"Milk and Cookies" is the tenth track by Melanie Martinez featured on her debut album, Cry Baby. The first studio snippet was released on August 6th, 2015 on Melanie's Instagram. A double feature music video for the song was released on August 23rd, 2016.
Theme
Milk and Cookies is a continuation of the storyline from Tag, You're It after Cry Baby was kidnapped, eventually killing her kidnapper with poisonous milk and cookies. She first prepares a dose of melatonin, a sleeping drug, for her abuser to make it easier to poison him, playing along in order to expose his defenses and make him vulnerable. This moment is officially when she mentally snaps and is forced to do some crazy things to get out of a crazy situation and begins to embrace her insanity. She wears black to symbolize his impending death and focuses on how good she looks in black. Cry Baby is sick of playing along with the wolf, she chooses to go for the kill, taking action into her own hands just like her mother did with her father in Sippy Cup.
Lyrics
[Verse 1]
1, 2, melatonin is coming for you
3, 4, baby, won't you lock the door?
5, 6, I'm done with this
7, 8, it's getting late, so close your eyes, sleep for days
[Pre-Chorus]
Hush little baby, drink your spoiled milk
I'm fucking crazy, need my prescription filled
Do you like my cookies? They're made just for you
A little bit of sugar, but lots of poison, too
[Chorus]
Ashes, ashes, time to go down
Ooh, honey do you want me now?
Can't take it anymore, need to put you to bed
Sing you a lullaby where you die at the end
[Verse 2]
9, 10, never want to see you again
11, 12, I pull off black so well
Shit behind the curtain that I'm sick of sugarcoatin'
Next time you're alone, think twice when you grab the phone
[Chorus]
Ashes, ashes, time to go down
Ooh, honey do you want me now?
Can't take it anymore, need to put you to bed
Sing you a lullaby where you die at the end
[Chorus]
Ashes, ashes, time to go down
Ooh, honey do you want me now?
Can't take it anymore, need to put you to bed
Sing you a lullaby where you die at the end
Videos
The music video is in a double feature with Tag, You're It and occurs immediately after Cry Baby was kidnapped by the Big Bad Wolf. Cry Baby wakes up in a toy chest in the Big Bad Wolf's house. She pushes her way out, as a scene of Cry Baby's singing head in a jar is shown. This scene is shown multiple times throughout the video. The room Cry Baby finds herself in is a kitchen with paintings of children and a vintage refrigerator. The walls of the kitchen make a reference to the Dollhouse EP cover. There is a note on the refrigerator reading, "Leave cookies on the table no later than three O'clock OR ELSE!". Cry Baby acts as if she's about to cry, but instead angrily gets ingredients and supplies out. Meanwhile, Big Bad Wolf watches Cry Baby bake cookies through a vintage television in his living room. It is apparent that he lives in a cave. Cry Baby then sees the bottle of melatonin the cashier at the grocery store gave her laying on the floor. Cry Baby pours the melatonin into the batter as Big Bad Wolf gets a phone call. There is no response on the other line, so he hangs up, missing Cry Baby adding melatonin to his food. The cookies finish baking as the clock hits three, and Cry Baby puts them out on the table. The wolf goes to the kitchen to eat them. As he eats a cookie, he begins to choke and Cry Baby attacks him and pours milk onto him. She kills the Big Bad Wolf, and then leaves his home through the closet.
Cast
- Big Bad Wolf: Brian Zuniga
Errors
- When Cry Baby takes the cookies out of the oven, she isn't wearing any oven mitts.
- When Cry Baby puts the cookies into the oven, they aren't frosted. When they come out, they are.
Trivia
- The double feature music video was edited in 4 days.
- There are multiple references to popular nursery rhymes and lullabies throughout the song.
- The lyrics where Melanie counts 1, 2... 3, 4... 5, 6... etc. are based off of the Freddy Krueger song.
- It is also an homage to the Nursery Rhyme, One Two Buckle My Shoe.
- "Hush little baby, drink your spoiled milk" is also an homage to the traditional lullaby Hush little Baby.
- "Ashes, ashes, time to go down" references Ring Around the Rosie, also known as "Ring a Ring o' Roses" originally, a nursery rhyme. It contains the lyric "Ashes, ashes, we all fall down", which Melanie references to the Big Bad Wolf’s death.
- The lyrics where Melanie counts 1, 2... 3, 4... 5, 6... etc. are based off of the Freddy Krueger song.
- Once in an earlier interview, Melanie described the song as "killing her boyfriend with poisonous milk and cookies".
- In a later interview, she described it as "killing her kidnapper with poisonous milk and cookies". The meaning of the song was likely changed to fit the storyline.
- Melanie once described this song as a "weird sequel" to Dead To Me.[1]
- The line, "Next time you're alone, think twice when you grab the phone" is a reference to the movie Scream, and to her song Teddy Bear.
- There may have been a hint to this song in the music video for Pity Party, which was Cry Baby eating milk and cookies while writing birthday invitations.
- There is a faint music box that can be heard near the final chorus.
- The story and illustration for this song appears on the 21st page of the Cry Baby storybook, reading:
Milk And Cookies' Digital Booklet Page
"She got locked up and made a plan
To kill the bad wolf ice-cream man
He ordered her to make him snacks
Her cookies and milk made him collapse"
