Flesh Without Blood
Lead single from Grimes' fourth album Art Angels.
Grimes, a Canadian musician, put out "Flesh Without Blood" on October 26, 2015. It served as the first single from her fourth album, Art Angels. That same day, she uploaded a combined music video for this song and "Life in the Vivid Dream" to YouTube.
Quick Facts
- Artist
- Grimes
- Album
- Art Angels
- Released
- October 26, 2015
- Recorded
- 2015
- Genre
- Pop
- Length
- 4:24
- Label
- 4AD
Facts from the source article.
Background
Grimes stated on Twitter that the song concerns a platonic friendship with a woman. She noted that before she clarified this, the press assumed it was about a heterosexual relationship, which she saw as an example of how "the press genders my lyrics." She also said she no longer writes songs about love and described the track as being about disappointment with someone once truly admired. The music video character Rococo Basilisk references Roko's basilisk and the Rococo art movement; Grimes described the character as "doomed to be eternally tortured by an artificial intelligence, but she's also kind of like Marie Antoinette."
Critical reception
"Flesh Without Blood" landed at number 15 on Billboard's 2015 year-end list, which praised it as a "stratospheric kiss-off" balancing pop appeal with eccentricity. Rolling Stone also ranked it 15th among the year's best songs. The Village Voice placed it 12th in its annual critics' poll, while Time named it the 10th best song of 2015. Pitchfork Media rated it the 7th best song and 18th best music video of that year. The song reached number 71 on the 2015 Triple J Hottest 100.
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