Grimes unearths album plans alongside double-cut, ‘So Heavy I Fell Through The Earth’
Grimes, Canada’s queen of elaborate concept projects and sonic thought experiments, has materialized for another unearthly release, the two-sided “So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth.” The multi-talented icon of all things eternally odd has delivered two renditions of the song, a radio-intended cut, or Algorithm Mix, as well as an extended Art Mix. She’s also set a date, February 21, 2020, for her forthcoming LP, Miss_Anthropocene, which she’s said will lean heavily on climate change-adjacent themes, from the perspective of… wait for it, a misanthropic demon. The 10-track album is expected to be a stark departure from its 2015 predecessor, Art Angels, which was riddled with frothy, often disjointed pop singles and to which Grimes now refers as “a piece of crap,” and a “stain” on her life.
The song’s cosmically odd appeal harkens back to her Visions era. The ethereal downtempo production wistfully jaunts beneath Grimes’ signature moody, high-pitched croons. It’s the second single from the impending album, preceded by the equally astral and thematically weighty “Violence,” produced by smoldering mau5trap talent, i_o.
“So Heavy” arrives alongside an environmentally despondent visualizer: a foreboding portrait of Earth some years from now, scorching and uninhabitable, from the vantage point of outer space, where Grimes is engaged in a sword fight with a dragon. Armored literally and aurally, Grimes is a valiant envoy to usher us all towards our fiery ends.