GRIMES MISSES THE BEAT
ON HER HIGH-CONCEPT ALBUM, THE SONGSTRESS ASSUMES A NEW PERSONA IN A BID TO MAKE CLIMATE CHANGE FUN
The rise of synth-pop darling Claire Boucher, aka Grimes, has been a fascinating one. It all began in the late 2000s, the era when Tumblr was still a thing and the indie scene was a fertile ground for emerging indie artists. Hailing from Montreal, Grimes burst on the scene with her debut LP Geidi Primes, bringing with her a genre-blurring soundscape rooted in otherworldly DIY experimentalism. This left-field aesthetic immediately struck a chord with those who were fed up with the oversaturation of chillwave and jangly indie rock at the time.
Infused with goth-pop and witch house, Geidi Primes’ follow-up, Halfaxa, was as offbeat as it was approachable. In many ways, it was a perfect introduction to her subsequent offerings, 2012’s Visions and 2015’s Art Angels, which saw her not only embracing but putting her own stamp on electropop.
In the years that followed, Grimes gradually gravitated more towards mainstream pop, a move that resulted in collaborations with LA-based artist Hana and Janelle Monáe. Her pop star transformation, combined with the much-publicised romance with tech overlord Elon Musk, put her in the harsh glare of the media limelight. The name Grimes has officially moved on from obscure music blogs to memes and tabloids.
And here we are with Miss Anthropocene, her fifth album proper. Themed around “the anthropomorphic Goddess of climate change”, it features a series of narratives aimed to essentially make climate emergency more palatable. Don’t be quick to think, though, that this is a protest record. In fact, most of the tracks have more to do with Claire Boucher than anything else.
Take the Enya-inspired opener So Heavy I Fell Through The Earth, on which she likens her decision to get pregnant with Musk’s child to a “weird loss of self” and “a bit of an ego death”. Then, on My Name Is Dark, she recounts her personal
experience of that one time she went on a bender. “The boys are such a bore, the girls are such a bore,” she coos. “I never trust the government … Yeah I don’t need to sleep anymore/ That’s what the drugs are for.”
Production-wise, Miss Anthropocene runs the gamut of genres and influences. She may have described it as “mostly ethereal nu metal (ish)”, but it’s pretty much anything-goes up in this joint. Fancy some Bollywood and drum ’n’ bass mashup? There’s 4AEM. How about 90s alt-rock and banjo-assisted indie folk? Those, too, can be delighted on You’ll Miss Me When
I’m Not Around and Delete Forever.
Quotable lyrics:
“I wear black eyeliner, black attire, yeah/ So take me higher and higher and higher/ Only brand new gods can save me” (New Gods).
Listen to this:
So Heavy I Fell Through The Earth, We Appreciate Power, 4AEM.