All the Good Girls Go to Hell | |||||
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Single by Billie Eilish | |||||
Album | When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? | ||||
Released | September 6, 2019 | ||||
Recorded | September 2018 | ||||
Genre(s) | Pop | ||||
Length | 2:49 | ||||
Label(s) | Darkroom, Interscope | ||||
Producer(s) | Finneas O'Connell | ||||
When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? chronology | |||||
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All the Good Girls Go to Hell (stylized in all lowercase) is a song recorded by Billie Eilish for her debut studio album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?. The song was written by Eilish and her brother Finneas O'Connell, while the latter solely handled the production. It was released by Darkroom Records and Interscope Records on September 6, 2019, as the sixth single from the album.
A pop track, "All the Good Girls Go to Hell" sees Eilish sing about climate change and take the viewpoint of the Devil and God who antagonizes the human race for destroying the earth. The song received generally favorable reviews from music critics, with many praising the lyrics and production. It entered at number 46 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 77 on the UK Singles Chart. Internationally, the song has peaked within the top five of five countries, including Belgium, where it reached number one. The song has received several certifications, including being certified platinum in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
The accompanying music video was directed by Rich Lee and uploaded to Eilish's YouTube channel on September 4, 2019. It sees Eilish walk down a deserted road, completely covered in oil, as flames erupt around her. The video received positive reviews, with critics praising the visual's message about climate change. Eilish has promoted "All the Good Girls Go to Hell" by performing it live at festivals, including the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (2019), and Glastonbury Festival (2019) as well as during Eilish's When We All Fall Asleep Tour (2019) and Where Do We Go? World Tour (2020).
Background and release[]
In an interview with Vulture, Eilish's brother Finneas O'Connell, known under his stage name of Finneas, said the song's lyrics are about climate change, God, and the Devil, as well as "the idea that humans have made such a mess of the planet at this point that they're both talking to each other like, 'What's going on? Why did they do all of this?'" Elaborating on this in an interview with MTV, Finneas said he and Eilish thought it would be fun to write a song from the perspective of the devil or god, who would be looking down at humans and be disappointed in them for destroying the Earth. He continued, saying them looking down is a consequence to humans for their actions. Eilish told Howard Stern during an interview on The Howard Stern Show that the chorus to "All the Good Girls Go to Hell" was written in 2016, while the rest was written and recorded in 2018.
Eilish shared an Instagram story on March 25, 2020 that featured a playlist of her inspirations for the track, saying "You Should See Me in a Crown", "My Strange Addiction", and "All the Good Girls Go to Hell" kind of "inspired themselves". In April 2020, during a 50-minute Verizon livestream, Eilish explained the meaning of "All the Good Girls Go to Hell": "The deeper meaning of the song is about global warming and climate strike and what's really important. This song is about the world and trying to save it, and people not believing that it needs to be saved."
"All the Good Girls Go to Hell" was written by Eilish and Finneas, with the latter handling production. The song was mastered by John Greenham and mixed by Rob Kinelski, both of whom also served as studio personnel. "All the Good Girls Go to Hell" was released on Eilish's debut studio album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, as the fifth track on March 29, 2019. The song was later released as the album's sixth single on September 6, 2019. "A flexi disc and cassette for the song were released via pre-order to ship in the following four-to-six weeks. The releases came with a digital single that was delivered to customers in the United States through email.
Composition and lyrics[]
"All the Good Girls Go to Hell" was described as a pop track by music critics. Neil Z. Young of AllMusic noted the song's "playful bass strum" that manages to "pull some G-funk effects into its orbit", while Robert Christgau of Vice magazine mentioned the song features "plinked piano". The staff of NME commented that "All The Good Girls Go To Hell" is "powered by bright pianos, off-the-wall synths and bass from Finneas in the second verse", and Jason Lipshutz from of Billboard said Eilish's "stuttering words about death and desire lilt over the dripping beats of the propulsive". Chris Darville of Stereogum mentioned the song is "built around the oft-recycled notion that eternal damnation."
Lyrically, the song sees Eilish forsake heaven for hell: "My Lucifer is lonely." She mocks and walks away from heaven, saying: "Pearly gates [that] look more like a picket fence" and turning towards the dark side. Eilish also references Saint Peter, who is the keeper of the gates to heaven. "All the Good Girls Go to Hell" references Catholicism, with Eilish explaining that her degeneracies will go unpunished by the saints since "Peter's on vacation, an open invitation." Tanis Smither of Earmilk stated Eilish manages to "satirize both fame and the American dream as well as chastise adults twice and three times her age for climate change, noting that she quips: "Man is such a fool, why are we saving him?"
Music video[]
Background[]
Eilish teased a music video for "All the Good Girls Go to Hell" with a clip of an image that said "haven't you been waiting long enough?" in September 2019. Her final teaser told people who were in New York to head to Times Square and check the screens at 4:00 p.m. The music video was released through Eilish's YouTube channel the following day. It was directed by Rich Lee and filmed in Los Angeles, California. In an Instagram post, the video's stylist talked about the filming and how it was hard. She revealed that Eilish "suffered greatly for this beauty, hanging off a crane and dragging 25 foot long wings saturated in black slime weighing much more than her in agonizingly long takes". The stylist further added that Eilish thought of the concept and put in a lot of effort to fully understand it.
Elle Hunt of The Guardian noted that a closer inspection of the lyrics suggests that the song (and by extension, the music video) references global warming, and Eilish herself alluded to this by posting a personal note in the video description rallying her fans to attend global climate strikes on September 20 and 27, three days before the 2019 UN Climate Summit in New York City, while also asking them to support Greta Thunberg's Climate Strike. Eilish said in a statement: "There are millions of people all over the world begging our leaders to pay attention. Our earth is warming up at an unprecedented rate, icecaps are melting, our oceans are rising, our wildlife is being poisoned and our forests are burning." In September 2020, Eilish announced an "All the Good Girls Go to Hell" figure that measured six inches tall, and was affixed with giant demon wings. Her website explained the figure was in "eco-friendly" packaging that also "transforms into a dioramic display".
Synopsis[]
The music video picks up where "Bury a Friend" left off, opening with a shot of syringes being used to stab Eilish's back by a team of medical workers. She sprouts a pair of giant white wings from her back. Instead of flying around, Eilish falls down from the sky and lands on Earth into a huge oil spill, symbolizing the threat of wildlife being destroyed when human waste goes up. She gets stuck, with her white wings and eyes starting to fill with oil as she struggles to crawl out of the pit.
She tries to break free from the oil, but struggles to do so. She barely manages to escape from the oil spill and emerges, with her entire body and white wings being now covered with the black oil. Eilish stares in disbelief at the world and starts to walk towards a dimly lit, deserted dirt road as her transformation continues. As Eilish continues to walk down the road, she begins to leave a trail of oil on the ground, which soon begins catch on fire. Her now black wings also get set on fire. Eilish still continues to aimlessly stumble down the road and towards the camera. She frowns at the camera and turns around; her wings are now burnt and begin to twitch. The fire continues to spread throughout the area. Silhouettes of women dance in the fires around Eilish as she walks alone into the night.
Reception[]
Uproxx's Derrick Rossignol wrote that the visual is "full of fire and darkness". Lauren Rearick, writing for Teen Vogue, said it "might just rival the trailer for It Chapter Two as the most terrifying thing we've laid eyes." Brittany Spanos of Rolling Stone described the visual as "fiery", while both Trey Alston of MTV and Carolyn Twersky of Seventeen called it "creepy". In his review for Alternative Press, Alex Darus viewed the video as "pretty trippy". Writing for Hot Press, Selina Juengling labeled it as "spooky", "dark", and "out of this world". Bustle's Marenah Dobin stated the video is "more than just a music video." Brock Thiessen of Exclaim! wrote that the visual is "incredibly dark". Elite Daily's Sade Spence called it "weird" and "eerie", while praising the music video as a "perfectly dark visual of the hellish lyrics that seem to talk about man's inability to act right". Katrina Nattress of iHeartRadio described the video as "nightmarish". The music video was nominated at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards for the awards of Best Cinematography, Best Visual Affects, and Video For Good.
External Links[]
- Music video on YouTube