"Teardrops" is a song by British rock band Bring Me the Horizon. Produced by the band's vocalist Oliver Sykes and keyboardist Jordan Fish, it was released as the fourth and final single from the group's 2020 commercial release Post Human: Survival Horror on 22 October 2020.[1][2]
Promotion and release
After an announcement regarding information for a September 2021 UK arena tour was released, the band revealed a teaser for the new music video for "Teardrops" that would be dropped the following day.[3]
"Teardrops" has been described by critics as a nu metal,[4][5]metalcore,[6][7]hard rock,[8][9]alternative rock,[10][11] and an emo song.[12] It was written by the band's lead vocalist Oliver Sykes and keyboardist Jordan Fish. The song talks about kids growing up in today's age with tech addiction being commonplace and the problems of it. It also talks about depression and anxiety. The music video represents Sykes’ struggles with his mental health and drug abuse, but he overpassed it because of his bandmates. According to an interview with NME, the song is Oliver Sykes' personal favourite on Post Human: Survival Horror.[1] During the production of "Teardrops", Sykes tried to convince Jordan Fish to incorporate elephant trumpet noises into the song. Initially done as a joke, Sykes and Fish opted to sneak the sound into the song and heavily pitched and played with the reverb to disguise the obvious noises to fit in with the rest of the song, it first notably happens at around 10 seconds into the song.[13]
Musically, "Teardrops" sets inspiration from the typical nu-metal genre and the song is compared by music critics mostly to old Linkin Park's sound.[4] It was also noted that the chord progression of "Teardrops" took inspiration from the aforementioned band's "Somewhere I Belong" on Linkin Park's Meteora that was released in 2003.[14] Speaking about the song overall, Sykes explains his thoughts on "Teardrops" at the time of release:
"I'm so excited to get this single out, it feels like a classic Bring Me the Horizon tune but without it feeling like anything we've done before. I feel like 'Teardrops' is some of the best work we've ever done, musically and lyrically as whole."[15]
Additionally, Sykes would explain his thought process on the meaning behind "Teardrops" in an interview with BBC Radio 1:
"Tech addiction is so normal for us these days. We're addicted to our phones, addicted to our computers, to media, the news. We wake up in the morning, and no one says 'You shouldn't check your phone first thing in the morning, and just look at bad news or social media.' No one tells us that. That's like inviting thousands of chatty strangers to your bedroom at like 7:05. We're all in the same boat, so no one really likes talking about it. But the mental impact of the way we're living now, the way our society is, I don't think we've really seen the after effects or the repercussions of that and I think we will soon. This song is about how our moral compass is a little bit skewed because we're so numb to the bad news every single day and it's hard to know what we should actually do about that. I think it's very dangerous because when we hear these stories of oppression, tragedies or whatever. It's like: Do I scream? Do I shout? Do I tell someone? Do I fight about it or do I sit down? We're losing our touch with how to react to this stuff. I mean, I'm feeling that as a 33 year old man. You have kids, who, for them it's completely acceptable and normal to live how we're living right now. I don't know how to deal with that."[16]
Post Human: Survival Horror was released on 30 October, which would help keep "Teardrops" steadily in the Top 100 for the following two weeks, 49 and 90, before dropping out of the charts completely on 20 November 2020.[22] Simultaneously, "Teardrops" would debut atop the UK Rock & Metal Singles Chart and stay top of the charts for two weeks.[23] It would chart for nine consecutive weeks, before dropping out on 1 January 2021, before re-entering the following week at number 38 on 8 January 2021 after all the Christmas songs dropped off the charts.[24][25] It would bumble in and out of the Top 40 in January and the beginning of February, spending a combined total of 12 non-consecutive weeks on the UK Rock & Metal Singles chart before dropping out completely on 12 February 2021.[26]
The music video for "Teardrops" was released on the same day as the single. Directed by Sykes himself, the video takes inspirations from his battle with depression during the lockdown period, in which this would be represented in the scenes with him drowning.[28]
The video would start off with Sykes sitting on a bed, before sinking into the bed into an ocean of water, in which he would sing as he's drowning. This would be shown in between cuts of him sinking into a bathtub and going crazy. It would later be shown that a figure was the one drowning Sykes into the water and creeping over him while he's sleeping in bed. Eventually, Sykes is pulled up out of the water by the helping hand of Jordan Fish and then joins the rest of his bandmates for the rest of the song.
In popular culture
A heavily censored radio edit of "Teardrops" was included in the video game soundtrack for the Xbox exclusive Forza Horizon 5.[29]
^ abBrown, Paul (25 October 2020). "Bring Me The Horizon – Post Human: Survival Horror (EP Review)". Wall of Sound. Retrieved 1 November 2020. New single 'Teardrops' is next and speaking about Linkin Park, the band definitely pay homage to LP/Chester Bennington with this nu-metal mad track that's like something lifted off Meteora (without Mr Hahn's DJ scratching).
^Laposka, Rachel (23 October 2020). "Shed some 'teardrops' with Bring Me The Horizon". Prowler News. Retrieved 17 January 2022. "Teardrops," along with the other two singles Bring Me The Horizon released this year, has guided the band back to their metalcore origin.
^"Bring Me The Horizon - Teardrops Video". Contact Music. 22 October 2020. Retrieved 24 February 2022. It felt like a strange departure, and even a devastating one for BMTH's most hardcore fans, but rest assured they are back to their metalcore roots now.
^McCluskey, Ryan (12 November 2020). "One Line Review: 'Teardrops' – Bring Me The Horizon". Insanity Radio. Retrieved 6 September 2021. After a widely criticised tonal shift with their previous album, it seems that BMTH have gone back to their roots – if its not broken, don't fix it. A winning formula of hard rock and a strong vocal performance throughout shows that they know what really works for them.
^Knight, George (2 September 2021). "REVIEW: Bring Me The Horizon - Post Human: Survival Horror". Thunderchord. Retrieved 17 September 2021. It is a stand-out on the record but it is no match for the titanic nu-metal adrenaline of "Teardrops" which is a hard rock anthem right at the top of the pile.
^"Bring Me The Horizon - Teardrops Video". Contact Music. 22 October 2020. Retrieved 24 February 2022. It seems Bring Me The Horizon have well and truly returned to the comforts of their alt-rock sensibilities with their 2020 single releases, the latest being 'Teardrops' which has an accompanying video so emo that we had to check it wasn't 2007.
^Trendell, Andrew (27 September 2021). "Bring Me The Horizon live in London: a spectacular cyber-punk circus". NME. Retrieved 2 October 2021. "Are you fucking ready, London?" squawks Sykes before the band burst into the raved-up emo of 'teardrops' from last year's Post Human: Survival Horror – the first of four EPs/mini albums in their Post Human project.
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Digital Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Change the chart to CZ – SINGLES DIGITAL – TOP 100 and insert 202045 into search. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
