Flesh without Blood is a song by Grimes. It is the 4th track on her fourth studio album, Art Angels, and was released as the lead single.
Background[]
Meaning[]
Grimes described the song as being about "a platonic friendship with a [former] female [best] friend."[1][2]
Grimes noted how, prior to stating her authorial intent, the press had assumed that the song was about a heterosexual relationship. She saw this as an example of how "the press genders my lyrics" and said that she no longer writes songs about love. She also described it as a song about "being really disappointed with someone who you really once truly admired".[2][3]
Trivia[]
Media[]
Video[]
Video | Credits | |
---|---|---|
Title | Flesh without Blood/Life in the Vivid Dream | |
Premiere | 26 Oct 2016 | |
Length | 6:51 | |
Director | Grimes | |
Editor | Grimes |
Behind the Scenes
Background
One of the characters Grimes is playing is named Rococo Basilisk, a word mashup of the thought experiment Roko's basilisk and the Rococo art movement. Grimes said that the character was "doomed to be eternally tortured by an artificial intelligence, but she's also kind of like Marie Antoinette."[6]
Video | Credits | |
---|---|---|
Title | Grimes Explains The Characters In Flesh Without Blood | |
Premiere | 01 Apr 2017 | |
Length | 1:23 | |
Director | The Fuse |
Critical reception[]
Billboard ranked Flesh without Blood at number 15 on its year-end list of the best songs of 2015, and commented: "There were several otherworldly pop bangers on Grimes' Art Angels, but we're glad she decided to let this stratospheric kiss-off kick off the album cycle. The artist named Claire Boucher kept us guessing in the album's long gestation period, sharing "Go," an EDM banger she'd written for Rihanna, and then admitting she'd scrapped an entire album's worth of material. In the end, she delivered the pop some of her fans were craving, without sacrificing the weirdness that made her a cult star. "Flesh without Blood" is that in a nutshell — a sky-scraping hook pulled out of unintelligible vocals, served over an underbelly of humming guitar".[7]
Rolling Stone ranked Flesh without Blood at number 15 on their year-end list of the 50 best songs of 2015.[8] The prestigious Village Voice ranked the song at number 12 on their annual year-end critic's poll.[9] Time named Flesh without Blood the best song of 2015.[10] Pitchfork Media named Flesh without Blood the seventh best song and eighteenth best music video of 2015.[11] The song also came in at number 71 on the annual Triple J Hottest 100 for 2015.[12]
Commercial performance[]
Flesh without Blood peaked at number 84 in Belgium (Ultratop Flanders).[13] Furthermore, it reached peak 18 and 23 in US Hot/Dance Electronic Songs and Hot Rock Songs (Billboard) respectively.[14][15]
Lyrics[]
You claw, you fight, you lose
Got a doll that looks just like you
Remember when we used to say
"I love you" almost every day
I saw the light in you
Going out as I closed our window
You never liked me anyway
Hey, hey, hey
I don't see the light I saw in you before
And now I don't, and now I don't
And now I don't care anymore
(Now I don't care anymore)
Baby, believe me
And you had every chance
You destroy everything you know
(Uncontrollable)
If you don't need me
Just let me go
You hate, you bite, you lose
After all, I just don't like you
It's nice that you say you like me
But only conditionally
Your voice, it had the perfect glow
It got lost when you gave it up though
Cause you want money
You want fame
Hey, hey, hey
I don't see the light I saw in you before
And now I don't, and now I don't
And now I don't care anymore
(And now I don't care anymore)
Baby, believe me
And you had every chance
You destroy everything you know
(Uncontrollable)
If you don't need me
Just let me go
Ooh, ooh
(Hey, hey, sing along, baby
Then your heart beats
Bleeds underground now)
Hey, hey, oh no
(Now I don't care anymore)
Baby, believe me
And you had every chance
You destroy everything you know
(Uncontrollable)
If you don't need me
Just let me go
Baby, believe me
And you had every chance
You destroy everything you know
(Uncontrollable)
If you don't need me
Just let me go
Ah
(Uncontrollable)
Ah
Ah
Ah
References[]
- ↑ https://www.stereogum.com/1892582/grimes-shares-letter-about-misinterpretations-of-her-suicide-squad-song/news/
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/9765-the-100-best-tracks-of-2015/?page=10
- ↑ https://www.stereogum.com/1892582/grimes-shares-letter-about-misinterpretations-of-her-suicide-squad-song/news/
- ↑ https://youtu.be/Tv9YoYCKNoE?t=9
- ↑ https://youtu.be/Tv9YoYCKNoE?si=0qfxDANUF_5UHWAn&t=9
- ↑ https://www.livescience.com/62518-rococos-basilisk-elon-musk-grimes.html
- ↑ http://www.billboard.com/articles/events/year-in-music-2015/6806155/billboard-25-best-songs-critics-picks
- ↑ http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/50-best-songs-of-2015-20151203/titus-andronicus-dimed-out-20151203
- ↑ http://furia.com/pjs/table_song_2015_total.html
- ↑ http://time.com/4132832/top-10-best-songs-2/
- ↑ http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/9763-the-best-music-videos-of-2015/3/
- ↑ http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hottest100/15/countdown/
- ↑ http://www.ultratop.be/nl/showitem.asp?interpret=Grimes&titel=Flesh+Without+Blood&cat=s
- ↑ http://www.billboard.com/artist/303162/Grimes/chart?f=1234
- ↑ http://www.billboard.com/artist/303162/Grimes/chart?f=902