Billions (song)

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This article is about the Caroline Polachek song. For other songs with similar names, see Billion (disambiguation) § Music.
"Billions"
Single by Caroline Polachek
from the album Desire, I Want to Turn Into You
B-side"Long Road Home"
ReleasedFebruary 9, 2022
Genre
Length4:57
LabelPerpetual Novice
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
  • Caroline Polachek
  • Danny L Harle
Caroline Polachek singles chronology
"Awful Things"
(2021) 		"Billions"
(2022) 		"Sirens"
(2022)
Music video
"Billions" on YouTube

"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[edit]

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[edit]

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 Fader's 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[edit]

Year-end lists for "Billions"
Publication List Rank Ref.
The New York Times Best Songs of 2022 22 [7]
Pitchfork The 100 Best Songs of 2022 20 [8]

Track listing[edit]

Digital single[9]

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

Charts[edit]

Chart performance for "Billions"
Chart (2022) Peak
position
UK Singles Sales (OCC)[10] 37

References[edit]

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