Billie Eilish today announced the debut studio album we have been waiting for years. The then 14-year-old artist broke into spotlight with an unintended song upload on SoundCloud named “ocean eyes.” Now she is one of the hottest upcoming artists in the world. Billie announced the upcoming album title ‘WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?,’ and premiered the first official single and music video “bury a friend” today (Jan 30, 2019).
The announced album tracklist contains some of the music we have already seen before. “when the party’s over” and “you should see me in a crown” were released previously along with their own music videos as well. Billie Eilish assumes a dark and eerie persona around her on stage. And “bury a friend” just might have topped them all.
According to an interview with Zane Lowe, “bury a friend” sets the overall theme of the album;
“When we made ‘Bury a Friend,’ and we finished it […] that’s sort of when everything clicked in my head, and I just immediately knew what I needed everything about the album to be as like an overall theme, and just feeling. The title I feel portrays exactly what I was trying to say with this whole album. The whole album is basically supposed to be a bad dream, or a good dream.”
Billie Eilish on World Record by Zane Lowe
On January 28th, Billie shared a 16-second snippet of the video that showed Billie’s face getting smothered by hands with gloves and she titled the video “hahahahaha.”
Watch “bury a friend” Music Video by Billie Eilish
Download “bury a friend” Single on iTunes and Amazon
Buy ‘WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?’ Album on iTunes and Amazon
“bury a friend” is believed to be about that monster under your bed. It is equated to sleep paralysis; a medical condition in which the subject feels “during awakening or falling asleep, a person is aware but unable to move or speak. During an episode, one may hallucinate (hear, feel, or see things that are not there), which often result in fear.” (Source
Billie Eilish is heard questioning this monster under the bed what they want from her and why don’t they leave her alone. The emotions that she goes through during such episodes are perfectly demonstrated in the music video, where the 17-year-old artist is seen being pushed and pulled back and forth by unknown, multiple hands. In one grotesque scene, we see Billie being stripped and injected with about 10 syringes at once on her back. In another eerie scene, we see Billie’s lifeless body floating in mid-air…
As per Umusic, Billie Eilish had a similar idea when she composed the song; “bury a friend’ is literally from the perspective of the monster under my bed. If you put yourself in that mindset, what is this creature doing or feeling? I also confess that I’m this monster, because I’m my own worst enemy. I might be the monster under your bed too.”
In one lyric of the refrain of the song, Billie questions where do we go when we fall alseep? This has inspired the debut studio album title. Billie could literally be questioning about afterlife, the eternal sleep, with this specific lyric.
The new album is expected towards end of March 2019.
Do share with us what you think song and music video means.