GRIMES - MY NAME IS DARK (ART MIX)

Grimes returns with a chronicle of the decline on the electro-rockin' "My Name Is Dark (Art Mix)."

Claire Boucher's journey has been one of the most bizarre, compelling, surreal stories of modern indie rock. 2012's Visions was the sound of an eccentric, arthouse indie girl tooling around with GarageBand in her bedroom. From such humble, introspective beginnings, she's proceeded to become a proper Pop Star, fashion icon, date Elon Musk, and now become an Art Angel of the Apocalypse.

On "My Name Is Dark (Art Mix)" Grimes' transformation is nearly complete. In the wake of her relationship with Elon Musk, Grimes has been threatening to change her name to simply C. The newest single from her forthcoming album Miss Anthropocene, Grimes sings from the perspective of an alien demon of Climate Change. Listening to "My Name Is Dark (Art Mix)", it's really not as much of a leap as it might seem at first glance.

GRIMES - MY NAME IS DARK (ART MIX)

"My Name Is Dark (Art Mix)" blends the best of vintage Grimes with the more polished pop production of 2015's Art Angels.

Built around a steady boom-bap beat and simple chiming guitar riff, that sounds like a Chiptune band covering The Stooges, "My Name Is Dark (Art Mix)" benefits from a deep, rich, thick pyroclastic flow of sub-bass, growling and menacing as one could hope for the apocalyptic Space Demon.

Vocally, we still get Grimes' signature silken dove coo, which suddenly shifts into epic metal terrain as she sings "Know me as the girl/who plays with fi-ire!"

The edge suits Grimes well, making her music slightly less precious than her earliest material and a bit more raw than her latter-day Madonna worship. It offers a chance to appreciate why we loved Grimes in the first place. Her pop instincts cuts through the noise, serving as a barbed fish hook, pulling us into her post-apocalyptic daydreams. It's a barren landscape; a blasted, blighted landscape where we still can get down, catastrophe be damned.

"My Name Is Dark (Art Mix)" is a soundtrack for life during wartime, for a revolution where protest and dancing are intermingled, intertwined. It's a soothing balm in these troubled times. We Are: The Guard are here for it. We're properly stoked for Miss Anthropocene, at this point, even while we hope the catastrophes she's prophesying don't come to pass. 

J. Simpson occupies the intersection between criticism, creativity, and academia. Based out of Portland, Or., he is the author of Forestpunk, an online journal/brand studying the traces of horror, supernatural, and the occult through music, fashion and culture. He plays in the dreamfolk band Meta-Pinnacle with his partner Lily H. Valentine, with whom he also co-founded Bitstar Productions, a visual arts collective focused on elevating Pop Culture to High Art.