FINNEAS is most widely known for his work with his megastar sister Billie Eilish, but for five years now he’s been releasing his own solo music on the side. This year he’s preparing for the release of his long-awaited official debut album Optimist. He’s already shared the opening track “A Concert Six Months From Now,” and now the producer-singer has shared the second single, “The 90s.”
FINNEAS is aware of the rampant ’90s nostalgia that’s overtaken our culture the last couple years, but “The 90s” focuses on a time when we weren’t logged on 24/7, when the internet was a rare household item. Over a heart-pulsing bass, FINNEAS sings about all the time that gets rotted away online with obsessive worry. Things have been bad for a while, but now monstrosities seem normal, and constant awareness from the internet brings a new kind of helplessness and increasing sense of doom. “I think about the ’90s, when the future was a testament / To something beautiful and shiny / Now, we’re only counting down the time that’s left,” he sings with clarity during one verse. Later, his voice is draped in heavy Auto-Tune similar to 22, a Million–era Bon Iver. For the final third of the track, it falls into a screeching bass drop that feels cathartic.
For the track’s video, directed by Sam Bennett with choreography by Monika Felice Smith, FINNEAS pivots from the position of Rodin’s The Thinker to walking around a photo studio pensively singing about a time that seemed less awful. The studio transforms from a bright, sparse atmosphere to a dark, windy room where he’s carried off by a storm. Dancers with umbrellas move poetically as he’s brought back to that initial contemplative position. The storm brews inside and outside his mind.
Watch “The 90s” below and pre-order his album here.
