[2] Sawayama has called the track her favourite from the album and stated that it was written after she found out through social media that her formerly close friend had just had a baby.

[4] Channelling "the same heart-on-sleeve emotion as Stripped-era Christina Aguilera" the song features a choral bridge described as a "take 'em to church moment".

This ties the song in with the rest of the album's themes of family and cultural identity.

[6] Pitchfork placed the song at number 38 on their list of 100 best songs of 2020, with Dani Blum writing that on "Bad Friend", "Sawayama gives friend breakups their own ballad" while a "sense of shame courses through the track, undercutting her excuses".

The film noir-inspired visual was directed by Ali Kurr stars Sawayama in drag as an older Japanese businessman drowning his sorrows in a bar.