Pop stars are all about albums

TO BILLIE EILISH, things like cassettes and CDs probably seem charmingly retro. Born in 2001, the musician was six years old when Spotify launched; today she is the fourth-most popular artist on the platform. Ms Eilish has only ever known 21st-century listening habits. And yet she has emerged as an unlikely champion of a time-worn format: the album. She declared that her new record, “Hit Me Hard and Soft”, released in May, was a “cohesive” piece of work, “ideally listened to in its entirety from beginning to end”. No singles were released in advance as amuse-bouches for famished fans.