Billie Eilish drops airy sad bop ‘Everything I Wanted’
2019 has been an absolutely massive year for Billie Eilish, but it seems like she isn’t done yet. The 17 years old pop star launched her long awaited and absolutely flawless debut album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, had her first number 1 hit with ‘Bad Guy’ and embarked on a lengthy international tour. Instead of releasing more singles from the album, she decided to drop the brand new tune ‘Everything I Wanted’, which was of course co-written and produced by her brother Finneas.
‘Everything I Wanted’ could best be described as an airy, sad bop. In comparison to most of the work on her debut album, the single is a lot lighter production wise. The subtle electronic synth pop sounds weightless and especially the proper chorus soars beautifully. Lyrically however, things are definitely not as light and ethereal as the production makes you want to believe. Eilish seems to describe a dream in which she jumps off the Golden Gate Bridge while nobody seems to care (“Thought I could fly, so I stepped off the Golden”) although the message and meaning behind the song seems to be about her and Finneas supporting each other at all times (“You say as long as I’m here no one can hurt you'”). She also seems to touch upon her life in the spotlights and the pressure that comes with it: “everybody wants something from me now and I don’t wanna let ’em down”. In the outro she questions if she would have done it all again knowing what she knows now, as well as asking if people would talk about her the same way if they knew the effect of their words.
Although Eilish has been a productive pop star this year, the quality of her tunes does not seem to go down in the slightest. She once again delivered beautiful melodies, a top notch production and mature sounding lyrics way beyond her years. This ethereal synth pop sound is new ground for her, but she sounds utterly convincing.