In anticipation of her upcoming album “Happier Than Ever,” talent Billie Eilish has released a track early. Titled “Your Power,” Billie Eilish’s new song mixes folk elements with her signature soft voice to bring light to the topic of abuse-of-power dynamics in relationships. Throughout the song, Eilish switches from singing in third-person to first-person; this creates the effect that she is talking about herself and others who have experienced similar imbalances of power in their relationships. At the beginning, she sings: “She said you were a hero, you played the part / But you ruined her in a year, don’t act like it was hard / And you swear you didn’t know (Didn’t know) / No wonder why you didn’t ask / She was sleeping in your clothes (In your clothes) / But now she’s got to get to class / How dare you?” These lyrics, as well as the later lyric “You said you thought she was your age / How dare you?,” speak to power imbalances through age differences. Fans in the YouTube comments of the “Your Power” music video have speculated that the twenty-two seconds of silence at the end of the video allude to a past relationship of Eilish’s with a 22-year-old man (while Eilish was in her teenage years). It certainly seems that Eilish is speaking to her own experiences on this track, especially when she sings, “I thought that I was special, you made me feel / Like it was my fault you were the devil, lost your appeal.” The first-person lyrics bring a significant feeling to the song—as if we must pay special attention to this track, because Eilish is saying something important.

Beyond the lyrics, the instrumentals and accompanying video to “Your Power” have several jarring elements. For one, the folksy feel to the instrumentals in the song is a surprising new choice for Eilish, although it does pair nicely with the rustic and warm color theme that the artist seems to have created for this album. The music video features Eilish sitting on the side of a mountain, while a huge snake slowly wraps its body more and more tightly around her. The snake itself is unquestionably a symbol for an older man attempting to control her using power dynamics. One must wonder, however, if the singer is actually beginning to be strangled towards the end of the song, and how her team managed to get the snake off of her when shooting ended. However, it is no surprise that Eilish has included such a wild element in her video, for many of her past music videos have featured similar stunts. Fans of Eilish remember this, and so it is no surprise that the “Your Power” music video has generated 47 million views in a week. 

In a similar fashion, the track itself has gotten nearly 40 million listens on Spotify, and this is just the beginning. The full album “Happier Than Ever” comes out on July 30. On Instagram, Eilish stated that the album was her “favorite thing (she’d) ever created.” Billie, we are all looking forward to hearing it! Whether this will be a full folk album, her usual pop, or a mixture of different genres remains to be seen. All we know is this: when it comes to Miss Eilish, expect the unexpected.