Home Music Music Lists

The 20 Best Billie Eilish Songs

Few artists in the past decade have changed the pop landscape like Billie — and here are the highlights from her already-historic run

Rachel Luna/FilmMagic; Kevin Mazur/Getty Images; Koury Angelo/Getty Images

Over just three releases, Billie Eilish has blazed a new path in pop music that so many others are already following. Sometimes dark and ambient, other times classically jazzy, she’s a tour de force of doing whatever the hell you want while still keeping it catchy. Her second studio album, Happier Than Ever, proved how capable she was maturing her music (which she makes with co-writer, producer, and big brother Finneas) without losing sight of who she is at her core.

Now, to celebrate the start of her massive Happier Than Ever US tour, we’ve ranked the 20 best Billie Eilish songs.

From Rolling Stone US

Play video
9

‘Bury a Friend’

“But we knew right from the start/That you’d fall apart ’cause I’m too expensive,” Eilish declares, making you pity the fool she was dispensing with, even as you were thrilled to her arrogant freedom. “Bury a Friend” walked the finest of fine lines between terror and intimacy, fusing subterranean industrial rumble, razor-eyed goth-jazz swing, predatory mumble, and the ecstatic wooziness of a teen-pop dream coming into searing focus. When her voice suddenly slips into a Billie Holiday blues purr, the tension between the modern and ancient is almost disconcerting, suggesting an artist ready to diabolically twist the entire history of pop music into her helpless play thing. —J.D.

Play video
8

‘Bellyache’

Has there ever been a sweeter sounding description of a bloody massacre? On “Bellyache,” a teenaged Eilish imagines the guilt she’d feel after murdering her friends over an upbeat acoustic guitar line and even some lite-trap rhythms. “[It’s about] getting a bellyache because you just killed a bunch of people, which you would if you just killed a bunch of people if you were human, but psychopaths don’t really have those feelings,” she said shortly after the song came out. “We kind of just became this character that knows they’re out of their mind, but also doesn’t at the same time.” —K.G.

Play video
7

‘Ocean Eyes’

Her first song took off for a good reason: “Ocean Eyes” is a sublime teaser of how evocative Eilish’s music would become. Finneas wrote the song originally for his band before giving it to his then-13-year-old sister to sing for her dance recital. The song eventually took off on SoundCloud, helping Eilish secure a recording contract. While the Eilish-penned songs that soon followed offered a window into a darker vision of pop, Finneas was right in realizing that his dream-pop ballad was a perfect fit for his little sister’s still-developing musical sensibilities. —B.S.

Play video
6

‘My Future’

Billie blew listeners away with “My Future,” a jazzy electronic torch song that shows off how much her voice has toughened between albums. But it’s a special kind of love song — Billie vows she’s not falling in love with anyone but herself. “I’m in love with my future,” she sings. “Can’t wait to meet her.” She and Finneas wrote “My Future” in just a couple of days, sunk in the quarantine blues. She revels in her solitude, both the pleasures and challenges. But instead of feeling lonely, she tries to look in the mirror and get to know that woman better. —R.S.

Play video
5

‘When the Party’s Over’

“When the Party’s Over” is the ultimate hymnal in the Church of Billie, where you get to genuflect on the delicate layers of her voice and mournful piano. The When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? track doubles as one of her greatest vocal performances and a songwriting highlight for Finneas, a breakup ballad that’s as gorgeous as it is dramatic. Case in point: It plays in the Season Three finale of Riverdale. —A.M.

Play video

Sacha Lecca

4

‘Oxytocin’

On this slinky little techno bop, Eilish pays tribute to the hormone released during sex and childbirth, wondering coyly “What would people say … if they listen through the wall?” The dark and clubby track evokes Nine Inch Nails and Crystal Castles, letting the singer fly her freak flag. “Honestly, the images I have for ‘Oxytocin’ were just sex,” she told The Guardian. “That’s it. All different kinds, and styles, and colors, and locations. That’s really what was in my head. Sex.” —B.S.

Play video
3

‘Your Power’

It starts inconspicuously enough, with some campfire strumming and a simple, seven-note melody. Then Billie descends. Doubling the acoustic guitar in a voice so high, so pure, so otherworldly, and so completely, unbearably, impossibly sad, she puts you on the cusp of tears before the first chorus is through. That’s when she slips in the stiletto. “How dare you? And how could you?” she asks. “I thought that I was special. You made me feel like it was my fault you were the devil.” It’s a brutal accusation, coming from an angel’s throat. —N.S.

Play video
2

‘Bad Guy’

Once in a generation, a great artist comes out of nowhere to step up to the microphone, and declare, “Duuuuh!” “Bad Guy” was the hit that introduced Billie Eilish to the world, a self-proclaimed “annoying 16-year-old” who turned out to be a genius singer and songwriter. She half-whispers, half-threatens her manifesto: “I’m the bad type, make your mama sad type/Make your girlfriend mad type/Might seduce your dad type.” But she refuses to tone down any of her essential weirdness — she even begins by taking out her Invisalign. “Bad Guy” was the perfect breakthrough hit for Billie: She demands that you pay attention, but demands that you do it on her terms. Because she’s the bad guy. Duh. —R.S.

Play video
1

‘Happier Than Ever’

The title track of Eilish’s sophomore album comes in like a lamb and goes out like a whole pack of lions. Inspired by the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life,” “Happier Than Ever” is split into two very different halves. The first two and a half minutes are a folky, emo ballad where she reflects on how much happier she is without a neglectful partner. By the back half, she’s gone electric, screaming at the top of her lungs “I’d never treat me this shitty/You made me hate the city.” It’s pure angst and a departure for the usually cool-headed singer-songwriter, now flexing some of that Green Day fandom that molded her early taste in music. —B.S.