After a three-year wait for fans, Billie Eilish’s third studio album is here, and it’s full of banger tracks! Hit Me Hard And Soft came out on Friday and ultimately hit a record streaming debut for the 22-year-old performer. Not only is her new music incredible, but the album cover itself is really mesmerizing. Recently, the viral Barbie singer shared how the album’s cover was accomplished as a result of her being strapped underwater for hours, and it sounds brutal!
Of course, let’s take a moment to appreciate the art that she had to suffer for. Take a look at Billie Eilish’s stunning Hit Me Hard And Soft cover in all its glory!
The cover features the songstress sinking underwater as she peers at a white open door above her. When the singer was asked about the making of the photograph, here’s what she said:
After the last Grammys, I’d gone to sleep at 7 a.m., I woke up, I dyed my hair black. It was bright red. I dyed it black that day and then I went to this random place in Santa Clarita or some nonsense, there’s a tank in this giant place. It was like 10 feet deep. I popped my little ass in there and was in there for six hours. I’m fully clothed, obviously. I was wearing big long pants, giant shorts, a long-sleeved thermal, a button-up flannel, a tie, rings, arm warmers, a bracelet and a weight. I had the weight strapped to me.
So the day after Billie Eilish took to the stage to win Song Of The Year for “What Was I Made For?”, which took place back on February 4, the singer marked her new era by placing herself in a massive tank of water with her freshly dyed hair. When Eilish told the story while appearing as a guest on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, the host questioned why she’d decide to almost die for an album cover. During the interview (which was shared on YouTube), she shared the following response:
Dude, I have done it so many times – almost died in shoots. I need to suffer.
The star has notably done a lot of crazy things for her music videos. She once had a tarantula go in her mouth for the “You Should See Me In A Crown” video, whereas she cried charcoal water and xanthan gum for “When The Party’s Over.” There’s also the “NDA” video, in which cars were literally zooming past her while she sang. And who could forget the real snake she had around her neck for the “Your Power” video? After Stephen Colbert further inquired about why she would put herself through such strife for her art, she provided an intriguing answer:
You know what it really is, It’s not like ‘What can I do that will be the most uncomfortable that I could possibly dream of.’ It’s more that I think about the visual before I think about how it’s going to make me feel. It’s like, I’m like ‘Okay, I want to be fully dressed underwater, eyes open, upside down. And then I deal with how horrible it is…. Dude, I didn’t have a nose plug, I was basically waterboarding myself for like six hours.
Luckily, the music phenom is alive and well but, wow, does that shoot sound brutal! The singer also shared that she was inspired by optical illusions when thinking up the vision for the cover. Her album itself channels a lot of emotions linked to her life, as she has grown up in the spotlight. She unapologetically sings about accepting her queerness in “Lunch” whereas she seems to call out her history with stalkers in “The Diner.”
This past week, Billie Eilish debuted the album through two massive listening parties in New York and Los Angeles, along with holding listening parties at select AMC Theatres. You can bop along to the album now, and remember to appreciate the great lengths that Eilish went to to make that cover a reality.