Billie Eilish "Party Favor" (2018 Record Store Day single)
On Record Store Day 2018, Billie Eilish issued a 7-inch single, pressed in pink vinyl and limited to 2,000 copies, featuring an acoustic version of her song “Party Favor” on the A-side, and a similarly acoustic cover of Drake’s “Hotline Bling” on the B-side. The teenaged alternative pop artist often performs these two songs together live, presumably because cell phones figure prominently in the lyrics of both songs. Now that Eilish has become a chart-topping, Grammy-winning sensation, this limited-edition single has become quite pricey on the collector’s market.
The acoustic version of “Party Favor”, the original version of which appeared on Eilish’s 2017 EP dont smile at me, finds Eilish strumming her ukulele and singing without the studio effects, with mild musical accompaniment by her brother/producer Finneas O’Connell (who makes his own recordings under the name FINNEAS). This track presents a scaled-back variant of the EP’s Lorde-meets-Lana Del Rey aesthetic; Eilish sounds particularly Lana-like when she softly sings the words: “You know that’s bullsh--, Don’t you babe”. (This recording is not based on the Clean Version of the song). Her cover of Drake’s “Hotline Bling” on the B-side is cleaner than Drake’s hip hop original, and is musically preferable to it. It has the same basic laid-back ukulele-based sound as the single’s A-side, although Eilish’s vocals are given more studio enhancement on this track. The youngster sounds lonelier on this single than on the preceding EP, hinting at the darker and whispery tones that would soon dominate her 2019 full-length album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?.
Billie Eilish “Party Favor” b/w “Hotline Bling” (single) (Darkroom/Interscope B0028017-21) 2018
Track Listing:
a. Party Favor
b. Hotline Bling
The acoustic version of “Party Favor”, the original version of which appeared on Eilish’s 2017 EP dont smile at me, finds Eilish strumming her ukulele and singing without the studio effects, with mild musical accompaniment by her brother/producer Finneas O’Connell (who makes his own recordings under the name FINNEAS). This track presents a scaled-back variant of the EP’s Lorde-meets-Lana Del Rey aesthetic; Eilish sounds particularly Lana-like when she softly sings the words: “You know that’s bullsh--, Don’t you babe”. (This recording is not based on the Clean Version of the song). Her cover of Drake’s “Hotline Bling” on the B-side is cleaner than Drake’s hip hop original, and is musically preferable to it. It has the same basic laid-back ukulele-based sound as the single’s A-side, although Eilish’s vocals are given more studio enhancement on this track. The youngster sounds lonelier on this single than on the preceding EP, hinting at the darker and whispery tones that would soon dominate her 2019 full-length album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?.
Billie Eilish “Party Favor” b/w “Hotline Bling” (single) (Darkroom/Interscope B0028017-21) 2018
Track Listing:
a. Party Favor
b. Hotline Bling
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