"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. It is the sequel to Tag, You're It and a double feature music video for the song was released on August 23rd, 2016.
Theme
Milk and Cookies is a continuation of the story-line from Tag, You're It after Cry Baby was kidnapped. In this song, Cry Baby is so distraught that something in her snaps and she kills her kidnapper with poisonous milk and cookies. She wears black to symbolize his impending death, since black is commonly worn at funerals, and sarcastically mentions how good she looks in it.
Cross-references
- 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 having milk and cookies while writing birthday invitations.
- Melatonin is also mentioned in Zzzz.
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
Music Video
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 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 poison the cashier at the grocery store gave her laying on the floor. Cry Baby pours the poison 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 poison 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 puts the cookies into the oven, there is no icing on them. When she takes them out, there is suddenly icing on the cookies.
Trivia
- This is the only song on Cry Baby to not include the title within its lyrics.
- On February 28th, 2020, this song was certified gold by the RIAA. It was the last song from the standard edition of Cry Baby to receive a certification.
- The music video was in a "double feature" video alongside the music video for Tag, You're It
- The double feature music video was edited in 4 days.
- Strangely, it is not available on Apple Music or iTunes.
- The audio has reached over 21 million views and 209 thousand likes on YouTube.
- 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 on the Freddy Krueger song from the horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street.
- 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 uses to reference the Big Bad Wolf's death.
- The lyrics where Melanie counts 1, 2... 3, 4... 5, 6... etc. are based on the Freddy Krueger song from the horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street.
- 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 of the album.
- Melanie once described this song as a "weird sequel" to Dead to Me.[1]
- There is a faint music box that can be heard near the final chorus.
- This song possibly made a reference to her unreleased song Zzzz with the line "Melatonin is coming for you".
- The story and illustration for this song appear 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"
