Billions (song)

"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).

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

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 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
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

Digital single[9]

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

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

References
  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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