1,000,001 CDs 16: Billie Eilish ~ When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?

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Most of my friends are strange in one way or another; but that's a good thing because I am as well, so I fit in more or less, here and there!           

                

This was demonstrated nicely this Christmas by one of the gifts I received; a CD from Lex of Titanic and Bowie & Halihal fame (links below).               

The cover of the CD gave me a start when I began to examine it! The visual is reminiscent of Poltergeist, Nosferatu or some such horror/shock flick. The image on the cover is SUPER eerie!   

Billie Eilish ~ When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?

CD front cover
cover photo by Kenneth Cappello
photo of album cover by Styrous®

Then the title is extremely provocative, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, which filled me with curiosity; I could hardly wait to play it!     

However, I wasn't able to play it for several days (Christmas stuff) but when I did play it, I thought to myself, "What the hell?" I hadn't used my CD player in over a year so was concerned about the distortion I was hearing. Was my player malfunctioning?        

 

I put the CD in the computer but there was the distortion again, so, I figured the CD was defective and would have to return it. Then it occurred to me to go to YouTube. It was from listening to it on that site that I realized it was not a defective CD, a malfunctioning CD player or my computer in the process of dying. It is the way the music/sound was meant to be!        

Also, the videos for the songs are REALLY weird and compliment the weirdness of the music! bury a friend is obviously about drugs and it is pretty frightening (YouTube links below).     

         

      

After I played it a couple of times, I began to hear the real beauty(???) of it. How do I describe it? Think Julee Cruise teaming up with Marilyn Manson; the result is Billie Eilish! The music is truly ASTOUNDING!      

Billie Eilish wrote the songs and music. Not only that, she also recorded the album. If that isn't enough, she did it in the bedroom studio of her brother, Finneas O'Connell, in Highland Park, California. She used production material including Logic Pro X, a Universal Audio Apollo 8 interface and a pair of Yamaha HS5 studio monitors with an H8S subwoofer.    

 

Her vision of the world is, well, extremely scary and the photo on the album cover reflects that vision! The lyrics deal with the not-so-nice things of life (link below).    

The photo is by Kenneth Cappello. The photo shoot took place on Eilish's birthday in December at a studio in Los Angeles. Eilish had prepared sketches for the album cover which were inspired by the album's themes of night terrors and lucid dreaming, as well as Eilish's interest in horror films. Cappello told MTV News that he "knew she wanted it moody". In order for it to "feel real," Cappello added no additional lighting to the end photo so as to give the impression that "a door was opening and that was the light coming into the bedroom." He additionally shot different variations of Eilish sitting on the bed expressing a range of emotions. Eilish wore contacts to fill in her eyes completely with white. She further wished to use a minimum of additional special effects and touch-ups on the end product to retain a sense of "realness and transparency."

I researched When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? and discovered it has become a top selling album. Will wonders never cease?      

 

Although it is different in many ways, everything about the album puts me in mind of the last album by David Bowie, ‎ ★ (Blackstar) (links below). The cover design for the Bowie album by Jonathan Barnbrook is not the same yet the feeling of it is. And of course, the music is similarly weird in different ways.    

  

         

Tracklist:

1 - !!!!!!! - 0:14
2 = Bad Guy, Producer [Additional Production] – Billie Eilish - 3:14
3 - Xanny - 4:04
4 - You Should See Me In A Crown - 3:01
5 - All The Good Girls Go To Hell - 2:49
6 - Wish You Were Gay - 3:42
7 - When The Party's Over - 3:16
8 - 8 - 2:53
9 - My Strange Addiction - 3:00
10 - Bury A Friend - 3:13
11 - Ilomilo     2:36
12 - Listen Before I Go     4:03
13 - I Love You - 4:52
14 - Goodbye - 1:59

Companies, etc.

    Distributed By – UMG Commercial Services
    Published By – Universal Music Corp.
    Published By – Drup
    Published By – Last Frontier

Credits:

    A&R – Justin Lubliner, Sam Riback
    Legal – David Ferreria
    Management – Brandon Goodman, Danny Rukasin
    Mastered By – John Greenham
    Mixed By – Rob Kinelski
    Producer – Finneas*
    Written-By – Billie Eilish O'Connell* (tracks: 1 to 6, 8, 10 to 14), Finneas O'Connell (tracks: 7, 9)

Notes:

All titles stylized in lowercase.

Debut studio album released on March 29, 2019. The songs "You Should See Me in a Crown" and "When the Party's Over" were released as the first two singles from the album. The third single, "Bury a Friend" was released with the album pre-order on January 30, 2019. The fourth single, "Wish You Were Gay", was released on March 4, 2019 and the fifth single, "Bad Guy", was released on March 29, 2019, shortly after the album's release. Most of the album's tracks were written during the production of Eilish's 2017 EP "Don't Smile at Me". These songs were supposed to be part of an album that was to be released in the summer of 2017, instead "Don’t Smile at Me" was released.


Barcode and Other Identifiers

    Barcode (Printed [UPC-A]): 6 02577 42762 6
    Barcode (Scanned [UPC]): 602577427626
    Matrix / Runout (Variant 1): B002972702 333572104
    Matrix / Runout (Variant 1): 02/20/2019 08:32AM#33545
    Mould SID Code (Variant 1): IFPI LN09
    Matrix / Runout (Variant 2): B002972702 3335721 07
    Matrix / Runout (Variant 2): 02/20/2019 09:35.AM#33549
    Mastering SID Code (Variant 2): IFPI LN09
    Mould SID Code (Variant 2): IFPI 1025
    Rights Society: ASCAP

            

Viewfinder links:               

        
Jonathan Barnbrook          
★ (Blackstar)   
Bowie & Halihal         
David Bowie         
Marilyn Manson       

Titanic            

      

Net links:               

        
Azlyrics ~ When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go album lyrics
Billboard ~ Billie Eilish review          
Kenneth Cappello website        
Billie Eilish website               
Forbes ~ Four Hit Singles On The Charts          
NY Times ~ Grande Was Updating Pop. Then Eilish Came Along  
NME ~ Billie Eilish review        
NPR ~ Bad Guy No. 1 Song On Billboard Hot 100      

Pitchfork ~ Billie Eilish review
RollingStone ~ Billie Eilish review        
Variety ~ a Bad-Ass Kid and Wisened Chanteuse, Too concert review    

            

YouTube links:               

Billie Eilish ~      
       bury a friend 
       when the party's over  
Julee Cruise ~ 
       The World Spins       
       Falling
Marilyn Manson ~ 
       The Dope Show    
       God's Gonna Cut You Down   
     
     

            

                

Lex, you've come a long way since Titanic!

      

            

               

Styrous® ~ December 30, 2019

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