Grimes has unveiled Psy Opera, an album built around the theme of artificial intelligence and her first in six years. A trailer titled Eve Is Online arrived on 7 October, followed by a lead single, "Accelerando", released with its own music video. No release date has been announced yet.
“When everyone has the same tools that can make professional quality stuff, then you get to see the actual talent, like, really rise to the top”
Grimes, on PBS series A Brief History of the Future, 2024 · pitchfork.com ↗
The trailer is a psychedelic montage of alien-baby statues, wartime footage and space battles, with Grimes appearing in many guises and ending as an elfin warrior on a livestream. Its narration recasts the opening of the Gospel of John as a tale of AI rising. The single's video puts her in chains, at the stake and firing a gun in an android battle.
Frame from the Eve Is Online trailer for Psy Opera
Image: The FADER
The record is the first on her own label, Nazgul Recording LLC, set up after she left Columbia, and follows 2020's Miss Anthropocene. A press release says it takes in the AI debate, wars, a bad ex, looksmaxers and religion, drawn from her pop hiatus. Fans are invited to join an Instagram channel also called Eve Is Online.
In April she told Interview she had quit music for a time and came back after a commission to write a rap for a K-pop artist. She says she does not use AI in her music, only for visuals, though she has long backed it for musicians: in 2023 she offered 50% royalties on successful AI songs that use her voice.
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