Bury a Friend
"Bury a Friend" (stylized in all lowercase) is a song by American singer-songwriter Billie Eilish and the third single from her debut studio album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (2019). It was released on January 30, 2019, and serviced to US alternative radio stations on February 19, 2019, through Darkroom and Interscope Records. The song was described as synth-pop, electronica, electropop and industrial in press reviews, for which hip hop beats, percussion, and a synthesizer provide minimalist instrumentation. Within the dark and violent lyrics, Eilish sings from the perspective of a monster under someone's bed. Her vocals are subtle and treated with layers of vocal effects. Eilish wrote the song with its producer, Finneas O'Connell.
"Bury a Friend"
"Bury a Friend" received generally positive reviews from music critics, several of whom praised its dark nature and lyrics. The song was also likened to the music of Marilyn Manson, Lorde and Kanye West. It attained commercial success, including reaching number one in Sweden and Latvia. The song further peaked within the top ten in New Zealand, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) awarded it a triple platinum certification.
Michael Chaves directed the music video for "Bury a Friend", which was uploaded to Eilish's YouTube channel at the same time as the song's first release. The video depicts Eilish singing under the bed of British rapper Mehki Raine (known as Crooks at the time), who provides uncredited vocals on the song, being pulled by black gloves, and walking through a rundown apartment. Critics noted the video's horror elements. Eilish promoted the song by performing it live at venues in 2019, including Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Glastonbury Festival and during her When We All Fall Asleep Tour. It was also included on the setlist of her 2020 Where Do We Go? World Tour and her 2022 Happier Than Ever, The World Tour.
Composition and lyrical interpretation[edit]
Eilish credited the song for setting the tone for When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, stating: "I immediately knew what it was going to be about, what the visuals were going to be, and everything in terms of how I wanted it to be perceived".[10] "Bury a Friend" has been described as a synth-pop, electronica, electropop and industrial track in press reviews.[11][12][13][14] Suzy Exposito of Rolling Stone called it "goth-R&B" reminiscent of Marilyn Manson's Antichrist Superstar (1996).[15] The song is moderately fast at 120 beats per minute (BPM), and is written in the key of G minor.[16] Its minimalist instrumentation features a hip hop and "galloping" beat similar to Kanye West's "Black Skinhead" (2013).[8][17][18][19] "Rumbling" percussion, "scattered" synth melodies, screams, and a screeching recording of an orthodontist shaving off Eilish's dental brace attachments are also included.[20][21][22] Charlie Harding of Vox pointed out "a broken song form with strange alternate verses and a bridge placed untraditionally after a verse, rather than immediately following a penultimate chorus. The effect is destabilizing, and yet still accessible to the average listener".[23] The melody presented during the chorus has been likened to the Doors' "People Are Strange" (1967),[24] and sonically described as "innocuous as a childhood rhyme", contrasting the rest of the song.[25]
According to Eilish, the track's "dark" and "violent" lyrics[26] are written from the perspective of "the monster under your bed. Anything could be the monster — it could be someone you love so much that it’s taking over your life. I think love and terror and hatred are all the same thing".[27] Laura Dzubay of Consequence of Sound interpreted: "[Eilish] assumes the position of a monster there to haunt somebody (a lover or herself [...])."[25] The Michigan Daily's Samantha Cathie thought the fact that the singer was "hat[ing] herself" mirrored in the lines: "Like I wanna drown, like I wanna end me” and "Honestly I thought that I would be dead by now".[28] Eilish asks several questions during the song's refrain: "What do you want from me? Why don’t you run from me? Why aren’t you scared of me? Why do you care for me? When we all fall asleep, where do we go?".[23][25][29] Further lyrics include: "Step on the glass, staple your tongue/ Bury a friend, try to wake up/ Cannibal class, killing the son/ Bury a friend, I wanna end me".[11] The singer's "soft" vocals in "Bury a Friend" range between the notes of F#3 and B♭4.[16][30] They are treated with layers of vocal effects, and a "playful trickery [is used] in each hook".[8] Eilish described the track as a "near-whispered sing-song duet between [her] and a distorted version of herself".[26] It ends with an instrumental part of "Ilomilo", which follows on When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?; the latter in turn begins with a lyrical reference to "Bury a Friend". Elaborating on the matter in an interview with MTV, O'Connell stated that the two songs were only referencing each other for the purpose of making the album "cohesive", and that they were not linked in any other way.[31]
Commercial performance[edit]
"Bury a Friend" attained commercial success. It debuted at number 74 on the US Billboard Hot 100 before moving 60 places to number 14 with 29.1 million streams and 18,000 downloads sold in its first full week of tracking, becoming Eilish's highest peak on the chart at the time, before being surpassed by "Bad Guy" (2019).[41][42] The song also became the singer's first number one on a Billboard radio airplay chart, topping the US Alternative Songs chart in May 2019. This made Eilish only the tenth solo woman in a lead role to reach number one in the chart's three-decade history.[43] In the United Kingdom, "Bury a Friend" reached number six, making it Eilish's first top ten in the country.[44] The song has further peaked at number one in Sweden and Latvia,[45][46] and within the top ten in countries such as New Zealand, Australia and Canada.[47][48][49] It has been awarded several certifications, most notably triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[50]
Music video[edit]
An accompanying music video for "Bury a Friend" was uploaded to Eilish's official YouTube channel on January 30, 2019.[51] It was directed by Michael Chaves in the span of a day.[12][29] The clip contains horror elements, which have led to it being regarded by reviewers as "creepy" and "haunting".[8][10] Eilish explained: "I had this idea where I’m naked. Like an abduction-type thing, completely not in control, just a helpless body, and people putting syringes up my arms and in my neck. That’s one of people’s biggest fears—needles—and that’s what I’ve been doing recently: honing in on people’s fears".[27]
The video begins in a hotel at night. Mehki Raine awakens from a nightmare and goes back to sleep, while Eilish, hiding under his bed, slowly rises to watch him sleep. The singer then walks outside the room slowly before she is pulled and prodded by hands covered with black latex gloves. Eilish is then injected with syringes,[10] and she attempts to run.[21][52] Eilish's attempts don't work, and she is stabbed with more and more needles until she finally falls to her knees as black twitches under her skin and Eilish slinks back under the bed, her eyes turning all black. Critics have likened the visual to works released by Alice Glass,[38] Chris Cunningham and Floria Sigismondi.[26] Others compared it to the films Suspiria (2018) and Get Out (2017),[33][53] the television series The Haunting of Hill House,[53] and Stephen King's 1977 novel The Shining.[21]
In popular culture[edit]
The song was featured in the television series The Society. Kaitlin Reilly writing for Refinery29 noted similarity between the lyrics and the series' plot.[62]
In October 2021, a remix of "Bury a Friend" by Chris Avantgarde was used in the Zombies reveal trailer for Call of Duty: Vanguard.[63] The track was further included in the pilot episode of Dickinson on Apple TV+, the fifth episode of the fourth season of Netflix's Big Mouth,[64] in the 2021 film Sing 2,[65] in the 2022 film Kimi,[66] and in the last scene of the fifth season of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale [1]
The song featured in the trailers for the American Amazon Prime Video original series Carnival Row, and trailers for the 2024 films Madame Web and Night Swim. It is also used as the theme song for True Detective: Night Country,[67] as well as serving as significant inspiration for the season as a whole. Showrunner Issa López wrote the season during COVID-19 lockdown while listening to Eilish's music.[68]
Cover versions[edit]
Zeds Dead remixed "Bury a Friend" to acclaim from Billboard's Kat Bein, who included it in her 12 Best Billie Eilish Remixes list. She stated that the remix takes the original song and "runs it through a few sonic filters [while] [m]oody ambience gives way to fat bass synths [...] [,] old-school dubstep wub-dubs [and] [...] drums [which] kick up in a slow-down UK garage style in the later half".[69]
British pop group Duran Duran released a cover version of this song on their 2023 Halloween-themed album Danse Macabre.[70]