Before Birds of a Feather charted in 30 countries, closed the 2024 Summer Olympics, or dethroned Espresso as Spotify’s most-streamed track of the year, Billie Eilish and FINNEAS considered scrapping it entirely. “We overthought this more than any other track,” Billie said.
The chorus alone went through several rewrites. It was the most challenging track to sing, the most deceptively simple to write, and now one of the most adored from Hit Me Hard and Soft.
She didn’t even feel like the person singing it at the time. Billie admitted in a behind-the-scenes breakdown that she wrote Birds of a Feather from a place she was pretending to inhabit.
“This was not a happy album,” she said. “This is how I wished that I was feeling — and I wasn’t really.”
The lyrics sound like devotion with teeth. “’Til I rot away, dead and buried / ’Til I’m in the casket you carry” isn’t just poetic exaggeration.
It’s a confession disguised as romance. One Reddit user called it “a sister song to ‘I Love You’ — but this one’s scarier because she means it.”
Billie wanted the opening to hit hard. She wanted the opening to feel like a slap and a compliment at once.
“Like someone slamming you into a wall and saying: ‘You look really pretty,’” she explained.
It begins with “I want you to stay” a plea laced with hesitation. That single line set the tone for the entire song.
Billie later revealed she obsessed over getting those two opening notes exactly right.
There’s no climb or flourish, just a quiet desperation. Then comes the escalation: “’Til I rot away, dead and buried / ’Til I’m in the casket you carry.”
On paper, it sounds morbid. But in her voice, it lands more like surrender. She’s not saying it to shock. She’s saying it because she means it.
In the refrain, “Birds of a feather, we should stick together,” she leans into the idiom with just enough sweetness to disarm you.
But she follows it immediately with tension: “I said I’d never think I wasn’t better alone.”
The lyrics live in contrast. It’s connection colliding with old habits of self-protection.
Lines like “Can’t change the weather, might not be forever / But if it’s forever, it’s even better” sound whimsical, almost flippant, but the delivery undercuts the cheer.
This encapsulates the hope spoken by someone who doesn’t trust hope all that much.
Later in the second verse, the mask drops. “You’re so full of shit / Say you don’t see it, your mind’s polluted” breaks the flow wide open.
For a moment, it’s not about romance. It’s about disappointment.
But instead of letting that bitterness linger, she folds it back into longing: “I don’t want to say goodbye.”
The chorus returns, louder and more urgent: “I’ll love you ’til the day that I die / ’Til the light leaves my eyes.”
She’s not adding nuance. She’s repeating herself because there’s nothing else left to say.
It’s obsessive and devoted, and she delivers it like a confession she’s rehearsed a hundred times.
Love as intoxication. Love as overwhelm. The kind that strips your autonomy and sells it back to you as intimacy.
It’s that imbalance that fuels the video. Directed by Aidan Zamiri, the visuals show Eilish being dragged through an abandoned office building by an unseen force.
She’s not resisting, but she’s not at peace either. In her words, “It’s about being pulled through a place where you’re not supposed to be, like being dragged by a force… but you’re not fighting it. That’s love, sometimes.”
Fans saw that imagery as everything from grief to longing. One Redditor called it “co-dependent love being glamorised — classic Billie.”
Others noted the tension between the sunny synths and obsessive lyrics.
One user compared it to Fiona Apple’s work, saying “it’s the sweetness that makes the sting worse.”
And then there’s the sound. FINNEAS produced it in his home studio, layering new wave bounce with minimal percussion, letting Billie’s voice carry the weight.
She moves between breathy head voice and chestier belts with precision that sounds effortless but wasn’t.
She returned to that opening line again and again, determined to hit just two precise notes. No slide. No improvisation. Just control.
From a commercial standpoint, Birds of a Feather is one of the most successful songs of her career.
The song first landed at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, climbing to number 2 after the video dropped.
It went on to top the Billboard Global 200 and earned 5× Platinum in the US. In the UK, it reached number 2.
In Australia, it hit number 1. Across more than ten countries, it picked up Platinum or multi-Platinum certifications.
It also became the longest-charting solo track by a woman on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart, staying for 50 weeks.
Eilish closed the 2024 Summer Olympics with it, performed it on Saturday Night Live, and used it to end her Hit Me Hard and Soft tour.
It picked up Grammy nods for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Solo Performance.
Still, what keeps the song alive isn’t just the accolades. It’s the emotional misdirection woven into every line.
“Birds of a feather, we should stick together,”she sings, like it’s a lullaby.
Yet the verses are jagged. “You’re so full of shit,” she says mid-track, before folding back into “I’ll love you ’til the day that I die.”
Is it a love song? A warning? A mask for something else entirely?
It might depend on how much of yourself you see in it.
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Billie Eilish Birds of A Feather Lyrics
Intro
I want you to stay
Verse 1
I want you to stay
‘Til I’m in the grave
‘Til I rot away, dead and buried
‘Til I’m in the casket you carry
If you go, I’m goin’ too, uh
‘Cause it was always you (Alright)
And if I’m turnin’ blue, please don’t save me
Nothin’ left to lose without my baby
Refrain
Birds of a feather, we should stick together, I know
I said I’d never think I wasn’t better alone
Can’t change the weather, might not be forever
But if it’s forever, it’s even better
Pre-Chorus
And I don’t know what I’m cryin’ for
I don’t think I could love you more
It might not be long, but baby, I
[Chorus
I’ll love you ’til the day that I die
‘Til the day that I die
‘Til the light leaves my eyes
‘Til the day that I die
Verse 2
I want you to see, hmm
How you look to me, hmm
You wouldn’t believe if I told ya
You would keep the compliments I throw ya
But you’re so full of shit, uh
Tell me it’s a bit, oh
Say you don’t see it, your mind’s polluted
Say you wanna quit, don’t be stupid
Pre-Chorus
And I don’t know what I’m cryin’ for
I don’t think I could love you more
Might not be long, but baby, I
Don’t wanna say goodbye
Chorus
Birds of a feather, we should stick together, I know (‘Til the day that I die)
I said I’d never think I wasn’t better alone(‘Til the light leaves my eyes)
Can’t change the weather, might not be forever(‘Til the day that I die)
But if it’s forever, it’s even better
Post-Chorus
I knew you in another life
You had that same look in your eyes
I love you, don’t act so surprised
