My Strange Addiction

Album: When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (2019)
Charted: 43
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Songfacts®:

  • Many of Billie Eilish's lyrics are ambiguous enough to allow the listener their own interpretation. During this intense and vibrant track the teenage singer talks to someone else about her compulsion to be with them without specifying who or what they are.

    You are my strange addiction
    My doctors can't explain
    My symptoms or my pain
    But you are my strange addiction


    Eilish leaves it up to us to decide if she's singing about a love or a different obsession.
  • The song is fused with multiple dialogue clips from the "Threat Level Midnight" season 7 episode of The Office. Eilish has long expressed her fandom for NBC's sitcom, and during her first headlining tour, the teenage singer opened each set by playing the show's theme song while coming on stage.
  • The song starts off with The Office character Michael Scott unveiling his self-made secret agent film after years of referencing it within the series. He also speaks to somebody who shares the singer's first name.

    No, Billie, I haven't done that dance since my wife died
    There's a whole crowd of people out there who need to learn how to do The Scarn


    The Scarn is a dance named after Scott's fictional spy hero. The rest of the song features interpolations of dialogue from Office characters. Eilish explained to MTV News:

    "When we made the beat for 'my strange addiction,' it reminded me of the song they play when they do the Scarn dance. I thought that was really funny, so we literally just ripped the audio from Netflix and put it in the song, not at all thinking that they would say yes to it and we'd be able to put it out. Also, it's about strange addictions, and The Office is mine, so."

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