Only A Lifetime

Album: Optimist (2021)
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Songfacts®:

  • Like many artists, Finneas spent much of his COVID quarantine writing songs. This piano-driven track finds him taking a positive view of the strange time. Rather than bemoaning the enforced isolation, he determines to make the most of lockdown, as we've only got one lifetime. "A lot of people were pacing around their houses, praying for lockdown to be lifted, and waiting for the vaccine," Finneas stated. "I had a sudden realization - I might really miss this calm time I had with my family and my girlfriend. I was trying to remind myself to stay present and stay engaged no matter what is going on."
  • After several busy years working on his own material, the projects of his sister, Billie Eilish, and much, much more, Finneas appreciated slowing down. "I'm going on hikes with my dog, I'm cooking dinner with my girlfriend every night, I'm making an album with my sister," he told MTV News. "You need to stop taking this for granted, because a couple years from now, you're going to look back and you're going to miss this. You're genuinely going to miss this period."
  • Frequent collaborator Sam Bennett directed the video, which sees Finneas walking around an aquarium. Towards the end, the singer meets up with Eilish and presumably their parents. Bennett filmed the clip in one take at Long Beach, California's Aquarium of the Pacific.

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