Grimes Wiki
Grimes Wiki
Grimes Wiki
1,869
pages
in: Speculation, Songs, Miss Anthropocene,
and 2 more

IDORU

Sign in to edit

IDORU is a song by Grimes. It is the tenth track on her fifth album, Miss Anthropocene.

IDORU is the Goddess of Digital Lust.[1]

Background[]

On June 4, 2018, she posted a demo snippet of the song recorded through her phone on Twitter (now X).[2] An unmixed and unmastered version of the song was leaked alongside other unfinished tracks of the album on October 25, 2019 and the final version was leaked on November 24, 2019 as part of the full album leak.[3][4]

Composition[]

Meaning[]

Grimes told Apple Music:[5]

❝ The bird sounds are from the Squamish birdwatching society—their website has lots of bird sounds. But I think this song is sort of like a pure love song. And it just feels sort of heavenly—I feel very enveloped in it, it kind of has this medieval/futurist thing going on. It’s like if ‘Before the Fever’ is like the climax of the movie, then ‘IDORU’ is the end title. It’s such a negative energy to put in the world, but it’s good to finish with something hopeful so it’s not just like this mean album that doesn’t offer you anything. ❞

The song is not about Elon Musk, but either a previous boyfriend and/or an artist Grimes was in love with.[6][7]

Media[]

Video[]

Video Credits
Grimes_-_Idoru_(Slightly_Longer_Version)
Title IDORU (Slightly Longer Version)
Premiere 27 Feb 2020
Length 6:53
Notes Cosplaying by Zekia.

Background

Two music videos entitled "Slightly Longer Version" and "Slightly Shorter Version" were released at the same time to correspond with the Art Mix and Algorithm Mix, respectively. The videos started out as a camera test and the lyrics shown throughout the videos are in the fictional language of Marain out of Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks, which is one of Grimes's favourite books.[8] The videos mostly consist of grimes lipsyncing the song against a changing blue and purple background while holding a sword; Grimes, her friend and fellow musician HANA, Asy and Chloe Saavedra of Chaos Chaos and JEN in a swimming pool wearing fairy wings; clips from the anime Revolutionary Girl Utena, and clips from the video game NieR: Automata.[9] The 'camera test' scenes were filmed shortly before the videos got released, however, the 'pool' scenes were filmed earlier as they were also featured in the "Pretty Dark" video. At 1:44 in the "Slightly Shorter Version", Grimes can be seen opening the book IDORU by William Gibson (which inspired the song title) to reveal that the book is dedicated to Claire (Gibson's daughter), which is Grimes' real name.[10]

Grimes revealed that she had "sort of" shot a video for "IDORU" and had started editing said video in 2018.[11][12] However, most of the IDORU video was shot in 2020, meaning the video in 2018 got scrapped. But it is possible that the pool scenes included in the final video came from the latest shoot, but that is unknown and unlikely.[speculated]

Video Credits

Title IDORU (Slightly Shorter Version)
Premiere 27 Feb 2020
Length 5:18
Notes Cosplaying by Zekia.

Background

Two music videos entitled "Slightly Longer Version" and "Slightly Shorter Version" were released at the same time to correspond with the Art Mix and Algorithm Mix, respectively. The videos started out as a camera test and the lyrics shown throughout the videos are in the fictional language of Marain out of Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks, which is one of Grimes's favourite books.[13] The videos mostly consist of grimes lipsyncing the song against a changing blue and purple background while holding a sword; Grimes, her friend and fellow musician HANA, Asy and Chloe Saavedra of Chaos Chaos and JEN in a swimming pool wearing fairy wings; clips from the anime Revolutionary Girl Utena, and clips from the video game NieR: Automata.[14] The 'camera test' scenes were filmed shortly before the videos got released, however, the 'pool' scenes were filmed earlier as they were also featured in the "Pretty Dark" video. At 1:44 in the "Slightly Shorter Version", Grimes can be seen opening the book IDORU by William Gibson (which inspired the song title) to reveal that the book is dedicated to Claire (Gibson's daughter), which is Grimes' real name.[15]

Grimes revealed that she had "sort of" shot a video for "IDORU" and had started editing said video in 2018.[16][17] However, most of the IDORU video was shot in 2020, meaning the video in 2018 got scrapped. But it is possible that the pool scenes included in the final video came from the latest shoot, but that is unknown and unlikely.[speculated]

Lyrics[]

[Verse 1]
You are the only one
Babe, I was so numb
And even though I'm breaking, at least
I feel something (Just like release)

[Pre-Chorus]
Look, I say
As my fingers tremble
This is what I am
And, and, and you
Fingers tremblin' too
Understand

[Chorus]
Yeah, we could play a beautiful game
We could play a beautiful game
You could chase me down in the name
Of love
I wanna play a beautiful game
Even though we're gonna lose
But I adore you
Adore you

[Verse 2]
You are the only one
Babe, I was so dumb, ooh, ooh
And even though I'm breaking, at least
I feel something (How can you be so mean?)

[Pre-Chorus]
Choose, I say
As my fingers tremble
This is who I am
And, and, and you
Fingers tremblin' too
Understand

[Chorus]
Yeah, we could play a beautiful game
We could play a beautiful game
You could chase me down in the name
Of love
I wanna play a beautiful game
Even though we're gonna lose
But I adore you
Adore you

[Bridge]
Unrequited love has reassembled me
I think it's crazy
And if you said I do
I'd reassemble you, baby
And you're so cool
'Cause you don't think you're cool
You can abuse it
Because you made my all-time favorite music

[Interlude]
We could play a beautiful game
We could play a beautiful game
You could chase me down in the name
Of love
I wanna play a beautiful game
Even though we're gonna lose
But I adore you
I adore you
So, I ignore you

[Chorus]
We could play a beautiful game
We could play a beautiful game
You could chase me down in the name
Of love
But there you are, getting away
Think we finally lose
But I adore you
I adore you
I adore you, oh
I adore you
I adore you
I adore you

[Outro]
You, you
You, you
You, you
You, you, you

[Verse 1]
You were the only one
Pale, we're so numb, ooh
And even though I'm breaking at least
I feel something (Just like release)

[Pre-Chorus]
Oh, they say
As my fingers tremble
This is what I am
And when, when you
Fingers tremblin' too
Understand

[Chorus]
Yeah, we could play a beautiful game
We could play a beautiful game
You could chase me down the way
Ah-la, la
I wanna play a beautiful game
Even though we're gonna lose
But I adore you
Adore you

[Verse 2]
You were the only one
Pale, we're so dumb, ooh, ooh
And even though I'm breaking at least
I feel something (How can you be so mean?)

[Pre-Chorus]
True, as they say
As my fingers tremble
This is who I am
And then, then you
Fingers tremblin' too
Understand

[Chorus]
We could play a beautiful game
We could play a beautiful game
You could chase me down the way
Ah-la, la
I wanna play a beautiful game
Even though we're gonna lose
But I adore you
I adore you
'Cause I know you

You might also like

[Chorus]
We could play a beautiful game
We could play a beautiful game
You could chase me down the way
Ah-la, la
But there you are, hidden away
Can't quit fighting with you
But I adore you
I adore you
I adore you, oh
I adore you
I adore you

[Outro]
You, you, you

Trivia[]

  • The song is named after the book Idoru by William Gibson.[18][19]
  • The song was originally titled "Adore u"[20] and "Adore u (beautiful game)".[21]
  • The stems for the song were released on April 30, 2023. It included several raw and unused vocal takes, with some unused lyrics.[22]

References[]

  1. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20200228203815/https://www.grimesmusic.com/
  2. ↑ https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1003875361224945666
  3. ↑ https://youtu.be/IdWSTpcVV8I?t=988
  4. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/indieheads/comments/e173zn/leak_grimes_miss_anthropocene/
  5. ↑ https://music.apple.com/us/album/miss-anthropocene/1496782284
  6. ↑ https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rollingstone.com%2Fmusic%2Fmusic-features%2Fgrimes-rolling-stone-digital-cover-960843%2F
  7. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VqMFyQCDEQ&t=961s
  8. ↑ https://twitter.com/GrimezszCharts/status/1233197037530877952
  9. ↑ https://www.factmag.com/2020/02/28/grimes-idoru-william-gibson/
  10. ↑ https://twitter.com/GreatDismal/status/1233621016158433281
  11. ↑ https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1069092653478760448
  12. ↑ https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1069400362610638848
  13. ↑ https://twitter.com/GrimezszCharts/status/1233197037530877952
  14. ↑ https://www.factmag.com/2020/02/28/grimes-idoru-william-gibson/
  15. ↑ https://twitter.com/GreatDismal/status/1233621016158433281
  16. ↑ https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1069092653478760448
  17. ↑ https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1069400362610638848
  18. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idoru
  19. ↑ https://youtu.be/XjwwuOsSMlw?t=1049
  20. ↑ https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1003875361224945666
  21. ↑ https://grimes.fandom.com/wiki/File:43ece5a5-276d-4df7-b80b-9cc6d3cfac46-610x1220.jpg
  22. ↑ https://grimes.wetransfer.com/downloads/ac9dd0c91efb624faa8b608bc1b3144720230501062137/e22ff7
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.