In an attempt to make an individual name for himself, FINNEAS– more commonly known as Billie Eilish’s brother and successful producer– released his debut album, “Optimist,”  on October 16, 2021. FINNEAS is known for sweeping the 2020 Grammy’s along with Billie, as well as producing and co-writing songs for the likes of Demi Lavato, Justin Beiber, and even Kid Cudi, just to name a few. The tracks he co-writes and produces are commonly smash hits that gain radio play.  The votes are in, though, and the majority of listeners, aside from devoted hardcore Billie fans, are not at all impressed; his own music shockinly just misses the mark. While Finneas is constantly praised for his works as a producer,Pitchfork goes as far as to call it  ‘gloomy, on edge, and disappointingly hollow.” 

So, without further ado, let’s get into it. 

To kick off the 13-track record, we have ‘A Concert Six Months from Now.’ This song sets the tone for the album, showing that the given title ‘Optimist”  is meant to be taken ironically within the first verse: “Your favorite band/Is back on the road/And this fall they’re playing/The Hollywood Bowl/I’ve already purchased two seats for their show/I guess I’m an optimist.” With the somber sounding instruments, mixed with the reminiscent tone of Finneas’s voice, the song is honestly sad. In the light of recent events, Finneas touches on the pandemic, bringing up how bands and artists were not able to perform, while simultaneously missing an ex-girlfriend, asking her to join him at a concert six months from now, all while calling himself optimistic for thinking she would go with him, and given the off chance that it will even take place due to COVIDmandates. Personally, this song does not seem to be the right choice to kick off the album with. It really is not anything special and sets your expectations pretty darn low for what will follow. 

Unfortunately, ‘All The Kids Are Dying” takes on a similar vibe to the prior. Sounding unenthused by his own lyrics, Finneas starts off with, “Bang Bang/Knocking on my door/”Do you have a dollar? Would you like to fund a war?/What’s your carbon footprint and could you be doing more?”/I tried saving the world but then I got bored.” The first verse, once again showing the passion Finneas seems to have for current events, focuses on the climate crisis. Unfortunately for Finneas, this take has fallen short to listeners. As stated by Pitchfork: “He’s been paying attention. Finneas acknowledges his privilege and his whiteness; he’s caught up on politics, has thoughts on cancel culture, and wonders if our phones are poisoning our brains.” Although some see the positive, several twitter users are not pleased with his lyrics, claiming that it seems ‘tone deaf’ and as if he is mocking those who have less of an impact in solving world issues. The song doesn’t spark any sort of imagination or inspiration. However, Finneas’ use of language leaves the listener feeling a little guilty and much less optimistic about the future of our planet, carrying on the ironic Optimist title.  

Begrudgingly, we move to the next track ‘Happy Now?” and, honestly, no. I’m not. This song was not a surprise to me. Finneas once again shows his standpoint, which, according to yet another twitter user, feels a little bit offensive to those who are not as well off as he is. At the end of the first verse, Finneas sings, “They’re all so happy for me/So take a drive around town in my douchebag car/Like the superstar that I pretend to be/Nothing feels better than buying love/When push comes to shove, I’m lonely.” This song strayed away from the previous trend, as he seems to just be attempting to shine a light on the reality of being famous. Although, props to Finneas for seemingly starting a new theme. The timing of the change is odd, and the songs to follow are a series of extremely repetitive and boring tracks: “Only A Lifetime”, “Medieval”, and “Around My Neck.”   He seems to lose his sense of theme  and consistency completely in some of the tracks, as he completely strays away from the original theme and switches around. I’ll save you the listen; it’ll put you to sleep. It sounds as though Finneas is preaching to himself, trying to reach an understanding with the listener that his life is just as hard as anyone else’s, but it’s just different and hard for other people in lower classes to understand.  The only song that didn’t fall excruciatingly short of portraying the message is “Hurt Locker.” Taking on a very similar sound and standpoint as ‘Happy Now?”, Finneas sings, “Maybe all I’ll ever be is the cameo here/A face the crowd might recognize/That comes home twice a year/And then I disappear.” This song striked more chords with me than the previous, because it seemed as though his feelings were more detectable in his tone and the use of his words, yet he STILL somehow makes it sound so boring. These few songs made me wish it was possible to block an artist on Spotify.

With no block button in sight, I click on“The 90s,” where Finneas retires the yawnful, monotone voice and beats for a simple, barely noticeable drumline… you’d think this would be a relief, yet Finneas butchers any hope this song could have possibly had by covering it all up by the worst use of autotune known to man. I wish I was kidding. As if that was not crazy enough, it gets worse. He decides to include an ear-bleed-inducing beat for about 45 seconds. It’s almost as if he knew the listeners would need an alarm like that to wake them up after the previous songs. I could have said this about every song so far, but this undoubtedly earns the award of worst song on the album. Hands down.

Kind of thankful to get that song out of the way and out of my life, heading back to the sob-story lullabies, we have “Love is Pain,” “Someone Else’s Star,” and the best song on the entire album “What They’ll Say About Us.” Before we get into that though, “Love is Pain ” and “Someone Else’s Star ” take on the same sort of theme, which is not hard to figure out based on the super-unique-never-heard-of-totally-original titles chosen. Both of these songs sound like ones we have all heard a million times before. Finneas seems to have attempted to put his poetic heart into these songs though, which, I have to admit, it was nice to hear the effort after whatever the heck those other songs were, even if it still isn’t that good. Finneas sings in “Someone Else’s Star,” “Now all your second chances feel like thirds/You wonder what you wanted in the first/Used to feel it all, now it just hurts.” I think this is the best lyricism I have heard from Finneas thus far; although the other aspects of the songs could have enhanced the impact of these lyrics, I still give major props to him for advancing his use of poetic language for this part, even if it won’t last. “Love is Pain ” takes on the same vibe, but it just isn’t done nicely at all. As I’ve said 100 times before, the lyrics are just utterly disappointing and not special: “Say it’s not okay to feel that way/It’s real, you may not make her happy/So what’s wrong with me? If honestly/I wanna be the only way she can be.” These sound like they’re straight up out of a Disney Channel original movie, or an awful remake of a famous Justin Bieber song circa 2009. Maybe that’s his inspiration, considering he has taken on the role of producer for early Disney Kid actors. 

Circling back to “What They’ll Say About Us,” real quick… This song is unique from the rest on the album; it was released one whole year prior to the rest of the monstrosities. However, in the process of releasing it, Finneas forgot to mention that it would be part of a debut album. I first listened to this song when it auto played after a Billie Eilish song on Spotify. I added it to my liked songs pretty soon after hearing it. Now, hearing the rest of the songs it is accompanied by, I’ve gained an even deeper appreciation for it. The main contrast between this track and the rest is the tone of Finneas’s voice, which I have mentioned on several occasions. In this song, he actually sounds as if he wants to be singing, not as if he is held hostage in the studio. The beat and harmonies are surprisingly not that boring, and the cherry on top is the storyline and lyricism. Finneas gave a direct background of the track, in an interview with Genius: “I’d also been following Amanda Kloots as she documented her husband Nick Cordero’s time in the ICU while in a coma after being admitted for COVID-19. Imagining her sitting by his side, waiting, hopeful for him to wake up, it got me thinking about all the millions of people, all over the world, who also have loved ones, parents, children and extended family members going through the same thing.” All my negative feelings towards this album aside, the meaning and depth in this song is so touching, and heart wrenching. The song is already sad enough with lyrics like “I never said it would be easy/I’m never giving up, believe me/I used to think the pain would fade, but it never does.” With the added background information, it just becomes that much more heartbreaking and realistic to the time period we are all living in. This song made me wish Finneas kept this type of sparkle, and applied the same amount of effort to the rest of the songs. What a difference a year made on his passion. 

I feel like a giant weight has been lifted off of my shoulders and a pressure relieved from my ears now that listening to that album is over. If I were to rate this album, I would give it a solid 2/10. All things considered, Finneas had a great concept for an album, but missed the mark by a long shot. The entire thing seemed to be extremely rushed; every song seemed to lack any hint of contrast from the one before. The build up for the album was nonexistent. Looking at Finneas’s instagram, it seemed as though he just expected the media and the fans to get his album to #1, without any sort of effort on his side to achieve that. I went into this album with open ears and a hopeful heart for the guy. Although I am severely disappointed with the outcome, I hope that he can somehow bounce back in the future, as some artists tend to have low points in their careers. Maybe Finneas should step away from the spotlight for now. Maybe he should try to separate his career from his sister, and make a completely new name for himself. Maybe he should gain his own fame, rather than the trickle down from Bille. While Finneas has an immense amount of talent, some people are just not meant to be superstars; rather they stay behind the curtains and help others achieve stardom. While he has the drive, and the power to make himself known, I hope he takes the time to step back and take his time to work on his own stardom, and place the same amount of effort into himself as he does with already accomplished artists.