Hit Me Hard and Soft is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Billie Eilish, released on May 17, 2024, through Darkroom and Interscope Records. Eilish announced the album on April 8, after teasing the project on billboards in various locations. She later went on to announce a world tour.
Eilish co-wrote and recorded her second studio album, Happier Than Ever, at her brother Finneas O’Connell’s home recording studio, located in the basement of his Los Angeles residence. In weekly schedules, recording took place between April 2020 and February 2021, with the final track listing being worked by the duo during the album’s creation. Happier Than Ever was released on July 30, 2021; it was met with critical acclaim and commercial success, topping the Billboard 200 and was nominated twice at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards. Eilish surprise-released her second extended play (EP) Guitar Songs in July 2022. The following year, she released “What Was I Made For?” for the soundtrack to the fantasy-comedy film Barbie (2023); she was inspired to write the song after seeing unfinished scenes of the film during its production. For “What Was I Made For?”, she won an Academy Award for Best Original Song and two Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Best Song Written for Visual Media.
In December 2022, Eilish started formulating ideas for her third studio album with O’Connell. In an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music, she mentioned that she hoped to start writing the album in 2023. In December 2023, Eilish said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that the album was “almost done”. Three months later, she confirmed that the album had been mastered.
- “Skinny” 3:39
- “Lunch” 2:59
- “Chihiro” 5:03
- “Birds of a Feather” 3:30
- “Wildflower” 4:21
- “The Greatest” 4:53
- “L’Amour de ma vie” 5:33
- “The Diner” 3:06
- “Bittersuite” 4:58
- “Blue” 5:43
Billie Eilish – vocals, keyboards, vocal editing
Finneas – bass, drums, glockenspiel, guitar, keyboards, percussion, programming, synthesizer, vocals, production, engineering, vocal engineering (all tracks); string arrangement (tracks 1, 6, 10)
Dale Becker – mastering, immersive mastering
Aron Forbes – mixing
Jon Castelli – mixing
Brad Lauchert – mix engineering
Katie Harvey – mastering assistance
Noah McCorkle – mastering assistance
Andrew Yee – cello (tracks 1, 6, 10)
Andrew Marshall – drums, percussion (tracks 1, 6, 10)
Nathan Schram – viola (tracks 1, 6, 10)
Amy Schroeder – violin (tracks 1, 6, 10)
Domenic Salerni – violin (tracks 1, 6, 10)
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