Violence

Album: Miss Anthropocene (2019)
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Songfacts®:

  • Here, Grimes sings about climate change from the perspective of the Earth.

    You can't see what I see
    Cause you, ha, ha
    You feed off hurting me, off hurting me


    Grimes personifies the relationship between humans and our planet as an abusive kind of love. Because of the way mankind is stripping the Earth of her natural beauty and resources, it will just become more hostile to humans and further our suffering.
  • The song is a track from Miss Anthropocene. Grimes explained that the record is a concept album "about the anthropomorphic Goddess of climate change: A psychedelic, space-dwelling demon/ beauty-Queen who relishes the end of the world. She's composed of ivory and oil."
  • Grimes recorded the song with Los Angeles-based electronic producer and DJ i_o. Speaking with Beats 1's Zane Lowe, she said: "I hit i_o up and we made this song up in an hour. And then I was just like, 'This must go on the album because it just feels good.'"
  • The song finds Grimes concentrating on making music where her voice is central and cutting back on her usual production duties. "I feel like for the first time, I'm really seeing myself as a singer, which is something I've never really done before, and it actually feels really good to just sing," she said.

    She continued: "I've always just been so pushing that part of myself away because I've been like, 'I'm a producer first.'"

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