Billions (song) explained

Billions
Cover:Caroline Polachek - Billions.png
Type:single
Artist:Caroline Polachek
Album:Desire, I Want to Turn Into You
B-Side:"Long Road Home"
Released:February 9, 2022
Genre:
Label:Perpetual Novice
Prev Title:Awful Things
Prev Year:2021
Next Title:Sirens
Next Year:2022
Chronology:Caroline Polachek

"Billions" is a song by American singer-songwriter and record producer Caroline Polachek. It was released on February 9, 2022 as the second single from Polachek's fourth album, Desire, I Want to Turn Into You (2023).

Background and composition

Polachek played the song live on her Heart is Unbreaking US tour in late 2021, and on several fall 2021 festival dates before the single was officially released.

A September 2021 New Yorker profile on Polachek explained the song's backstory as follows:

[…] One day, Danny L Harle sent her a beat that he'd written, and Polachek heard a melody out of nowhere, oceanic and potent, and started jotting down psychedelic images: a headless angel, an overflowing cup, a pearl inside an oyster. The beat and the images became the song "Billions". [Polachek said she] "wanted something that captured the afterglow of a reopening."[2]

As the B-side of the single, Polachek released a reworked version of "Long Road Home", her collaboration with Oneohtrix Point Never from his 2020 album Magic Oneohtrix Point Never.[3]

Reception

The song was met with widespread critical acclaim. Pitchfork named the song a 'Best New Track', and in a review contributor Gio Santiago wrote that "Billions" is "a lucent pathway towards a new era for the pop auteur".[4] The Faders Jordan Daville wrote that, with "Billions", Harle and Polachek created "a kind of divine symmetry from its elements, channeling Pure Moods-era new age into something utterly splendid".[5] Kat Bouza from Rolling Stone described "Billions" as "a trip-hop inspired, hallucinogenic epic that finds the songwriter expanding upon the inventive production style perfected on her critically acclaimed 2019 album, Pang."[6]

Year-end lists

Year-end lists for "Billions"!Publication!List!Rank!Ref.
The New York TimesBest Songs of 202222[7]
PitchforkThe 100 Best Songs of 202220[8]

Track listing

Digital single[9]

  1. "Billions" – 4:57
  2. "Long Road Home" (featuring Oneohtrix Point Never) – 3:44

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Pitchfork Staff . The Best Progressive Pop Music of 2022 . . December 13, 2022. December 20, 2022.
  2. Web site: September 9, 2021. After a Year Without Crowds, Caroline Polachek Takes the Stage. December 4, 2022. The New Yorker. en-US.
  3. Web site: CAROLINE POLACHEK CONTEMPLATES THE OVERABUNDANCE OF THE WORLD ON “BILLIONS” . Jasper . Willems . September 9, 2022. September 9, 2022. Beats Per Minute.
  4. Web site: Caroline Polachek: "Billions". December 4, 2022. Pitchfork. en-US.
  5. Web site: Caroline Polachek shares new song "Billions". December 4, 2022. The FADER. en.
  6. Web site: Bouza. Kat. February 10, 2022. Caroline Polachek Surrenders to the Sublime on Esoteric Single 'Billions'. December 4, 2022 . Rolling Stone. en-US.
  7. Web site: Best Songs of 2022. The New York Times. Jon. Pareles. December 7, 2022. April 24, 2023. en-US.
  8. Web site: The 100 Best Songs of 2022. Pitchfork. December 5, 2022. April 24, 2023. en-US.
  9. Web site: Billions – Single by Caroline Polachek . Apple Music (US) . February 9, 2022. en-US . December 4, 2022.
  10. Web site: Official Singles Sales Chart Top 100. Official Charts Company. November 4, 2022.

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