The concepts and ideas behind the albums of multi-award-winning singer and music video director Grimes are often overlooked. The five albums released by Grimes all have unique and complex back stories.
Geidi Primes was released Jan. 10, 2010, and was the debut album of Grimes. It featured 11 songs, and its run-time was around 31 minutes. Her dream at the time was to direct Dune, her favorite book, so she thought it would be cool to create a concept album or soundtrack for the movie, according to an interview with Pitchfork.
All of the songs featured in this album are based on characters, ideas, and planets in the Dune universe. Grimes said to Pitchfork that she wanted the name for her first album to rhyme with her stage name, so she ultimately decided on the planet Geidi Prime, also known as Gammu, from Dune, to be the title.
She created a soundtrack for her hypothetical film, though she never actually planned for her music career to take off. “I wanted to make a record that is a fantasy escape. I love music that makes me feel elsewhere, far away,” Grimes stated in an interview with Voir, according to Fandom.
Grimes’ second studio album, Halfaxa, was released on Sep. 30, 2010. The album featured 14 songs with a run-time of 49 minutes. Arbutus Records first published the album, but the Lo Recordings version of the album features two additional songs: “Heartbeats” and “∆∆∆∆Rasik∆∆∆∆.”
The album is primarily focused on memories. “I mean, this album is mostly about my vacation in Halifax. I went to go see my friend, David. I had a fun week there … staying at his house,” Grimes said to Pitchfork. The album draws most of its inspiration from medieval Europe and its savagery; she wanted to incorporate the magical and ethereal sound of church cathedrals with an electronic vibe, according to Fandom.
The cover art featured a statue inspired by Venus of Roman mythology, though the artwork Grimes originally wanted for Halfaxa was much different. It featured a head with two swans.
Halfaxa’s album artwork. Image courtesy of grimes.fandom.com.
Grimes released her debut EP, Darkbloom, on April 18, 2011. The EP was a collaboration with fellow artist d’Eon. Although they collaborated on the EP, they split halfway through working on it, according to Fandom, and each created their respective sides alone. Grimes’s half only featured five songs, while d’Eon made another four on his half.
Darkbloom was mainly Grimes finding her musical style and “trying to make pop music, mostly,” she said to Pitchfork. She was scared to sing her high vocals live at the time, and the tracks made her recognize and overcome the fear, according to Fandom.
Grimes’ first real hit album was Visions, released in 2012 after signing with record label 4AD. It was released Jan. 31, 2012, in Canada, contained 13 songs, and had a run-time of 46 minutes. The two singles to come off the album, “Genesis” and “Oblivion,” blew up. To this day, they are still Grimes’s most well-known songs.
With the success of the album came the Visions Tour, lasting from February 2012 to December. Grimes toured with fellow artist Born Gold, marking her first and longest tour to date. The setlist featured new singles, hits from Visions, and tracks from her previous albums.
The album is very 2000’s and dreamy, according to Olive Mellor, sophomore, who said, “‘Nightmusic’ is probably my favorite song. I love the lyrics, and the beat is very whimsical.” The song, “Nightmusic,” another single released on Visions, is based on the late musician Mozart’s famous composition “Nachtmusik,” according to Fandom.
Three years after Visions, Grimes released Art Angels on Nov. 6, 2015. The album contained 14 tracks, totaling 49 minutes. The album, specifically the song “Venus Fly,” featuring Janelle Monáe, won many awards, including the Juno Award for Video of the Year and Electronic Album of the Year.
The album title Art Angels actually originates from her belief that the angels watching over her would give her inspiration if she were good to herself, but would take it away if she were bad. “If you … don’t worry too much about how the song’s gonna play live and just make a song then … you get good songs,” Grimes said in an interview with Hans Ulrich from Buffalo Zine.
With the release of Art Angels came a series of music videos known as the AC!D Reign Chronicles: The War of Art. It featured seven videos, four of which were Grimes’ songs “Butterfly,” “Belly of the Beat,” “World Princess Part II,” and “Scream.” The other three songs in the series, “Underwater,” “Avalanche,” and “Chimera,” were created by her friend and fellow singer collaborator HANA. The full series and director’s cut are available on YouTube on a playlist created by Grimes.
Grimes stars in the “World Princess Part II” music video. Image courtesy of grimes.fandom.com.
Miss Anthropocene is the most recent album released by Grimes. Although recording started in 2017, the album wasn’t released until Feb. 21, 2020. The album length is around 45 minutes with ten songs. She collaborated with a multitude of artists, including HANA once more, and 潘PAN.
The concept for Miss Anthropocene is based on darkness and chaos, as stated by Grimes in her Instagram comment section. Each track in the album represents either a Goddess or a demon, five songs in each respective category. “I love Godly personifications of abstract/ horrific concepts (for example, Mars as the Roman God of War) — so I wanted to update the list to include our modern issues,” Grimes said on an Instagram post.
The album title, Miss Anthropocene, originates from the terms ‘misanthrope,’ someone who dislikes humankind, and ‘anthropocene,’ a geological time period. She combined the words to create a new god: the goddess of the climate crisis. “Miss Anthropocene is like, this death god … I want to make climate change fun. People don’t care about it … I see the polar bear and want to kill myself … I want to make it beautiful,” Grimes stated in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
Grimes has recently released “Artificial Angels,” a new single, and has collaborated with Sub Focus to make another single, “Entwined.” Fans speculate that another new album containing these singles will be released following the cancellation of her sixth studio album, Book 1, due to constant delays and label issues.
