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laughing and not being normal
| California | SCREAM
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California is a song from Grimes' fourth solo studio album Art Angels, being the second track off the album and third promotional single. As stated on her SiriusXM takeover, California is a hate track towards the music website Pitchfork. This hate may be the result of various misinterpretations of her words, to which Grimes has expressed her discontent about in several of her Tweets. A music video for the song was released on May 9, 2016.
Video
The music video for California, self-directed by Grimes and her brother Mac Boucher, features clips of Grimes and friends in an art studio, on stage, and in a gym, wearing a variety of colorful outfits whilst lively dancing around and performing. The track used for the first verses and chorus of the song differs from the version on Art Angels; having a more chilled back, dreamy and stripped instrumental. After the release of the video, Grimes took to her Twitter to explain the reason for the alternate rendition of the song featured in the music video, saying it was "dissonant" with the original track and failed to elicit visuals in her mind: "had to re do track because when I looked at the footage it was dissonant w the original song, song elicits no visuals in my mind naturally"[1].
Artwork
The artwork for the song depicts many words throughout the drawing: "fairy cemetery", referencing a term Grimes often calls herself (that being "faery", or "fairy") and "born: year of the dragon"; which directly concerns Boucher as she was born on March 1988, the year of the Dragon on the Chinese zodiac calendar.
Lyrics
This, this music makes me cry
It sounds just like my soul, oh
Oh I'm not ready to win
Oh lord 'cause I don't wanna know what they say
'Cause I get carried away
Commodifying all the pain
The things they see in me, I cannot see myself
When you get bored of me, I'll be back on the shelf
And when the ocean rises up above the ground
Baby I'll drown, in...
California
You only like me when you think I'm looking sad
California
I didn't think you'd end up treating me so bad
Oh, I, I, I
Come Monday, it's a dream
Oh, I, I, I
Broken my own heart again
Chasing something beautiful
Oh, but I don't understand what they say
Cause I get carried away
Commodifying all the pain
The things they see in me, I cannot see myself
When you get bored of me, I'll be back on the shelf
And when the ocean rises up above the ground
Baby I'll drown, in...
California
You only like me when you think I'm looking sad
California
I didn't think you'd end up treating me so bad
California
You only like me when you think I'm looking sad
California
I didn't think you'd end up treating me so bad
Oh, I, oh, I
Oh na, na, na, ne
