Another Look at Lyrics: Art Angels by Grimes
Hello Internet.
You clicked or tapped on that thing, well done! This is a blog post taking a deeper look into the songwriting of, Art of Angels by Grimes. My name is Lukas and welcome to Redefining Records.
I have written exactly one other article about music and I am here to do it again. Kinda. I don’t understand music like my friends here at RR do, but I think songwriting is very cool. So once again, I will attempt to communicate to you the messages an artist is sending via their album’s lyrics. And to be fair, not all artwork is intended to carry a message, but intending or not, one can still search.
[SKIP, unless you’re bored]
There is an ongoing internet debate about this topic - whether or not an author, artist, or equivalent intends to communicate the meaning your high school English teacher sees in their work. And to be honest, I don't give a shit if the blue curtains were intended to communicate sadness or not, to me, it means sadness. This is not to say that, for you, it can mean nothing. Anyway.
I used to not care about lyrics, but one night when I was about 14, something changed. While out jogging, I often played Kendrick Lamar’s GKMC. I jogged quite a bit at the time and so I heard the songs many, many times. On what could have been any other summer night, for the first time, I understood an album as more than just a collection of songs. It may not sound like much, but for 14 year old me, I thought it was cool. I understood a message more than just hearing music. After this, I could not listen to any other music the same. It was as if I had different ears. Ironically, I will not be talking about Kendrick’s discography tonight, it would take more time to write than I can afford at the moment.
I picked this album in particular for two reasons:
I think leadership is interesting academically -> I went to school at Berkeley-Haas where I found I quite enjoyed the subject. And coincidentally, for work, I have recently begun the process of writing a book about leadership.
Most of my work is digital marketing, which means I am on social media a lot. And so, I am very in tune with the meme community. Also for non-work reasons I like memes.
That being said, the two most prominent leaders in the memeosphere are Elon Musk and Donald Trump. So I have begun looking into their leadership styles to learn from the best.
In reading up on leadership, I noticed how the message is very similar to that of books from the mid-’80s about marriage therapy. [So now is when you might ask - Lukas why are you reading 40-year-old books about marriage therapy? Aren’t you 23 and not married? Well, yes, but also my parents got divorced and I don’t like to feel helpless, so I started my research a bit early]. So, I recently realized that good leadership looks a lot like building a healthy relationship with your significant other.
Choosing a significant other is one of the most intimate choices a person can make. I personally think that each individual aspires to be like or draws inspiration from their significant other. And so I figured that each leader’s choice signifies something about their most vulnerable self and thus leadership styles.
Ok, so let’s start with Donald’s current significant other, Melania.
She started modeling at 5 years old, began commercial work at sixteen and shortly after signed with an agency in Milan. She became widely successful after winning the Jana Magazine ‘Look of the Year’ contest in 1995. Here is some of her most popular work.
Now it's usually quite difficult to discern any clear message from photos alone. But I will give it my best shot.
The more I notice about the last image the more confused I get. What are those shoes? Why are you on the wing of a plane? Where did you put the gun when you aren’t using it? How did you get here? The only message I see here is - you should always carry a weapon just in case someone walks in on you changing on the wing of a private jet.
And with that, let's look at the most recent album from Elon’s significant other - Claire Boucher AKA Grimes.
Also lol at this quote from Grimes -> "I was simply unprepared," she said of the level of scrutiny that came with dating Musk. "I just thought I could keep going along in my funny little way, and then you casually respond to someone in a tweet and it's on Fox News, and you're like, ugh, you know? That was a very disturbing moment."
[END SKIP]
I will begin by going through each song individually and link to the lyrics in case you want more information. Then, in the end, I will summarize the meaning of the songs in relation to each other.
“laughing and not being normal”
Uh. A bit cryptic to tell at the moment what specifically is going on here. “Lean on the ground with you” and “When the leaves begin to fall / I try to catch ‘em all” makes me think someone she cares about / a relationship is dying and she’s trying to hold onto the memories?
Aww:( She notices that her music is liked only when it is sad. Her success is now directly related to being depressed. This combined with the stress of fading out of fame makes her want to die in the rising tides of climate change. A world that commodifies everything - especially sadness, is one that she does not want to live in.
This one is literally in Chinese, so I have no idea what the words mean by song because it forces you to read them which is not a step usually taken. The experience of listening vs. reading is one that I think draws me to attempt to understand something rather than just experience it.
As for the lyrics, they start pretty scary and then turn sexual. Like, I am generally confused but also a little bit disgusted and turned on at the same time? It starts like this,“Remembrance swarms like mosquitos, opening unfocused eyes.” Then continues onto this, “I planned to record your scream as you reached orgasm.”
In total, it looks like a very detailed recollection of an important sexual encounter. Beginning with a primal and absurd description of reaching orgasm which she planned and then failed to record. The experience ends abruptly when the phone rings.
Breakups are always sad in their individual way. She describes the intense pain of seeing potential in someone and then realizing they are not who you thought they were. Followed by the struggle to let go. And then compartmentalizing the pain by attributing fault to their chasing fame. Concluded by telling the ex-lover how bad they fucked up because they could have had it all.
Hahaha. Yeah, so this one is about how dying isn’t that bad because what does it really matter, and afterlife sounds great! “You’ll never get sad and you’ll never get sick”. The title “Belly of the Beat” implies the death experience a hero would encounter in mythical folklore before rising from the ashes. Mainly connoting that this dying -entering the belly of the beast - is not the end of the story.
A dancey and fun-sounding song which is emotionally filled with anger towards men using violence to get what they want. “I got friends in high places .. I get out for free.'' And how violence is akin to fire - both enticing and dangerous.
“I think I love you” x5 pretty much says it all. She appreciates being able to tell her lover “anything on her mind .. anything you feel like”.
It starts by telling a lover to leave, “like everyone I know”. Then about how that ex forgot about her and then tried to hit her up 3 years later. LOL.
Looking for someone to love - to entirely trust someone - is often painful. “Kiss me with a big knife.” The love referenced was too good to be true and they fall off some metaphorical edge together.
As kids, we get a glimpse at death (or life?) and she is jealous of that. Love is then connoted to this feeling of childhood sense of wonder in the immediate. Now in her non-child reality, there are mountains to climb. Every morning, another mountain and it never stops. Always another mountain.
Oh no, part I is from a different album. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. This song begins with the existential pressure of having big dreams but feeling good enough to do anything about them. “Not really that great, just ok and kinda fake”.
But then the second verse reveals that the first part was other people’s perceptions of her. She feels the men trying to control her life and her music are annoying and hurtful because - “I used to be a frail and silly / thought in your mind” and now that she has seen some success they are waiting at her feet. “Back at the first page, nothing gained for you but old age.” The chorus sings, “It’s mine” on repeat and this combined with the title implies that she sees the world as her for the taking.
Why are you always looking at me talking smack? This song feels like she is irritated with the attention of others and subsequent judgment. The lyrics “feeling my beat like a sniper girl” and the title “Venus Fly” gives the song the feeling of intended violence towards the viewer AKA the fly on the wall.
“Angels will cry when it’s raining / Tears that are no longer clean / What do you mean, it’s all gone”
The previous mention of dying in rising tides makes me think this song is more frustration about climate change. She has waited so long to live in this world as an adult only to find that it is no longer clean and will all be gone soon.
This song appears to be from the perspective of a butterfly in a fire. But more than that she switches to the first person and aims to create empathy from humans for the butterfly in saying, “You could be anything out there / Butterflies flying in the air”. And finally, the line, “there is harmony in everything” makes me think that she intends to convince humans that everything is connected and burning forests and killing butterflies, albeit small and apparently insignificant, will have a dramatic impact on the world.
She ends the album with, “If you’re looking for a dream girl / I’ll never be your dream girl”. I am sure her producers would rather she make songs like Cardi B - talking about money and sex, but she would much rather write about commodification and climate change.
So after writing this, I found out Grimes partnered with The FADER to put out a mini-documentary about this album. The documentary begins with, “At the beginning, there was just Grimes. I do not technically have control of the narrative anymore.” With this knowledge, this album appears to be a transition of Grimes into the public domain and her fight to keep it all her. She mentions constantly having producers want to collaborate with her on music to which she says, “just let me do my fucking job.” Starkly counterposing traditional pop, she would very much like to write and produce her music. More than just being the face for Grimes, she would like to actually be Grimes.
I very much appreciate the intensity to which she refuses outside assistance because I think the pure message of the artist can only be made if they alone have full control. As soon as you start allowing the influence of other opinions, the motive for art shifts from the desire to create something meaningful to the desire to make money.
Grimes also mentioned in the documentary how the theme of this album was aggressive - aggressively stoked or aggressively angry- but mostly just aggressive. While performing her last album Visions, she found herself screaming more and more often. This sound soon found its way into a few of the songs here - namely …”SCREAM”. The aggression can also be felt in the lyrics throughout the album. There is immense frustration felt in regards to many of the world’s modern problems - commodification of everything, even sadness - the rising tides of climate change - forest fires and de-habitation - objectifying women - personality development while in the spotlight - and the most frustrating of all, pressing the wrong button when trying to record your lovers orgasm.
I think my favorite song (lyrically) was “SCREAM” and no, not because it’s in Chinese but because the writing is simultaneously gorgeous and terrifying. If you were to read any of the songs’ lyrics, it should be that one. Oh and just FYI, the song was co-written by a Taiwanese rapper, Aristophanes, who does the singing while Grimes screams. I will end with a line that will largely be unappreciated because it is sung in Chinese but is beautiful nonetheless.
“My fingers created a cold lake / I look around, no one is guarding / The exhibitionist takes out his coat / And jumps into it with tears on his face”. What beautiful imagery this conjures up in the mind. The first verse is a phantasmagoric collection of pictures both sexual and violent. Despite being wildly uncomfortable, I like it a lot.
Overall this is a very well done, critically acclaimed album that manages to be both pop-friendly and not exclusively about relationships. It has a wide variety in themes but does not delve too deeply into any of the issues presented. The frustration is felt quite deeply, but I generally prefer to see consistency in theme instead of a chaotic rant of what is annoying in the world. That being said, the fact that she was able to even communicate these ideas artfully and independently says a lot about her perseverance, and compassion for the world.
[Returning to the SKIP]
Now, what does any of this mean about leadership?
TL;DR the skip section -> I study leadership and like memes - the two most prominent meme leaders are Donald Trump and Elon Musk. To peek into the minds of leaders, it helps to look at their intimate relationships. Good leadership is very much about relationship building. The paradigms taught in business leadership classes resemble the message in marriage therapy books. Thus you can get an idea of the values and leadership style of an individual by looking at their most important relationship - the one with their significant other.
Trump - His wife Melania cares most about appearance. Her successful career in modeling makes me think that above anything else, Trump values image. Melania is gorgeous and if Trump were a woman, I think he would choose a life very much like hers.
Musk - His girlfriend Claire, AKA Grimes, cares most about the personal journey of artistic creation as for the self and not for money, and the ills of modern society. Her lyrics make me think that above anything else, Elon values sending a message - and the message both are sending is about the impending doom if the world doesn’t change. And like Trump, I think Musk were a woman would choose to live a life similar to that of Grimes.
Thanks for reading. I had a good time writing this. If you want to connect with me, DM me on Facebook.
