The Song of the Day is:
Billie Eilish – “bury a friend”
From the album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (2019)
What do you want from me? Why don’t you run from me?
What are you wondering? What do you know?
Why aren’t you scared of me? Why do you care for me?
When we all fall asleep, where do we go?Billie Eilish – Finneas O’Connell
In my blogs, I often add a tag of “New Millennium” for artists who emerged in the 2000’s and beyond. This may be the first artist that I am featuring that has actually been born in this new millennium. Billie Eilish O’Connell is just seventeen right now, but she already has music fans and critics clamoring for her music. I first took notice of her when an article listed her as a new Kurt Cobain. I don’t really think that is the case. Actually I think she is much more akin to a new Trent Reznor, with shades of Lorde. She cites Tyler the Creator and Lana Del Rey as heroes, and their influence is quite noticeable in her music. Eilish emerged as a SoundCloud personality. I have previously written of how there is a whole SoundCloud community responsible for breaking new talent, but is largely incompressible for an old fart like me. Eilish appears to be one of the first major non-rap talents to get the SoundCloud boost, the first one I’m featuring anyway. Eilish is a dark prescence in pop music, in previous generations, she would be a goth or a punk rocker, but in this era she is musically devoid of rock influence. She still rocks though, which is difficult to explain. Her older brother, Finneas O’Connell (formerly a child actor on Glee and Bad Teacher), is her major collaborator. He helps with her the songwriting and production, and releases his own music as well under the mononym FINNEAS. Eilish, who is known to have dyed blue hair and often dresses like a mental patient, enjoys having some rather disturbing imagery in her music videos. Her rise to stardom was pretty quick, having garnered attention from her first EP Don’t Smile at Me, and her debut single “Ocean Eyes”. “Lovely”, a collaboration with Khalid from the 13 Reasons Why soundtrack was also a notable hit. So far, her major label debut When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, has reached number one in America and numerous other markets, and has managed to spawn six hit singles. I would say the non-single “i love you” is perhaps her most hauntingly beautiful song, but the (Doors’) “People Are Strange”-like “bury a friend” is the most immediate of her singles. She is an artist with a very bright future, despite her dark outlook.
Hear Today, Grown Tomorrow 