Billie Eilish heads to the softer side on her third studio album, hit me hard and softOn Monday, the singer-songwriter released a series of live performances that stripped down four songs from the album to their acoustic forms. The selections — including “Birds of a Feather,” “Skinny,” “Wildflower” and “L’Amour de Ma Vie” — are now available as part of Song linethe first part of Amazon Music's new songwriting series.
For the performances, Eilish—joined by Finneas—was backed by a strong string section and a live band consisting of vocalists Eloise, Rosie and Jane Horner, drummer Solo Smith and guitarist Andrew Marshall. The new arrangements lean into the singer's vocal style, which has expanded significantly across the album.
“I think L’Amore is the song I’m most proud of vocally on the album. I’m so proud of the whole album, but L’Amore is exactly where I like to be vocally,” Eilish explained of the jazzy single from the album. “As Finneas plays those chords, that’s exactly how I started singing, and that’s how we wrote the song… That’s how I’ve always loved to sing, it’s the way I feel best and most comfortable singing, even though a lot of our music has been really soft and high.”
The singer’s performance of “Wildflower” was a haunting moment in the 24-minute special. Her voice intertwined with the harmonies of her backing vocalists as she delivered some of the most poignant lyrics in her catalog. She then followed up with “Birds of a Feather,” a true standout from her latest album. hit me hard and soft This was a labor of love for both Eilish and Finneas during the writing and recording process.
“We killed ourselves over Birds of a Feather,” Finneas explained. Eilish noted that the duo had no trouble deciding when to finish the song, but they kept going back and forth over the smallest additions to the song. “The first day we made any of it, it was like a demo — a little drum and vocals. And Billie loved it,” Finneas continued. “And we just started putting stuff on it and moving stuff around, and it got worse and worse and worse and worse. And we kept taking stuff away and reworking and using this and reworking. And the final version, of course, is pretty much the same as the first thing we made on day one.”
At the end of the show, Eilish added that she felt grateful to be able to perform these specific songs in this way: “I feel so honored to be able to sing with you guys.”
