Grimes has shared a new music video, to accompany her recently-released track “Player of Games”. The visuals are directed by cultish director Anton Tammi, with a storyline and creative direction from the musician herself.
Grimes also stars in the video, wielding a lightsaber (along with a more traditional sword reminiscent of her 2021 Met Gala look) to do battle with a character called the Dark King. Played by Andreï Pishchalnikov, the mythical character also plays the Marie Antoinette of the TikTok era at chess and video games, in a nod to the track’s title.
“Player of Games” was originally released earlier this month, following cryptic teasers in binary code. Listeners immediately noted its link to Grimes’ recent breakup with her boyfriend (and father of X AE A-XII), Elon Musk, with lyrics including: “Baby how can I compare / To the adventure out there? / Sail away to the cold expanse of space / Even love couldn't keep you in your place.”
Continuing the space-age gaming theme, the track features on the soundtrack for the latest season of the video game Rocket League. Elsewhere Grimes has shared the first track from her AI girl group, NPC – titled “A Drug From God” – and teased a new demo, “Digital Calypso”, via TikTok.
Grimes’ last full-length album, Miss Anthropocene, was released in 2020. Grimes has teased that the follow-up will be a space opera that revolves around a lesbian AI romance.
Watch the video for “Player of Games” below.