The dream pop artist, Grimes, released the first album of hers in five years, with “Miss Anthropocene” being dropped this past Friday. She has been releasing singles from the album since Nov. 2019, with releases such as “So Heavy I Fell Through The Earth” and “Violence”. The album, originally announced to be released in Sept. 2019, has been highly anticipated and buzz around the album was only heightened by her pregnancy announcement via social media.

In all of her albums, Grimes sticks to an experimental sound which has been popularizing dream pop further. Often using higher and breathy vocals, her voice has been used to emphasize the digital sound with heavy uses of tuning her voice into the instrumental. Overall, creating a technological sound, noticeable in tracks such as “4 ÆM” and “My Name is Dark”.

The song “Darkseid” features verses from Aristophanes, the Taiwanese rapper. Both artists use a falsetto sound that on the track, mesh well together. Alongside Grime’s verses in English, Aristophanes joins in in Mandarian, before Grime’s continues the bridge, also in Mandarian. While singing in Mandarian is not new to Grime’s, as her debut album “Geidi Primes” also includes Mandarian singing, the collaboration with Aristophanes gives a fresh sound part of the way through the album. 

Every song on “Miss Anthropocene” stays true to the synth-pop genre, except for “Delete Forever”. The song, designed to create an ‘opposite’ sound to the rest of her music, was purposefully recorded with raw vocals and instrumentals. The lyrics are about her experience with losing those close to her to heroin overdoses. The contrast of this track to the rest of her album highlights the meaning of the song and also keeps the album from sounding too similar, while still staying true to her smooth vocals.

“Miss Anthropocene” stays true to Grime’s dystopian style while also introducing a few new concepts within the album. She remains an icon within the dream pop realm and continues to use an experimental yet industrial sound. The album demonstrates Grime’s message well while also staying true to her past music. Within the first few hours of its release, the album has received positive reviews from Pitchfork and Times alongside the positive response from listeners and fans.