In part three of my album review of “when we all fall asleep where do we go”, I break down the next section of songs on her album titled, “when the party’s over”, “8”, “my strange addiction”, and “bury a friend.” This section of the album is hands down my favorite because of the aspects that make each unique from the hidden office audio tracks in “my strange addiction” to how a fans drawing inspired “when the party’s over”, to how “8” is from the opposite perspective of “when the party’s over”, to how angelically she sings the haunting lyrics of “bury a friend”. Each song is so unique and fascinating so continue reading for a full breakdown of each of these songs in this section of my album review for “when we all fall asleep where do we go.”
- when the party’s over
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This single on her album is easily the most popular on the album with 209 million views on youtube. This song was actually written by her brother Finneas, but Eilish was the one who took the lead on the creative direction of the music video. Eilish stated in an NME interview in early January of 2019 that the video was inspired by the fan drawing below. From that moment on, she knew exactly what she wanted the video to look like.
Overall “when the party’s over”, according to a Genius article, is about “Billie putting some distance between her and her lover. It was described by the singer not as a sad song, but rather as more of an angry mood.” We can see this distance in the lyrics,
“But nothin’ is better sometimes/ Once we’ve both said our goodbyes/ Let’s just let it go/ Let me let you go”
- 8
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In a recent Genius article “Eilish admits “8” is written from the perspective of somebody she hurt.”In the song, you can hear this juggle between her perspective and the perspective of the person she hurt when she jumps from a high pitched to a normal pitched voice. I saw this shift the most in the second verse when she sang the lines
“You said, “Don’t treat me badly/ But you said it so sadly/ So I did the best I could/ Not thinkin’ you would have left me gladly/ I know you’re not sorry/ Why should you be?/ ‘Cause who am I to be in love/ When your love never is for me?/ Me”
- my strange addiction
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“my strange addiction” is hands down my favorite song on the album because I love how it’s a mix of two of my favorite things “The Office” and “Billie Eilish.”
The song is also very relatable because of the large fanbase The Office has. I know I am not the only Office fan that got excited when samples of audio clips from the show were mixed in with the lyrics of the song. As an Office fan myself, I recognized a lot of the quotes she used in the song were from the Office’s “Threat Level Midnight” episode.
Overall I really liked this song because of its lightheartedness with a mix of Billie confessing her addiction to the Office that we all lowkey probs have.
- bury a friend
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This song is the one that has the main line of the album “when we all fall asleep where do we go.” The song itself shows a darker side and proposes the hypotheticals of “where do we go when we fall asleep?” In the video, this question remains unanswered although we do see Eilish’s good friend Calvin Adrian Parkinson fall asleep in his bed with a Billie Eilish-looking monster hiding underneath.
In a recent video published with the Newyork Times, Billie and Finneas opened up about the process of creating this song. If you’d like to learn more, feel free to check it out below or at this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeGT5uu_lR0.
Overall, the video for this song is dark and filled with horror, especially when Eilish looks possessed and then when she has needles in her back. The video was directed by Michael Chaves who’s directed horror films such as “The Curse of La Llorona.” It’s definitely a haunting tune, to say the least.