culture v Text by AUDREY KERNICK Art by SAMANTHA HO
Is This the Sound of the End of the World? WHAT “MISS ANTHROPOCENE” PROPHESIZES
O
ON FEB. 21, GRIMES released an album about the world ending. A month later, the world ended. “Miss Anthropocene” is the fifth studio album from writer and producer Claire Boucher, better known as Grimes. Boucher, who has been writing, producing and performing as Grimes since around 2010, has never identified with genres. Each album is distinct and unique, creating little worlds of their own. While Grimes’s last album was an exploration of pop, full of bubbly instrumentals and melancholy lyrics about heartbreak and yearning, “Miss Anthropocene” is unabashedly dark and grungy. Although the idea of a concept album written in the perspective of climate change personified was initially polarizing, “Miss Anthropocene” stands out as an incredibly rich and layered piece of work. Dissecting the world we live in, the album is crawling with sludgy, industrial tracks, some alluring and some agonized. The viscous journey into “Miss Anthropocene” begins with “So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth.” Released in November 2019, “So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth” was the second official single. The song is slow and haunting, Grimes’s crooning fully submerging the track in murky woe. Following “So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth” is “Darkseid,” an eerie and
brash song. Falling somewhere between a throbbing in one’s temples and fear of an imminent threat, “Darkseid” leaves skin prickling. “Delete Forever,” another single, is one of the stand out tracks on the album. Rather than distorted sounds and synths, the song opens with a strong acoustic guitar riff. An ode to the death of friends, “Delete Forever” is the waving of a white flag, surrendering to agony. While holding its head high, “Delete Forever” sheds a tear for those lost. The song “4ÆM” is a beast of its own, marrying mystery and flashing mania. The songs’ slow silky verses build up into a chorus spilling with energy, akin to speeding through a tunnel, fast paced and loud. The juxtaposition between these two elements is what makes the song work. A high always needs a low, and “4ÆM” achieves this seamlessly. “My Name is Dark” is as bitter as it is cold. Angry and raw, the song has a score to set, damage to inflict, a world to burn. Between feral screams and wailing lyrics, “My Name is Dark” toes the line of distortion, ferocious and unforgiving. Promising chaos, the song is vehemently ruthless. “You’ll Miss Me When I’m Not Around” is a sobering song about suicide. Melodic and strangely sweet, the song is a kiss goodbye, the forfeit of another day. “You’ll Miss Me When I’m Not Around” is repentful and burns with remorse all while giving a soft squeeze, just
one last glance before disappearing into the crowd. “Before the Fever” is an acceptance of the end of time. Slow and sad, Grimes begs to be danced until the end of the night during the end of the world, another goodbye. As a whole, “Miss Anthropocene” is an incredible album with a collection of unparalleled tracks. Each song evokes its own set of feelings in listeners, and the journey through the album is as thought-provoking as it is emotional. Given the general theme of the end of the world, “Miss Anthropocene” feels that much more relevant during this global pandemic. With expressions of fear and an uncertain future, the album speaks to the state of the world today. Lyrics like “Unrest is in the soul” and “Is this the sound of the end of the world” hold a different significance than they did three months ago. The bonus track “We Appreciate Power,” which is devoted to A.I., is a song giddy about the reign of artificial life forms. When thinking about how fragile we are, susceptible to illness and disease, one calls into question how sustainable human life really is. Maybe the future of our planet does require a change in traditional human life, and maybe “Miss Anthropocene” isn’t that far off from our reality. Whatever the future may hold, “Miss Anthropocene” stands as an incredible album, and quite possibly, an important warning. v
VERDEMAGAZINE.cOM 31
