My Thoughts On Billie EIlish's New Song

On October 25, 2018, 16-year-old singer songwriter Billie Eilish released the music video for her new song ‘when the party’s over. This is the second single for her untitled album set to be released in 2019.  

The music video starts out with Billie in a white room, sitting at a table with a cup full out a mysterious black liquid. When the audio begins, it has a creepy vibe to it. Her singing is very slow and soft, which is a lot different from most artists today. The song feels very intimate and it really makes you think she is singing from the heart. With lyrics like “Don’t you know I'm no good for you” and “I’ll only hurt you if you let me” I saw this song as her expressing to someone that she feels she’s toxic for them. As well as a warning to them that they will get hurt if they try to continue a relationship with her. 

In the video, Billie proceeds to drink the black liquid in the cup, whilst singing “call me friend but keep me closer (call me back) and I’ll call you when the party’s over”. At this point, I was confused, as this was the first time a party had been mentioned. I also couldn’t understand how the music video tied into the song, as it appeared strangely unrelated.  

However, I read an interview with Billie where she revealed that: “It’s not really, “I’m sad,” you know what I mean? So “When The Party’s Over,” I feel like that’s such a sentence. It’s like, “I’ll call you when the party’s over,” you’re on the phone with someone […] and you’re just like, “You know what? […] leave me alone.” 

Her explanation of this made the line a lot clearer to me, but I cannot say I would have understood it without reading that myself.  

The music video ends with the black liquid she drank pouring out of her eyes and covering the floor. This was very unexpected and ultimately added to the very creepy and mysterious vibe of the video.  

While the video was very abnormal, I can say that I really enjoyed listening to the song and would suggest to everyone that they watch the video to get the full experience and see for yourself what everyone is talking about.