Released October 26, 2015 Recorded 2015 Length 4:24 | Format Digital download Genre Dance-pop Label 4AD | |
"Flesh Without Blood" is a song by Canadian singer, songwriter and music producer Grimes, released on October 26, 2015 as the lead single from her fourth studio album, Art Angels (2015). The same day, Grimes released the "Flesh Without Blood/Life in the Vivid Dream" video to YouTube, a double music video featuring "Flesh Without Blood" and "Life in the Vivid Dream", another song on Art Angels.
Critical reception
Billboard ranked "Flesh Without Blood" at number 15 on its year-end list for 2015: "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 [Grimes' birth name] 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 Village Voice ranked "Flesh Without Blood" 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 7th best song and 18th best music video of 2015. The song also came in at #71 on the annual Triple J Hottest 100 for 2015.