Flesh without Blood

Flesh without Blood
Single artwork
General Information
Title	Flesh without Blood
Released	26 Oct 2015
Album	Art Angels
Type	Single
Length	4:24
Key + BPM	A♭ Major • 156
Format	CD • Vinyl • Digital download • Streaming
Credits
Artist	Grimes
Writer(s)	Grimes
Producer(s)	Grimes
Label	4AD
Art Angels Tracklist
SCREAM
Flesh without Blood
Belly of the Beat

Flesh without Blood is a song by Grimes. It is the fourth track on her fourth studio album, Art Angels, and was released as the lead single.

Background

Meaning

Grimes described the song as being about "a platonic friendship with a [former] female [best] friend."

Grimes noted how, prior to stating her authorial intent, the press had assumed that the song was about a heterosexual relationship. She saw this as an example of how "the press genders my lyrics" and said that she no longer writes songs about love. She also described it as a song about "being really disappointed with someone who you really once truly admired".

Media

Video

Video	Credits
	Title	Flesh without Blood/Life in the Vivid Dream
	Premiere	26 Oct 2016
	Length	6:51
	Director	Grimes
	Editor	Grimes

Behind the Scenes

[1]

[1] With Grimes: Unknown

Background

One of the characters Grimes is playing is named Rococo Basilisk, a word mashup of the thought experiment Roko's basilisk and the Rococo art movement. Grimes said that the character was "doomed to be eternally tortured by an artificial intelligence, but she's also kind of like Marie Antoinette."

Video	Credits
	Title	Grimes Explains The Characters In Flesh Without Blood
	Premiere	01 Apr 2017
	Length	1:23
	Director	The Fuse
	Notes	Grimes directed, edited, colored and art-directed the complex, time-hopping-themed video for her single, Flesh Without Blood. The Fuse First artists explains the back story behind each character she created and how they relate to her. Subscribe to the Fuse TV Channel: h t t p : / / b i t . l y / f u s e S u b Fuse is empowering entertainment for young, diverse cultural adventurists. We celebrate artists, activists, and creators who break boundaries and challenge the status quo. Watch exclusive short-form originals like: ‘Mind Massage,’ ‘Lie Detector,’ and ‘Wreckreation’—all featuring the hottest new artists in music. Plus, exclusive clips of ‘The Read with Kid Fury and Crissle,' ‘T-Pain’s School Of Business,’ ‘Big Boy’s Neighborhood,’ and ‘Sugar And Toys.’ #Fuse #Grimes #NewMusic

Transcript

In the video Flesh without Blood, if you've seen the movie Looper, they're, like, kind of, like, travelling through time, but they're, like, different iterations of the same character over time. So, if Ivy is, like, the really, really ancient one and then, like, Screechy Bat is, like, the current one, then, like, they're traveling through time to kill the Marie Antoinette version so she doesn't f--- things up.

Ivy is four and, which is, like, I don't know, sort of like the demon, this is so embarrassing, leader of the album, ugh, God, I can't say it out loud, and, I mean, okay, I guess, like, I was like, if I was writing a manga, what would it be like? But, so she's kind of like the demonic evil overlord. And then Kill V. Maim is just the vampire. Rococo Basilisk is, like, I don't know if you've heard of Roko's Basilisk - she's, like, doomed to be, like, eternally tortured by, like, you know, an artificial intelligence, but she's also kind of like Marie Antoinette.

Screechy Bat I think is, like, in my head when I write music it's Screechy Bat, like, cuz Grimes has kind of been very abstracted from reality. You know, when I made Visions, like, you know, I was like: "Oh yeah, I'll go back to school, get a job, blah blah, life.", like, you know, I wasn't ever expecting there would be an audience necessarily and, so once you start having an audience, you kinda, it's easier to write from the perspective of someone who isn't you.

Critical reception

Billboard ranked Flesh without Blood at number 15 on its year-end list of the best songs of 2015, and commented: "There were several otherworldly pop bangers on Grimes' Art Angels, but we're glad she decided to let this stratospheric kiss-off kick off the album cycle. The artist named Claire Boucher kept us guessing in the album's long gestation period, sharing "Go," an EDM banger she'd written for Rihanna, and then admitting she'd scrapped an entire album's worth of material. In the end, she delivered the pop some of her fans were craving, without sacrificing the weirdness that made her a cult star. "Flesh without Blood" is that in a nutshell — a sky-scraping hook pulled out of unintelligible vocals, served over an underbelly of humming guitar".

Rolling Stone ranked Flesh without Blood at number 15 on their year-end list of the 50 best songs of 2015. The prestigious Village Voice ranked the song at number 12 on their annual year-end critic's poll. Time named Flesh without Blood the best song of 2015. Pitchfork Media named Flesh without Blood the seventh best song and eighteenth best music video of 2015. The song also came in at number 71 on the annual Triple J Hottest 100 for 2015.

Commercial performance

Flesh without Blood peaked at number 84 in Belgium (Ultratop Flanders). Furthermore, it reached peak 18 and 23 in US Hot/Dance Electronic Songs and Hot Rock Songs (Billboard) respectively.

Lyrics

You claw, you fight, you lose
Got a doll that looks just like you
Remember when we used to say
"I love you" almost every day
I saw the light in you
Going out as I closed our window
You never liked me anyway

Hey, hey, hey
I don't see the light I saw in you before
And now I don't, and now I don't
And now I don't care anymore
(Now I don't care anymore)

Baby, believe me
And you had every chance
You destroy everything you know
(Uncontrollable)
If you don't need me
Just let me go

You hate, you bite, you lose
After all, I just don't like you
It's nice that you say you like me
But only conditionally
Your voice, it had the perfect glow
It got lost when you gave it up though
Cause you want money
You want fame

Hey, hey, hey
I don't see the light I saw in you before
And now I don't, and now I don't
And now I don't care anymore
(And now I don't care anymore)

Baby, believe me
And you had every chance
You destroy everything you know
(Uncontrollable)
If you don't need me
Just let me go

Ooh, ooh
(Hey, hey, sing along, baby
Then your heart beats
Bleeds underground now)
Hey, hey, oh no
(Now I don't care anymore)

Baby, believe me
And you had every chance
You destroy everything you know
(Uncontrollable)
If you don't need me
Just let me go
Baby, believe me
And you had every chance
You destroy everything you know
(Uncontrollable)
If you don't need me
Just let me go

Ah
(Uncontrollable)
Ah
Ah
Ah

Trivia

• Alternatively spelled as "Flesh, without Blood".
• It is the first act of Art Angels.