Grimes releases first album in 5 years, ‘Miss Anthropocene’

It’s been half a decade since Grimes put out a full body of work, but after nearly a full year of teasing it, the mysterious and much-beloved electronic pop musician has released Miss Anthropocene: her fifth studio album overall.

Miss Anthropocene is a play on words, combining both “misanthrope” and “Anthropocene.” In a statement posted on her official website, the Vancouver-born artist confirmed the title refers to “the Goddess of Climate Crisis” — a character she revealed the album is loosely based on during an interview with Beats 1’s Zane Lowe back in January.

The highly-anticipated record comes just six weeks after Grimes, 31, revealed she was pregnant and sparked much speculation among fans that she would be having the child with her current partner Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX.

Miss Anthropocene serves as Grimes’ third and final release through the independent British record label 4AD and clocks in at 44 minutes, 40 seconds in length.

It features ten original songs altogether, including the five already-released singles: Violence, My Name Is Dark, So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth, 4ÆM and Delete Forever. Grimes dropped the latter only last week alongside an enticingly colourful music video.

Ahead of its release, the Oblivion singer (born Claire Boucher) suggested to Lowe that the Miss Anthropocene album would highlight completely different themes and sounds than her last effort — the critically acclaimed Art Angels (2015).

Other than My Name is Dark, 4ÆM and New Gods, Grimes wrote, produced and engineered the entirety of Miss Anthropocene herself.

Some of the new material — My Name is Dark for example — utilizes heavier bass and electronic synth components, while sometimes incorporating nu metal-type guitar riffs and melodies for a darker sound; making for a vast contrast between the upbeat and poppy sonic elements of Art Angels as Grimes insinuated.

Initially, the album was intended to be released at an earlier date, however, it seems that the recent death of Grimes’ longtime manager, Lauren Valencia, impacted her severely, as revealed in a since-deleted Instagram post, according to Variety.

Valencia tragically died last July after a lengthy battle with cancer. She was also the manager of My Chemical Romance before their disbandment in 2013.

Grimes took to Instagram again on album release day (Feb. 21) thanking her friends for being patient. Additionally, she paid tribute to Valencia.

“In loving memory of Lauren Valencia,” she wrote. “Couldn’t have done it without you. Glad you saw it to the end,” she added, insinuating the album has been ready since at least mid-2019.

“Never Forget,” added Grimes. “Thanks everybody who put up with everything it really means a lot.”

Miss Anthropocene is now available worldwide through all major streaming platforms.

Physical variants of the album can be purchased through the official Universal Music store.

Miss Anthropocene full tracklist:

1. So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth (Art Mix)
2. Darkseid (ft. 潘PAN)
3. Delete Forever
4. Violence (ft. i_o)
5. 4ÆM
6. New Gods
7. My Name Is Dark (Art Mix)
8. You’ll Miss Me When I’m Not Around
9. Before the Fever
10. Idoru (Art Mix)