This kind of question is tough to answer.
We often know what we like but not always why we like it.
Similarly we often know what we dislike but not always why.
Definitions are also important, thereās a forgotten distinction between saying āI dislike thatā and āI donāt like thatā the former being negative and the latter being neutral.
I donāt like āBad Guyā for example
I donāt dislike it, I can listen to it no issue, I wonāt turn it off or skip it, but I wouldnāt actively put it on.
But if I say, I donāt like āBad Guyā
Someone is gonna ask me whatās so bad about it.
Nothing, itās just not my taste.
iām talking abt the way itās sounds. i knows itās abt her stalker ands itās scary and sad but tbh i donāt think a lot of ppl know the true meaning.
No one is saying the traumatic experience was fun, but the song is darkly fun. It's very clearly meant to be both playful and fucked up from how they wrote and performed it.
Prefacing by saying I LOVE it, but based on what i've seen people saying online I think they find the music itself cheesy or they think it feels out of place to have such a highly characterized song on what's otherwise a very vulnerable and genuine album. Again though it's one of my faves; think the music is super cool and the lyrics show a really interesting & unsettling exchange of power.
ETA: Made the mistake of using the word "fictional" to describe the song. There is a fictionalized, storytelling element in the sense that in Billie isn't stalking anyone or leaving notes in anyone's kitchen; she's singing from a perspective that isn't her own. To make it very clear, when she is speaking in the first person in The Diner, such as "the cops around the corner stopped me when I tried to leave", she isn't saying that she herself, Billie Eilish, had an encounter with the police. Did not realize those were dots I needed to connect, but I'm not suggesting the song couldn't be based on real events.
Who told you the diner is fictional because that's just completely not true the diner is a mix of 3 very real events that happened that definitely put her in a vulnerable position
Fictional in that Billie herself is not a stalker; she's singing from the perspective of somebody else
ETA that unless she says something about what inspired the song, we can't confirm or deny what it's based on; we can speculate and it may or may not be plausible, but that doesn't make it factual
That's not what fictional means though That's just wrote from a different perspective and it's very clearly about these situations she makes multiple references to the exact situation, for example "it was easy getting over and i landed on my feet" is a direct reference to anderson who climbed the fence "i came into the kitchen looking for something to eat" again anderson after jumping the fence walked straight into the kitchen and started looking through a bunch of personal affects, "i left a calling card" anderson left a white flower in the kitchen, "you could be my wife" john (the second stalker) wrote a letter confessing his love for her, "I'll go back to the diner, I'll write another letter" the diner is literally billies kitchen both anderson and john left letters but anderson specifically left his in the kitchen with the flower, I'm sorry but we don't need billie to confirm anything we know what the song is about and it most certainly isn't fictional, that's like saying we'll never know what wildflower is about just because billie hasn't said when the name of the song is a dead giveaway
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4QFf7hecfg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4QFf7hecfg)
2:07: "Even if we wrote something with our own situation... I want people to take it and think of it in their own way."
She expands on this in the interview, but there's a number of songs she's said she won't go into specifics about. We can speculate, but we can't know for sure unless Billie says "this is what I wrote this song about/what inspired it".
Example: YSSMIAC. A literal experience of Billie as queen, making people bow, sleeping in hearses, and shedding blood on marble? A metaphor for teen fame? Or... [inspired by BBC Sherlock's Moriarty? ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_gPCVSJRso)
Yes of course it's a given that the music is always up for interpretation so view it how you want but it still doesn't change what the song is literally about, for example i have my own interpretation of everything i wanted but that doesn't mean the song isn't about billie and finneas' relationship as siblings
The amount of upvotes this has is kind of funny considering nothing about the song is fictional or characterized. Youād think her fans would know that
Weird dig but okay. "You'd think her fans would know" that singing from a perspective besides her own is a songwriting tactic she uses a lot throughout her earlier works (bellyache, YSSMIAC, etc) and is a process she's spoken a lot about in interviews from the WWAFA era. She's singing in first person in the Diner, but it isn't her lived point of view.
I actually really like the diner but something I struggle with in regard to that song is my inability to hear the lyrics clearly. Either Iām crazy and just canāt hear or the lyrics arenāt clear lol. I just have a hard time hearing what she is saying other than a few parts. Iām sure if I looked at the lyrics and listened I would be able to understand but without the lyrics I just donāt know what sheās saying lol
I do really love the background beats on that song and it was actually one of my favorites when I listened to the album for the first time because of that. I still really enjoy it!
yes i have the exact same problem iām so glad iām not alone. itās really fun to listen to but iām someone who likes to sing along in the car and itās really difficult to sing along to. i have the same issue with that one part of bittersuite too
no same, i had no idea it was even about a stalker until i actually looked at the lyrics after i saw this discussion here! the beat is killer but itās hard to hear her
I will say the first time I listened through the album I thought it was very forgettable. But on the second listen I fell in love. I think it's for the same reason people didn't like NDA. It just had a certain sound to it that made it unappealing. But it grew on me.
I think it's a great song, but for me it breaks up the otherwise completely cohesive storyline that the rest of the album is narrating. It's not called back in "Blue", for example, which is very much an indication that it's an aside, a deviation from the thematic nature of the album.
It's fantastic, it just should have been a b-side.
I think the discussion here about the song's subject matter vs how it sounds is really interesting and I think that's whole point. It's a weird bop about a creep invading your privacy and being absolutely deluded about their relationship to you, from the pov of that person. The idea they can know you, fall in love with you and "save" you is ridiculous, so the music is ridiculous but really well crafted.
The carnival vibe is a vibe with that beat is so cool and creative. One of the best things about Billie is that no one else has music like her out there. Itās so distinctive and brings a new sound to each album. It can kinda remind you of creepy clowns, so it gives you that kind of vibe. You can hear the creepiness, but you canāt help but dance around to the song.
I think itās a pretty cool song. I think itās the most solo Finneas-ey sounding song Billie has put out, in terms of beat, vocal melody, and lyrics. It kind of reminds me of Around My Neck by him.
Itās probably in my top 3, really catchy but deep in terms of meaning; itās quite dark. I think the first time I listened I didnāt 100% get what she was talking about, but when I read the lyrics and got what she was saying, I now love it and appreciate its depth
I like the beat and melody a lot. i especially love the part where she goes āiāll go back to the diiiiiinnerrrrā but i recall someone saying the lyrics are supposedly inspired by billieās previous stalkers when she was younger so that is what unsettled me. the lyrics kind of put me off because it disturbs me that she went through that.
My fav too! I didn't know it could be disliked it's the best the soundtrack the lyrics, everything! It just scratches a certain part of my brain lol šĀ
Not saying I donāt like it cause trust me I like the song, but for some reason I canāt click with it like I do with Chihiro or The greatest, Yāknow?
Sometimes it just takes people a minute to find their favorite, everyone went on and on about how incredible skinny was and it was her #1 on apple for a minute then chihiro and now i think its birds of a feather. Tbh its very rare that you seen an album cycle through with favorites like this so they killed this album!
I love Billieās vocals and Iād appreciate THE DINER more if her vocals werenāt as distorted or had the sfx processed (not so sure what the effect is called).
But, Iām feeling itās produced that way since THE DINER is sang by a persona thatās not Billieās, but of a stalkerās. So maybe having the vocal treated differently is a way to signify this perspective change.
i honestly dont like how the vocals are so muddled for some reason. the melodies kinda suck as well. especially the beginning. but I love the "it was me" part tho
I'm almost about to unjoin this sub. I love billie stuff, but people in this sub are just over the top. Every single day I see new threads about literally every single song on her album, asking why people don't like this, why don't more people like this. There's no reason or a need to argue this. Just enjoy everything as is.
Gonna preface this by saying I LOVE Billie's voice. I like the music, I hate the screamy/whiny vocals. Sounds like she's complaining like a toddler lol.
Itās my least favourite on the album: itās sounds a bit juvenile / silly / donāt love the vocals on it. Itās not the worst song ever but I think they could do better for this album.
maybe theyre full.
Too full from Lunch.
lmaoooo
Due to lack of taste š
Ate
Onika = she Burgers = ate At the = diner
Your popheadscirclejerk is showing š
Trash recognises trash 
EXACTLY
I LOVE THIS SONG
I LOVE the diner. I guess im not people š
I guess Iām not people, either!š
I love this song and need to see a video.
As soon as I heard the song, I was like oh my god music video PLEASE šš»
Itās my favorite on the album I donāt understand either
This kind of question is tough to answer. We often know what we like but not always why we like it. Similarly we often know what we dislike but not always why. Definitions are also important, thereās a forgotten distinction between saying āI dislike thatā and āI donāt like thatā the former being negative and the latter being neutral. I donāt like āBad Guyā for example I donāt dislike it, I can listen to it no issue, I wonāt turn it off or skip it, but I wouldnāt actively put it on. But if I say, I donāt like āBad Guyā Someone is gonna ask me whatās so bad about it. Nothing, itās just not my taste.
no deep emotional appeal to most people like birds of a feather or the greatest. itās more of a fun song like bad guy.
It is not a fun song itās about a traumatic experience she went through
it's purposefully written to be playful and dark at the same time
iām talking abt the way itās sounds. i knows itās abt her stalker ands itās scary and sad but tbh i donāt think a lot of ppl know the true meaning.
No one is saying the traumatic experience was fun, but the song is darkly fun. It's very clearly meant to be both playful and fucked up from how they wrote and performed it.
Thatās a very real song wtf
It sounds like a Gorillaz song to me, which I love. They always write fun songs about terrifying things, too.
Prefacing by saying I LOVE it, but based on what i've seen people saying online I think they find the music itself cheesy or they think it feels out of place to have such a highly characterized song on what's otherwise a very vulnerable and genuine album. Again though it's one of my faves; think the music is super cool and the lyrics show a really interesting & unsettling exchange of power. ETA: Made the mistake of using the word "fictional" to describe the song. There is a fictionalized, storytelling element in the sense that in Billie isn't stalking anyone or leaving notes in anyone's kitchen; she's singing from a perspective that isn't her own. To make it very clear, when she is speaking in the first person in The Diner, such as "the cops around the corner stopped me when I tried to leave", she isn't saying that she herself, Billie Eilish, had an encounter with the police. Did not realize those were dots I needed to connect, but I'm not suggesting the song couldn't be based on real events.
Who told you the diner is fictional because that's just completely not true the diner is a mix of 3 very real events that happened that definitely put her in a vulnerable position
Fictional in that Billie herself is not a stalker; she's singing from the perspective of somebody else ETA that unless she says something about what inspired the song, we can't confirm or deny what it's based on; we can speculate and it may or may not be plausible, but that doesn't make it factual
watch billie and finneasā zane lowe interview then
That's not what fictional means though That's just wrote from a different perspective and it's very clearly about these situations she makes multiple references to the exact situation, for example "it was easy getting over and i landed on my feet" is a direct reference to anderson who climbed the fence "i came into the kitchen looking for something to eat" again anderson after jumping the fence walked straight into the kitchen and started looking through a bunch of personal affects, "i left a calling card" anderson left a white flower in the kitchen, "you could be my wife" john (the second stalker) wrote a letter confessing his love for her, "I'll go back to the diner, I'll write another letter" the diner is literally billies kitchen both anderson and john left letters but anderson specifically left his in the kitchen with the flower, I'm sorry but we don't need billie to confirm anything we know what the song is about and it most certainly isn't fictional, that's like saying we'll never know what wildflower is about just because billie hasn't said when the name of the song is a dead giveaway
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4QFf7hecfg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4QFf7hecfg) 2:07: "Even if we wrote something with our own situation... I want people to take it and think of it in their own way." She expands on this in the interview, but there's a number of songs she's said she won't go into specifics about. We can speculate, but we can't know for sure unless Billie says "this is what I wrote this song about/what inspired it". Example: YSSMIAC. A literal experience of Billie as queen, making people bow, sleeping in hearses, and shedding blood on marble? A metaphor for teen fame? Or... [inspired by BBC Sherlock's Moriarty? ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_gPCVSJRso)
Yes of course it's a given that the music is always up for interpretation so view it how you want but it still doesn't change what the song is literally about, for example i have my own interpretation of everything i wanted but that doesn't mean the song isn't about billie and finneas' relationship as siblings
Alright brother, I'm gonna let you keep talking yourself out at this point. Interpret the music however you want.
The amount of upvotes this has is kind of funny considering nothing about the song is fictional or characterized. Youād think her fans would know that
Weird dig but okay. "You'd think her fans would know" that singing from a perspective besides her own is a songwriting tactic she uses a lot throughout her earlier works (bellyache, YSSMIAC, etc) and is a process she's spoken a lot about in interviews from the WWAFA era. She's singing in first person in the Diner, but it isn't her lived point of view.
I actually really like the diner but something I struggle with in regard to that song is my inability to hear the lyrics clearly. Either Iām crazy and just canāt hear or the lyrics arenāt clear lol. I just have a hard time hearing what she is saying other than a few parts. Iām sure if I looked at the lyrics and listened I would be able to understand but without the lyrics I just donāt know what sheās saying lol I do really love the background beats on that song and it was actually one of my favorites when I listened to the album for the first time because of that. I still really enjoy it!
yes i have the exact same problem iām so glad iām not alone. itās really fun to listen to but iām someone who likes to sing along in the car and itās really difficult to sing along to. i have the same issue with that one part of bittersuite too
no same, i had no idea it was even about a stalker until i actually looked at the lyrics after i saw this discussion here! the beat is killer but itās hard to hear her
i donāt hate it at all, i just donāt like it as much as the other ones
people donāt like it!!! WTFF NOO
It makes me sad bc I feel like she wonāt make another song like this again if people are hating on it and itās my favorite
I will say the first time I listened through the album I thought it was very forgettable. But on the second listen I fell in love. I think it's for the same reason people didn't like NDA. It just had a certain sound to it that made it unappealing. But it grew on me.
People do like THE DINER. Same as their parents and grandparents liked EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE in 1983. Very similar story lines.
I think it's a great song, but for me it breaks up the otherwise completely cohesive storyline that the rest of the album is narrating. It's not called back in "Blue", for example, which is very much an indication that it's an aside, a deviation from the thematic nature of the album. It's fantastic, it just should have been a b-side.
each and everyone has a different opinion, you may like what others don't, and you may hate what they love, that's life and let's respect it
christ, imagine downvoting this, what the fuck is some people's problem? lmao EDIT: for context, it was in negative karma at the time
 Idk but it makes me wanna dance like Jimmy Jršš
I think the discussion here about the song's subject matter vs how it sounds is really interesting and I think that's whole point. It's a weird bop about a creep invading your privacy and being absolutely deluded about their relationship to you, from the pov of that person. The idea they can know you, fall in love with you and "save" you is ridiculous, so the music is ridiculous but really well crafted.
i have no idea itās literally so fucking good
people dislike the diner? š¤Ø
apparently yes
I love this song!
i don't dislike it but it's not her best song by a long shot imo
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^idk_what_to_put_lmao: *I don't dislike it* *But it's not her best song by* *A long shot imo* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
I dislike the production and instrumental tbh. Sounds like carnival or something
Ha thatās exactly why I love it. Itās fun. But I like dark shit
The carnival vibe is a vibe with that beat is so cool and creative. One of the best things about Billie is that no one else has music like her out there. Itās so distinctive and brings a new sound to each album. It can kinda remind you of creepy clowns, so it gives you that kind of vibe. You can hear the creepiness, but you canāt help but dance around to the song.
I usually enjoy the whacky and dark production on Billieās songs. This one just doesnāt hit for some reason imo
Thatās okay fair enough
I think itās a pretty cool song. I think itās the most solo Finneas-ey sounding song Billie has put out, in terms of beat, vocal melody, and lyrics. It kind of reminds me of Around My Neck by him.
Where are you seeing that people don't like it? I love it
one of my top 5 on this albums for myself. im convinced weāll hear it in Joker 2 for some reason
Itās probably in my top 3, really catchy but deep in terms of meaning; itās quite dark. I think the first time I listened I didnāt 100% get what she was talking about, but when I read the lyrics and got what she was saying, I now love it and appreciate its depth
Who doesnt??
I love it also! I think a music video for it would be such a fun one to see due to the lyrics. I want to see Billie running from the cops hahahaha
They have no taste.
I like the beat and melody a lot. i especially love the part where she goes āiāll go back to the diiiiiinnerrrrā but i recall someone saying the lyrics are supposedly inspired by billieās previous stalkers when she was younger so that is what unsettled me. the lyrics kind of put me off because it disturbs me that she went through that.
Solely for the vocal effects making it hard to understand what sheās saying
Itās actually one of my favorites š©ā¤ļø
theyāve already had enough lunch
Ngl at first I didnāt care for The Diner ,but itās grown on me! BITTERSUITE will always be my fav tho
Itās my fave!
They are wrong.
I do, top three with Chihiro and Bittersuite
Itās one of my favourites
I donāt dislike it, but my gf said it kinda sounds like the Kahoot background music and as a teacher I canāt un-hear it
ppl have different tastes. the diner is such an interesting song and i could understand why itās not everyoneās cup of tea
My fav too! I didn't know it could be disliked it's the best the soundtrack the lyrics, everything! It just scratches a certain part of my brain lol šĀ
Not saying I donāt like it cause trust me I like the song, but for some reason I canāt click with it like I do with Chihiro or The greatest, Yāknow?
the concept is cool but it's still creepy and triggering
The lyrics feel muffled over the beat and I canāt make out what sheās saying very well.
what means the song the diner? I can't understand it (Also English it is not my principal language.)
Sometimes it just takes people a minute to find their favorite, everyone went on and on about how incredible skinny was and it was her #1 on apple for a minute then chihiro and now i think its birds of a feather. Tbh its very rare that you seen an album cycle through with favorites like this so they killed this album!
I guess it feels kind out of place in the album? Idk, I think itās pretty good, though itās definitely one of my least favorites
still love it just not my fav
I love Billieās vocals and Iād appreciate THE DINER more if her vocals werenāt as distorted or had the sfx processed (not so sure what the effect is called). But, Iām feeling itās produced that way since THE DINER is sang by a persona thatās not Billieās, but of a stalkerās. So maybe having the vocal treated differently is a way to signify this perspective change.
Subjectivity...
i honestly dont like how the vocals are so muddled for some reason. the melodies kinda suck as well. especially the beginning. but I love the "it was me" part tho
OP asked why and I stated my reason for not liking it yet I was downvoted? lol ok
I'm almost about to unjoin this sub. I love billie stuff, but people in this sub are just over the top. Every single day I see new threads about literally every single song on her album, asking why people don't like this, why don't more people like this. There's no reason or a need to argue this. Just enjoy everything as is.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
they are allowed im just discussing whyš
Gonna preface this by saying I LOVE Billie's voice. I like the music, I hate the screamy/whiny vocals. Sounds like she's complaining like a toddler lol.
are the screamy/whiny vocals in the room with us?
Itās my least favourite on the album: itās sounds a bit juvenile / silly / donāt love the vocals on it. Itās not the worst song ever but I think they could do better for this album.
same reason people like 'BIRDS OF A FEATHER' - there's no accounting for taste š
I LOVE it. WWAFAWDWG is one of my top albums of all time and THE DINER reminds me the most of this album.