Oxytocin (song)
"Oxytocin" is a song by American singer-songwriter Billie Eilish from her second studio album Happier Than Ever released on July 30, 2021, through Darkroom and Interscope Records.
Sonically, it drew comparisons to works of Crystal Castles, Grimes, Nine Inch Nails, and Timbaland, as well as to Eilish's debut studio album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
Described as fan favorite,[1] "Oxytocin" received widespread acclaim from music critics praising its production, sentiment and vocal delivery.
[7][8] In an interview with The Guardian, Eilish talked about inspiration for the track, saying that "[t]here was flashing in [her] head", adding that she had sex images in her mind during the recording.
[26] The song contains a "techno pulse", "bursts of atonal synth",[18] "upbeat",[27] "heavy" and "eerie" bass,[28] "lo-fi beats",[29] "club groove",[30] "evocative vocal echoes",[15] and "hypnotic rhythm".
[9][33] In the first verse, Eilish is "exploring the more raunchy side of a hookup", using the couplet, "If you only pray on Sunday, could you come my way on Monday / 'Cause I like to do things God doesn't approve of if she saw us".
[36] Writing for NME, El Hunt linked "Oxytocin" to the "futuristic sound" of Eilish's debut studio album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
[31] Another comparison to Eilish's debut album material was made in Hot Press article, where Ed Power called "Oxytocin" reminiscent of "Bad Guy", but with "some dubstep in its soul", additionally noting that the song has a "lurching" groove.
[22] The track was also heavily compared to the singer's earlier number in articles published on The Ringer,[37] with the website's Rob Harvilla describing it as "the fastest, loudest, most hypnotic, and disruptive moment on [the album]".
[38] Rolling Stone's Brittany Spanos called its beat "slinky",[7] while for the same publication, Angie Martoccio said that the song "should absolutely be made into a genre of its own".
[28] ABC News' Mark Kennedy opined that the track starts off as "sexy come-on", which he called "appropriate" due to how the hormone the song got its name from controls reproduction.
[40] In an article published by Gigwise, "Oxytocin" was paired with "Billie Bossa Nova" as a sign of "mature, more sultry evolution in Eilish's content".
[43] Chris Willman of Variety complimented the song, since it "leans in harder on a beat to get you on your feet, it's a welcome breath of hot air",[3] while the Los Angeles Times' Mikael Wood said that "[Eilish] rides a jackhammering club groove with giddy menace".
[30] Alex Swhear from Flood Magazine said that the track "nods at the sharp-edged propulsion of her early singles just as the listener becomes convinced that sort of thing won't be arriving".
[45][11] Ahlgrim of Insider said that the track reminds her of a "neon-lit club" with "Eilish in the center"—"powerful and magnetic"—comparing it to the energy consumed by a supermassive black hole.
[14] In AllMusic, Neil Z. Yeung opined that the track "[throbs] to life with deep bass and a thick beat", calling it "lustful" and a "club hit in the making".
[47] For Atwood Magazine, Mariel Fechik described the song as a "dark club track", and depicted that it adds "much needed gut-punch to the album's first half".
[48] Paste's Jason Friedman called the song the "steamiest and sexiest track the songwriter has released thus far", which contains the same "energic magic" that defined Eilish's biggest hits "promising to demolish nightclub dance-floors when (if?)
[2] Naming the track "ethereal" and "unexpected album highlight," Holly Mosley of Contact Music wrote that it "make[s] us yearn for the dance floor".
[14] Quinn Moreland of Pitchfork called "Oxytocin" an "obvious hit", writing that the song "places Eilish's famous breathy whispers deep inside the walls of a dark, steamy club", and that it "starts off sultry, all body rolls, before it turns on a dime and launches itself out a window in a blitz of abrasive synths à la Crystal Castles or early Grimes".
[16] PopMatters' John Amen and DIY's Lisa Wright also labelled "Oxytocin" as an album "highlight", with the latter further writing "juddering beats and disorientating vocals are the kind of strange, prickly track that no-one else in the world could come up with right now: a combination that's technically jarring, but that somehow coalesces into a banger that will absolutely kick off on the live stage", whilst according to the former it is a "swingy, stoner-ish track built around busy percussive elements and Eilish's steamy and slightly strained vocal.
The former's review reads "Pulsating with currents of steely [19]90s-industrial and techno sounds, this Happier Than Ever B-side gets its name from the so-called love hormone emitted during sex — which Eilish craves, and fears herself for craving"; whilst the latter says that the track is "masterfully orchestrates dynamic shading and opens up a dark, slick electronic playground that's well-suited to her paper-thin vocals.
[75] The performance starts off with an animated sequence, where Eilish's character rides a Porsche, while the in-real-life gig took place at the Hollywood Bowl.
