We’ve not had anything musically from Grimes since the release of her killer album Art Angels last year, but rejoice, a new track is here, and it’s on the Suicide Squad soundtrack.
Grimes first announced the record’s impending arrival back in June, now “Medieval Warfare” has just premiered on Beats1 radio with Zane Lowe, accompanied by an interview with the artist herself. The track features the sinister, trap-like crescendos and a dark, ravaging guitar riff of her last album and previous work with BloodPop (FKA Blood Diamonds). Lyrically, there’s the otherworldly tone of Visions, jumping between the superhero/villain complexes: “Baby I've been looking for a diamond” she sings sweetly, before a snarling chorus “Are you mad? Are you ugly? Can you kill someone with your hands?”
The track’s on a star-studded album, alongside Skrillex and Rick Ross collab “Purple Lamborghini,” “Standing in the Rain” by the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, Mark Ronson and Action Bronson, then Kehlani’s “Gangsta.” Eminem, Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa, Kevin Gates, Imagine Dragons, Ty Dolla $ign, and others will all make an appearance on the compilation.
Speaking on the show, the former Dazed cover star told Zane Lowe she was “weeping” when she first got the call about putting a track together. “I was very, very, very stoked” she said. The musician detailed how the pressure to create something great was “extreme”, producing something for the film that would fit somewhere in the void between “weird” and “normal”. “I made the end more weird and the beginning more normal,” she said while explaining her production.
Suicide Squad hits cinemas this Friday 5 August. Listen to the track below.
