Ignorance leads to serendipity, as unbeknownst to me When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? was not Billie Eilish's debut. Furthering an excitable confusion, all the songs of this prior EP were already relatively well known, given the extensive air play and commercial application her music as received. Stripped of experimental leaning aesthetics yet to germinate, Don't Smile At Me serves as a slick, slender collection of Pop tracks. Its hard to nail down its attributes, as flashes of various genres pass by. The music mostly leans on Billie's presence and Finneas's keen percussion, which carries the pacing through its spurts of instrumentation.
Both his apt production and balanced compositions are fantastic. Simple, catchy and clean, they compliment Billie's vocal melodies and lyrics so well. The genius clearly runs in the family. Now listening further back into her youth, as a teenager, Billie's lyrics are so surprisingly self certain. Mostly musing her words on the matters of love and relationships, not only does her voice shape luminous feelings into infectious hooks, her sincerity strikes with maturity too. Her massive success is no surprise.
These humble origins are yet to establish a unique tone among the loose and cluttered genre of Pop music. Despite this, the bright, brimming talents of this sibling duo would be heresy to dismiss. Most mystical of all, their youth. Both musical and emotional maturity displayed seems a true rarity. So as of late these nine songs, including a brief feature from Vince Staples, have been on heavy rotation. The downside? This moment in time has surely passed, unlikely to be captured again.
Rating: 8/10