Grimes’s Miss Anthropecene has been subject to a lot of controversy long before it was even released: the numerous delays and Grimes’s tension with her record label, the bad faith readings of her comments about making climate change “fun”, her relationship with billionaire Elon Musk. Is it possible to divorce the album from this context? If you can separate it, you’ll hear deep, dark pop (“Darkseid”, with Taiwanese rapper 潘PAN, formerly Aristophanes) and cybernetic d’n’b bangers (“4Æm”) alongside some of the most downtempo and pretty tracks that Grimes has ever released (“You’ll miss me when I’m not around”, “So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth”).
It’s a bumper week for new releases, with long-awaited new efforts from King Krule and BTS both landing. Australian pop singer Banoffee, Bay Area rapper Kamaiyah, and tender-hearted songwriter Moses Sumney have all released new records, too. Take a listen below.