Billie Eilish - 'Guitar Songs: 'TV and The 30th'
The twenty-year-old pop sensation Billie Eilish releases two new singles, adding to her impressively vast discography - with the lyrics brutal realism and poignant simplicity hitting hard.
The official release comes during the sold-out tour of the young starlet's second album, Happier Than Ever, in which her honest lyricism muses about her whirlwind career and all its accompanying anxieties. The two new tracks - TV, and The 30th, come after the surprise live performance and debut of TV in the UK last month.
With her brother, FINNEAS, next to her, prior to the unannounced performance, Eilish said “We haven’t played a new song live before it’s out since 2017 or 2018”.
The track starts with Eilish singing, “I don't wanna talk right now / I just wanna watch TV / I'll stay in the pool and drown / So I don't have to watch you leave,” over a sedate acoustic strumming. The detail-specific moments mentioned throughout the track only aid in heightening the heartbreak, as we imagine Eilish dissolving into the water as the shadow of the one she wants vanishes from sight, eyes closing, head under the water - tears mixing with the chlorine.
The calmness of Eilish’s voice harmonises with the schematic instrument, a change to her usual bass-heavy and punchy tracks from her first album, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? Which included lyrics like, “You should see me in a crown / I’m gonna run this nothing town,” to her touring album, Happier Than Ever, in which she sings, “You ruined everything good / Always said you were misunderstood / Made all my moments your own / Just fucking leave me alone.”
The chorus brings back the core message of the most recent track, as she continues, “All of my friends are missing again / That's what happens when you fall in love”, commenting on the all-encompassing beginnings of relationships in the most beautifully summarised wording.
She continues, longing for that one person to reciprocate her deeply-felt emotions, “I’ll try not to starve myself / Just because you’re mad at me.” The tender honesty in how one person can become everything in a matter of moments, even for Eilish in this moment, the source of her life, her sustenance, and all she needs to stay alive.
The effortlessly poetic verses, and the sorrowful chorus’ twist into one of the simplest bridges Eilish has written to date - “And I don't get along with anyone.”
The track ends on the heartbreaking repetition of “Maybe I, maybe I, maybe I'm the problem” with live vocals from the audience recorded in Manchester’s twenty-one thousand capacity AO Arena chiming in on the fifth repetition, until the line changes to “Baby, I, baby, I, baby, I'm the problem” and the audience crescendos. Billie is not alone in thinking she is broken, or as she states, “the problem,” as the audience's vocals mirror her anxieties - audibly depicting the soul-crushing truthfulness of feeling isolated in a crowd, caged by insular thoughts and feeling unsaid until it gets too much to bear. This moment of cathartic relation brings the track's sombre beginning to a somewhat optimistic end. Eilish comments, “I get shivers every time I hear it.”
Eilish has openly narrated her struggles with stardom, as the documentary “Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry” opens with footage of a 16-year-old Billie before the release of her 2019 multi-Grammy-winning first album. Speaking at the age of 17, she sighs, “To be honest with you, I never thought I’d make it to this age,” which takes us into the second track - The 30th.
A slightly more upbeat tempo, her angelic voice crushes down with, “Sometimes, you look the same / Just like you did before the accident,” with the songs narrative depicting a tragic road-side accident of someone she loves, the pain of driving past the ambulance and not realising, and the spiralling questions that shroud Eilish in regret.
The chorus plays out three times, “I know you don't remember calling me / But I told you even then you looked so pretty / In a hospital bed, I remember you said / You were scared / And so was I.” With the feelings being remembered over the actions - a commentary on how emotions can rule our responses in the most poignant of ways.
In opposition to the previous track, the bridge is dense, layered with questions, until Eilish crumbles over “You’re alive, you’re alive, you’re alive.” Slowing into the final chorus. The panic of “what if’s” crash upon her, until she realises the reality of the situation and takes a breath.
Both tracks remind us why Billie Eilish remains firmly in her deserved position as one of the most treasured singer-songwriters of her generation. Writing and releasing music which is both observational and reflective with subtle detail-oriented moments subjective to her own life experiences, and those shared by wider society with reference to popular culture. The perfect blend, sprung on us by the talented twenty-year-old.
Words by Jemma Levine
