Claire Boucher, better known as Grimes, described her new album Miss Anthropocene as “a concept album about the anthropomorphic Goddess of climate Change.. Each song will be a different embodiment of human extinction as depicted through a Pop star Demonology.” No idea what any of it means or how it all ties into climate change. However, a new Grimes album is certainly enough to pique the interest of many music fans.
First track, “So Heavy I fell Through The Earth (Art Mix)” has lyrics based on a dream and the decision to have a baby with boyfriend Elon Musk. The music floats along while synths keep pulling it back to the ground. At six minutes it feels like it could keep rolling along for much longer. “4ÆM” is inspired by a Bollywood film and also floats along before the club banging chorus cuts in. “Delete Forever” and “You’ll Miss Me When I’m Not Around” are the most straightforward songs here, and the best, with the acoustic guitar on the former sounding not unlike Oasis’ “Wonderall” and written the night Lil Peep died. At seven minutes long, the lighter pop sounding “IDORU (Art Mix)” lets the light in after some fairly dark moments on the record.
Much of the album sounds cinematic with “New Gods” being the best example, a slower piano driven track. Third single “My Name Is Dark (Art Mix)” was inspired by NIN but never truly takes off. Grimes’ music hits so many pleasure points that even the lesser tracks glide by effortlessly before something catches the listeners ear. As Claire Boucher continues to change and mutate, the music that she makes as Grimes continues to do the same.
8.5/10
The Light Appears 