We’re living through something of a boom time for queer pop (if not necessarily queer rights): Between Reneé Rapp, Chappell Roan, Muna, and Kehlani, the gay girls among us are eating good. There really couldn’t be a better time for one Billie Eilish to reintroduce herself as part of The Culture.
Of course, the 22-year-old singer has long been something of a gay icon for her blunt-voiced musical intonation and generally baggy wardrobe. But after coming out as queer late last year, Eilish elaborated on her sexuality in a recent interview with Rolling Stone, telling the magazine that she’s “been in love with girls for [her] whole life”—and her brand-new album Hit Me Hard and Soft is what sapphic dreams are made of. I mean, have you listened to the song “Lunch”? If not, see below, and then get back to me:
Not to play armchair music critic here, but from the opening beats of “Lunch” (which, to my mind, sound a little bit like Le Tigre—nothing gayer than referencing Kathleen Hanna!), it’s clear that a new queen of the bisexual bops has been crowned. Then, of course, there are the lyrics: “I could eat that girl for lunch / Yeah, she dances on my tongue / Tastes like she might be the one / And I could never get enough / I could buy her so much stuff / It’s a craving, not a crush.” Eilish told Rolling Stone that writing the song was “actually part of what helped me become who I am, to be real,” adding, “I wrote some of it before even doing anything with a girl, and then wrote the rest after.”
There are plenty of other great songs on Hit Me Hard and Soft, including album opener “Skinny,” a heartrending anti-ode to diet culture, but it’s “Lunch” that I’m most looking forward to adding to the Pride playlist I blast long after the month of June has concluded. What can I say: I’m glad Eilish has officially joined the queer-pop-artist fold—if only because we’ve needed some new VTBs (Very Talented Bisexuals) to join the ranks of Janelle Monáe, Halsey, and the late, great David Bowie.
