Experimental pop artist Grimes has released a new track entitled “We Appreciate Power,” that is set to be released off her currently untitled and upcoming fifth studio album. A lyric video was released for the song, featuring retro-futuristic imagery and a cyberpunk aesthetic reminiscent of works such as Blade Runner.
A press release for the lyric video states that it was “inspired by the North Korean band ‘Moranbong,’” and is “written from the perspective of a Pro-A.I. Girl Group Propaganda machine who use song, dance, sex and fashion to spread goodwill towards Artificial Intelligence.”
Grimes took an industrial music approach for the track’s instrumentation, utilizing a heavy rock sound reminiscent of some of Nine Inch Nail’s harder works. Heavily distorted guitars and hard hitting drums populate the track, while Grimes sings with an eerie and atmospheric vocal delivery. Long-time collaborator Hana also makers an appearance on the track.
At the end of the video a caption that reads “THANK YOU TO THE AI OVERLORDS FOR TRANSLATING OUR LYRICS. PLEASE FORGIVE ANY INACCURACIES. THE COMPUTER MAY HAVE TAKEN ARTISTIC LIBERTIES IN THESE TRANSLATIONS.” This message is translated into various languages, and writing styles including Cyrillic letters, Japanese, Korean, Hindi and Arabic
A few days ago the singer announced that she would be releasing new music, merchandise and other material on her webstore. While the singer has been slow to release new solo material, since her 2015 effort Art Angels, she has collaborated with Poppy for “Play and Destroy, “Janelle Monae for “Pynk” and Jimmy Urine for his song “The Medicine Does Not Control Me,” earlier this year.
On her solo front the singer released a song entitled “That’s What The Drugs Are For” for an Apple commercial. This was part of the Behind the Mac series, which showed the singer utilizing her Mac book to create music.
Grimes, who was born Claire Boucher, got her start using the Macintosh exclusive program GarageBand, while she was studying neuroscience and philosophy at McGill University in Montreal. During this period she eventually created the Grimes identity, which she says is an extension of herself.
“Grimes is not an alter-ego, it’s just me without all the bureaucratic bullshit,” she explained in an interview with Loud and Quiet magazine. “Like, it’s me, but I’m not going to the bank and I’m not buying groceries. When I’m doing normal stuff I’m behaving, censoring myself.”
Due to the singer’s unique style and music, she has garnered a lot of attention as a new voice in the music industry. In addition, her use of multiple elements into her songwriting and music video making process has garnered acclaim.
“I don’t want to make blatantly sexy records,” she elaborated in the interview. “I mean, I feel prettiest when I’m wearing a trench coat or whatever, because I think it’s all about confidence and intention. For instance, Britney Spears is not attractive, because of the desperation in her life. I find aggression sexy. I think power is sexy. Like, Leeloo in The Fifth Element [Milla Jovovich’s character] is the hottest girl in all of Hollywood, because she’s got power. And what’s the coolest shit that’s happening right now? It’s people making video games, or hackers – the coolest, most attractive people are geeks.”
Photo Credit: Owen Ela
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