Entertainment
Billie Eilish Has Remixed Her New Album — Twice
The singer announces a slowed down and sped up version of her latest release.
You can now listen to Hit Me Hard and Soft slowed down or sped up. Billie Eilish announced on Instagram that she made two additional versions of her latest album and they are available to purchase on her website until May 23rd, 9pm P.T..
For those who don’t have Finneas as an older brother, the“slowed and reverb” version of a song is, as the name suggests, a slowed-down version that incorporates additional reverb effects. The result is a trippy and viscous remix that often produces weirder and more emotional-sounding tracks. On the other hand, sped-up remixes are often just the opposite, rendering more energetic and frenetic versions of the original tracks. Depending on the remix, it can hit you hard or soft.
Historically, these remixes were usually unofficial and fan-made, and in a sense, Eilish is continuing that tradition. In her Instagram post announcing these new remixes Eilish admits that she was one of those fans: “i used to load songs I liked into video star when i was 12 JUST so i could listen to them slowed down or sped up cuz i loved it so much.” Now, she’s paying it forward.
Slowed and reverb remixes are a hallmark of internet culture: The trend was made popular by online subcultures like vaporwave, which made internet history in the early 2010’s by slowing down and distorting popular songs like Diana Ross’ “Your Move”. Similarly, sped up remixes of anime and videogame music became popular around the same time, spawning their own subgenre, nightcore. And of course, TikTok users have been keeping these trends alive ever since.
Troye Sivan is another artist who often releases similar remixes of his songs: A sped up remix of his recent single “One of Your Girls” is free to stream on his official YouTube account, and so is a “slowed n reverb” edit of his 2020 single, “Easy.” Canadian multi-hyphenate Grimes also dabbles in nightcore and sped-up remixes of her own songs. As internet savvy Gen Z artists move into the mainstream, we can expect to see more of these kinds of releases.
