throbbing techno-house reaches “Challengers”-levels of auditory excitement.

“The Greatest” was released on their 2019 album, “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” It can be considered a thematic sequel to K’s “Everything I Wanted”. Now with a stronger, nylon string guitar. Three and a half minutes in, it turns into atmospheric, arena rock. The blown-out guitars are executed in a way that sounds familiar from 2021’s title track, “Happier Than Ever”.

The deceptively light-hearted “L’amour de ma Vie” also resembles the jazzy, fun-filled moments of her previous album. “But I have to confess / I lied to you,” sings a clear-eyed Eilish. “I said you / You’re the love of my life.”

Later, the song turns into synth-pop bliss – automated, distorted vocals in hyperpop, Eurodance rave – lest anyone forget this is the same pop artist who wrote the industrial track “Oxytocin”.

So where did the “bad guy” singer go? “The Diner,” oh. Here, the sound of his haunted carnival ride returns. “Don’t be afraid of me,” she teases as she opens her Gothic vaudeville, “Bet I could change your life/You could be my wife.”

Where other artists might draw inspiration from their past to create derivative, impressionistic portraits of what they used to be, Eilish evokes her own ghosts.

This is true in breathy closer “Blue”, which is a sonic reminder of Eilish’s long love for Lana Del Rey records, until it takes a Massive Attack-style trip-hop detour. Two things can be true – and blue – at once.

“Hit Me Hard and Soft” is Eilish’s loudest song to date – no longer just gorgeous, hushed vocals just above an ASMR whisper, hidden beneath sweeping, innovative production. Clearly, she has gained the self-assurance to rise above the mix.

The only skip might be the final track “Bittersuite”, which suffers from its own subtlety – something she manages to avoid on the largely acoustic “Wildflowers”. There, somewhere in the middle, the sweetness of its sound is marred by a crisp drum fill. It’s understated, but impressive. Lyrically, Eilish describes her current partner’s preoccupation with her former boyfriend: “Every time you touch me,” she sings. “I just wonder how he felt.”

Throughout the album, Eilish is a bird: in “Skinny” she is a bird in a cage; She wants to be together in the baroque pop track “Birds of a Feather” and by album closer “Blue” she realizes they weren’t “birds of a feather” after all – and she’s back in the cage.

It’s a welcome change from the Tarantula that defined “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?”, but it also serves as the perfect metaphor for Eilish’s third album. He is motivated by the desire for freedom. And on “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” she allows herself to communicate tension — and let it fly.

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