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Published in electro-pop ·

Billie Eilish

bury a friend

Billie Eilish's 2019 single, written with and produced by her brother Finneas: a whispered song from the point of view of the monster under the bed, over a galloping beat and scattered synths, whose line gave her debut album its title.

By korczis 3 min read
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Review

Genre and Mood

Billie Eilish’s bury a friend is electro-pop and synth-pop pulled toward trip-hop and industrial noise. It is dark, eerie and haunting, but quietly so: the menace comes from a whisper, not a shout.

Song Summary

Eilish sings from the point of view of the monster under your bed, which, she said, could be anything, even someone you love so much that it takes over your life. The refrain is a run of questions to the listener, and its last one, when we all fall asleep, where do we go, gave her debut album its title. She wrote the song with her brother Finneas O’Connell, who produced it; they made it in Chicago with a shuffle beat in mind, and she drew him a black monster to show how it should sound.

Musical Breakdown

Intro

A voice calls her name: the rapper Mehki Raine, then known as Crooks, recorded it on his phone and sent it to her.

Verse 1

Her vocals are soft and treated with layers of effects, a near-whispered duet with a distorted version of herself, as she put it, over a galloping hip-hop beat that critics compared to Kanye West’s Black Skinhead.

Chorus

The melody turns almost innocent, likened to the Doors’ People Are Strange and called as innocuous as a childhood rhyme, against the dark lyric.

Bridge

No source describes the bridge beyond its place: it arrives straight after a verse rather than after the penultimate chorus. Around it the song is full of what critics called rumbling percussion, scattered synths and screams.

Outro

The song closes on an instrumental passage of ilomilo, the next track on the album.

Concepts in Focus

The song is written in G harmonic minor key, the minor scale with a raised seventh note, at a moderately fast 120 beats per minute. Listen to how the chorus melody that critics heard as childlike sits on that dark ground.

It also bends verse-chorus form. Charlie Harding of Vox described a broken song form with strange alternate verses and a bridge placed after a verse, an effect he found destabilising and yet still accessible. The Harvard Crimson heard the pauses as the quick breaths of someone in a panic.

The music video, directed by Michael Chaves in a single day, shows Eilish under Mehki Raine’s bed, then pulled by black-gloved hands and stabbed with syringes; reviewers compared it to Suspiria and The Shining. For another dark voice in a trip-hop fog, hear Kosheen – Addict.

Artistic Context

bury a friend was released on 30 January 2019 through Darkroom and Interscope as the third single from WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?, announced the day before. Eilish said it set the tone for the whole album.

Impact and Reception

It reached number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100, number six in the UK and number one in Sweden and Latvia, and became her first number one on a Billboard airplay chart, the Alternative Songs chart. NME called it a sizeable middle finger to anyone expecting a twinkly ballad. Listen in the dark, if you dare.

Learn from this track

Intermediate

What you will learn

  • Describe how a pop song can sound unsettling through its sounds, its key and its structure rather than through loudness.
  • Recognise a song that bends verse-chorus form, here with alternate verses and a bridge in an unusual place.
  • Explain how a lyric written from a monster's point of view can be heard as being about love, fear and the self.

Listening guide

  1. the opening Her name called out by Mehki Raine, then known as Crooks, from a phone recording he sent her; The Harvard Crimson heard it as a booming voice.
  2. the verses Soft, near-whispered vocals treated with layers of effects, which Eilish called a sing-song duet between herself and a distorted version of herself.
  3. the sound effects Screeches and found sounds tied to the lyrics, among them a recording of an orthodontist removing her brace attachments.
  4. the refrain A string of questions to the listener over a melody critics likened to the Doors' People Are Strange, innocent as a childhood rhyme.
  5. the ending An instrumental passage from ilomilo, the song that follows it on the album.

Concepts in this track

music video

144 tracks

A short film made to accompany a song. Since MTV it has shaped how songs are remembered, and on YouTube it is often the main way a song is heard.

verse-chorus form

28 tracks

The common song structure that alternates verses (new words over similar music) with a recurring chorus (the same words and the hook). Most pop songs follow it.

minor key

12 tracks

Music centred on a minor scale, whose lowered third gives a darker or more melancholic colour than a major key. Much dance music is in minor keys, which keeps euphoria bittersweet.

Listen next, and why

Questions for discussion

  1. Eilish said love, terror and hatred are all the same thing. How does the music make that idea audible?
  2. What does a song gain by putting its bridge where the listener does not expect it?
  3. Why might a mundane sound, such as a dentist's drill or a stapler, frighten more than a scream?

References

  1. Wikipedia. Bury a Friend. Encyclopedia
  2. The Harvard Crimson. Billie Eilish's New Single 'bury a friend' is Deliciously Eerie (2019). Review
  3. YouTube (BillieEilishVEVO). Billie Eilish - bury a friend (2019). Video
  4. MusicBrainz. bury a friend (recording). Database

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