Alpha

Billie Eilish’s “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” is a sweet, syrupy love song…with a morbid twist. The track, featured on her new album HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, depicts a protagonist so utterly doting and devoting that she’s willing—nay, planning—to die for her love. It’s dreamy, over the top and darkly comic, in an is-it-funny-or-should-we-be-alarmed way (“I want you to stay till I’m in the grave/Till I rot away, dead and buried,” she sings. “If I’m turning blue, please don’t save me, nothing left to lose without my baby”). We may not know what else is lurking beneath the surface of this loved-up track, but it’s got us listening, thinking and talking. So much of Eilish’s power lies within those layers—the mystery, the subverted expectations, the cards she keeps close to her chest. It’s why we love her, and it’s why she’s leading Alpha this week. Like Eilish, many of the extraordinary artists on this playlist are, indeed, history-makers and game-changers. But Alpha’s more than that. These songs touch on every facet of what womanhood might look and feel like, to one woman—or many. Here, you’ll find love and intimacy, hope and validation, intensity and rawness. It’s a place for starting conversations, uplifting one another and challenging notions through the simple matter of being. Now, that’s real power.