Billie Eilish is moving on. ”Lost Cause”, the fourth single from the pop star’s upcoming sophomore album Happier Than Ever, details her dissatisfaction with her current relationship and her decision to break it off in order to find someone who appreciates her and, to quote the singer, “has their s— together”. The 19-year-old Grammy winner uses not-so-subtle digs and passive aggression to expose her ex’s neglect and abandonment.
The main idea here is a positive one: Billie realizes that her boyfriend does not value her, and she wants to find someone who does. She clearly cares about her soon-to-be ex, singing that she sent him flowers, but she wonders if he shares her investment in the relationship. The music video features themes of friendship and comradery, as Billie’s group of female friends surround and support her, presumably after the breakup.
While it’s good and healthy that Billie is leaving this one-sided relationship, the spiteful way in which she does it is concerning. She isn’t afraid to bring the heat when it comes to her former boyfriend, singing, “I know you think you’re such an outlaw/But you got no job”. The chorus also features Billie using “s—” and “d—” to express her anger at her unnamed ex.
The music video, showing Billie reveling in her newfound freedom by dancing and laughing in a mansion with her friends, also shows them in revealing outfits while they touch each other sensually and dance suggestively.
Billie Eilish’s self-empowerment anthem about her decision to give up on a neglectful relationship sends a good message about the importance of having a partner who values you, but does so through spite, animosity, and profanity.
Lauren Cook is serving as a 2021 summer intern for the Parenting and Youth department at Focus on the Family. She is studying film and screenwriting at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. You can get her talking for hours about anything from Star Wars to her family to how Inception was the best movie of the 2010s. But more than anything, she’s passionate about showing how every form of art in some way reflects the Gospel. Coffee is a close second.