Blend together a unicorn, an artistically original J-Pop Britney Spears and the entire city of Tokyo — whatever image comes to mind, whatever hybrid creature that produces, the result is Grimes.
Maybe I’m living under a rock music-filled rock, but the first I ever heard of Grimes was two months ago upon the release of her critically acclaimed Art Angels. The unusual synthpop sound that Grimes has mastered is part of what makes her album so intriguing; nothing produced in 2015 is anything like Art Angels. Grimes is first and foremost an artist — being a musician is just a small part of who she is, and I think that really shows in her latest music video for “Kill V. Maim.”
The first time I listened to “Kill V. Maim,” I envisioned a slightly more badass Princess Peach from Mario Kart zipping through a neon-lit Tokyo. It turns out that either I’m psychic or Grimes is really good at making you visualize her world the way she wants you to see it because the music video for “Kill V. Maim” is pretty much what I imagined two months ago. It’s fun. It’s artsy af. It’s unlike anything out there.
Grimes and a sexy squad of posh punks take over our screens for four minutes and thirty-seven seconds in what appears to be a video game. The video cuts between shots of the outlandishly dressed characters dancing and zooming through what appears to be a neon-lit Tokyo (defs psychic) with Snapchat-esque drawings of little halos, hearts and other doodles fluttering in and out to further define the video as a Grimes production.
From a purely visual standpoint, the “Kill V. Maim” music video is perfection; it has a way of sucking you into the world Grimes has created for us — the world that Grimes probably inhabits in her dreams. It’s a colorful, outlandish, science fiction world full of possibilities. However, the video seemingly lacks a story or purpose — at first I hated it for lack of substance. It’s only when you pay close attention to every detail that you realize how provocative it really is.
I’m not going to disclose my interpretation of the video with you mainly because art is and should be viewed and understood differently by each individual — but also partly because I have no idea what the fuck I just watched.