Miss Anthropocene is finally coming. Apparently, art-pop singer Grimes finished the album a long time ago, but it’ll still be another two months until we find out. Fortunately she’s been dropping really good music that makes it easy to forget about the whole Elon Musk thing. The groove of “Violence” feels MySpace to its core, and “So Heavy I Fell Through The Earth” is otherworldly. On Nov. 29, she continued her hot streak with “My Name Is Dark.”
Before the first chorus, Grimes sings, “The girl who plays with fire,” stretching the last word into a screech that I think triggered an endorphins release in my brain. The guitar that comes to the forefront in the last couple minutes of the song builds to a maniacal melody. All the creepy background vocals are employed expertfully, making for a dense, oppressive mood over each chorus. Grimes has the baby voice in full effect, battered in her usual reverb and delay, and it’s never been stronger. All the elements of this track’s production are clean and simple, and it’s even more impressive because Grimes did the writing, producing and engineering all by herself for this track.
The only thing that disappoints — and just a little bit — is that Grimes could have taken the song heavier, leaning even harder into her nu-metal influences. The song has a longer runtime, and the second half would be the perfect opportunity to build up aggression, but instead the track mellows out. Still, “My Name Is Dark” is a superb single, easily the most appetizing one yet. The album feels closer on the horizon than ever.