During this stripped-back, acoustic-guitar-driven pop song, Grimes explores the dark feelings of a person struggling with substance abuse. Always down, I'm not up Guess it's just my rotten luck To fill my time with permanent gloom I see everything, I see everything Don't you tell me now that I don't want it Grimes wrote the tune shortly after hearing the news of rapper Lil Peep's death from a drug overdose. "I guess it's kind of about the opioid epidemic and that kinda thing 'cause I've had quite a few friends actually pass away, in particular one friend when I was like 18 passed away from complications related to opioid addiction," the singer told Apple Music's Zane Lowe of the track. "It's just like artists keep dying and stuff so, I wrote this song on the night Lil Peep died or whatever 'cause I just got super-super triggered by that."
The track's acoustic sound gives it an Oasis feel. Grimes told Zane Lowe that most of the instrumentals are from her original demo. "When I was making this song I was trying to be more like Patsy Cline or something, like I was trying to be country or something, but I feel like it ends up having this 'Wonderwall' sort of vibe," she said.
The combination of Grimes' vocal performance and i_o's production flourishes enriches the song. Grimes explained to Apple Music that Miss Anthropocene marks a change from her previous albums. "For the first time I'm seeing myself as a singer," she said. "It actually feels really good, because I've always been pushing that part of myself away. As a female, it's important to foreground the producer stuff, but I feel like I've earned my ten minutes to sit around and sing, if I please."
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