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Grimesis the archetypal modern internet citizen.
Shes heard all the right records.
Shes seen all the right films.
She has great taste in video games and anime.
She reads a lot and studies language and history.
She has lofty ideas about where tech is headed.
She got serious about wokeness and poptimism early on, but hates being defined by those qualities.
Shes an oversharer who sometimes regrets ever having said anything.
Grimess principal gift as a songwriter is making high concepts seem low stakes.
Grimes is an aesthete and a channeler.
She studies thoughtful art and then makes more thoughtful art about it.
Each song will be a different embodiment of human extinction as depicted through a pop star demonology.
As a concept album,Miss Anthropocenestruggles to live up to its admittedly lofty mission statements.
From the opener, So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth,Miss Anthropocenehews darker and denser thanArt Angels.
The singers voice is again submerged under milky guitars, strings, and synths.
But the lyrics are tougher to make out than last time.
It also masks the fact that the words arent always as sharp as the thoughts behind them.
and Baby, its violence!
(Whyd she fall?
Cause I fucking love.)
Underneath these simple, mantralike lines lies some of the finest production of Grimess career.
So Heavy serves sensual, syrupy trip-hop, like Sarah McLachlans heady 1993 siren song Possession.
The most intriguing productions effect an imaginary soundtrack to a space opera of the mind.
WhenMiss Anthropocenelowers its guard, Grimes shines as a singer and a writer.
Its hard to keep revisiting something you wrote about a painful time.
We often ask this of songwriters as though theres no spiritual cost.
It comes soon afterGrimes announced shes pregnantby her boyfriend of two years, Tesla and SpaceX CEOElon Musk.
Does this further obfuscateMiss Anthropocenes message?
Did Grimes sell out?
