Grimes’ “Miss Anthropocene” is Beautifully Unique

Grimes. Photo by Frank Micelotta/Picturegroup/Shutterstock (10504619ad)

Grimes’ latest album is a unique blend of artistic sounds and experimental textures.

The record opens with “So Heavy I Fell Through The Earth.” Here, Grimes mixes her vocals with a surreal spectral song, producing sounds that sit somewhere between Bjork and whale song. The result is something both soothing and intriguing, an artistic blend of sounds that challenges the listener without provoking them. In “Before the Fever”, Grimes sings “This is the sound of the end of the world.” And perhaps she is right. It’s jarring, unfamiliar, and yet oddly soothing in a blissfully ignorant sort of way.

“New Gods” is a song for the millenial nihilist. Grimes sings: “Hands reaching out for new gods / You can’t give me what I want.” In the pre-chorus, she questions “Are you a man? / Are you something I can’t stand?” For Grimes, the lack of meaning in the modern world has been compensated for by love and romance. After all, in interviews, it is her love life that Grimes blames for any setbacks in her career. Miss Anthropocene is as much an album about Grimes personal life and heartache as much as it is an album about the end of the world.

“IDORU” is the longest track on the album. At seven-minutes long, the track is chaotic and playful with genres. The Japanese word “Idoru” translates to something like ‘pampered star.’ This is a track about love and love inevitably disappointing. She sings: “I wanna play a beautiful game /
Even though we’re gonna lose / But I adore you / Adore you.” Her voice here takes on ethereal tones as it mixes with low-fi sounds and shaky rhythms.

The album closer “We Appreciate Power” finishes on a hectic note. Whirring guitars and repetitive vocals – this is a punk song for the modern pop star. Grimes recently collaborated with baby metal star Poppy and perhaps her influence is present here. Between the repetition of the track’s title, Grimes chimes in with the occasional witty lyric. “I’ll evade the human race, putting makeup on my face,” she sings.

T.S. Eliot famously wrote that the world will end not with a bang, but with a whimper. According to Miss Anthropocene, the world will end with a toxic ignorance as we anxiously pursue not positive change, but love, drama, and the party.

4/5