‘When We All Fall Asleep…’ is a memorable and game-changing debut record, with Billie's disruptive streak front and centre. We'll no doubt see the mainstream scrabbling to replicate it.
Whatever missteps there may be, Eilish’s commanding, yet vulnerable, performances easily overcome them to create one of the best debut albums of the young year.
With When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, she demonstrates that she can do it all, hinting at a bright future that could truly go in any direction, as messy and hopeful as youth can get.
‘When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?’ is a brave and fortuitous debut album from the LA teen, capturing the hopes, fears and vulnerabilities of an entire generation. The genius in this record is its unaffected relatability.
‘When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?’ is a supremely exciting, innovative first move from a pop voice that feels utterly fresh and modern.
It’s rare to hear someone so young have this much fun on their debut record while still crafting something that’s downright game-changing in its bravado.
This album cements her as a force to be reckoned with.
She's become rapidly and dangerously famous in a short amount of time, and When We All Fall Asleep, its artistic achievements aside, manages to exist somewhere between critique, honest reflection of the zeitgeist and a progression of the Billie Eilish mystery.
She has created an album so unquestionably true to her quirks and personality traits that fans are offered a true insight into her process and psyche.
The highs are thrilling, and despite their obvious pedigree, arranged unlike anything else in contemporary pop. They also reveal the lows more starkly.
Eilish is something special, a pop avatar of a Generation Z mood of sensitive disaffection.
Eilish's success is no fluke — When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? is a debut record that showcases a bold artistic vision and a willingness to move beyond the boundaries of pop conventions.
Fascinatingly ambitious, and often extremely fun, this debut finds pop in safe and thrilling hands.
It's a shame that the popularity and promotion behind Billie Eilish has poisoned the well a bit, as When We All Fall Asleep is actually an artful, well-crafted, and unique pop album.
The siblings are living proof that the most creative works can come from environments where you’re encouraged to create freely, in spite of a world that often tells us the opposite.
This isn't the “ta-daaaaa” off-Broadway cabaret of, say, Lady Gaga, or the exhausting pantomime of Amanda Palmer, it's real LA noir, smoky dive, mystery theatre.
WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? has its faults, not quite hitting its full potential, but it gets damn well close, delivering an infectious record for the post-party hangover.
The debut album from the meteoric pop star lives in a world of its own: gothic, bass-heavy, at turns daring and quite beautiful.
It’s an album full of dressed-down avant-pop with D.I.Y. immediacy and intimacy that can still hold its own amid Top 40 maximalists like Ariana Grande and Halsey.
The record’s highlights seem to come not when Eilish crafts a huge chorus or a memorable lyric, but rather when the beat dictates the flow of the song.
It’s exhilarating when pop stars throw caution to the wind like this.
In the end, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? is a triumph of style over substance; it is lyrically in lockstep with Eilish’s generation and, superficially at least, ticks a more than enough of the requisite sonic boxes, particularly in terms of the production, to meet with the approval of the tastemakers.
The album plays like an angsty diary, scribbled with pseudo-depth that rings true to what it’s like growing up. It doesn’t have a definitive narrative, but explores sexuality, drugs and love in a way that doesn’t talk down to the listener.
For the most part, When We All Fall Asleep is stiflingly dull and bloated, with subpar production from Eilish and her brother, Finneas O’Connell.
#1 | / | Consequence of Sound |
#1 | / | NME |
#1 | / | The New York Times: Jon Pareles |
#1 | / | Us Weekly |
#1 | / | Yahoo Entertainment |
#2 | / | Billboard |
#2 | / | Entertainment Weekly |
#2 | / | musicOMH |
#2 | / | PAPER |
#2 | / | Rolling Stone |