Book 1

Book 1
Book 2
Book 3
Lore
Book 1 (stylized BOOK•I)https://youtu.be/ADHFwabVJec?t=29 is the upcoming sixth studio album by Grimes. The songs on the album are metaphorically referred to as 'chapters'.https://youtu.be/ADHFwabVJec?t=29
It is set in the same universe as Book 2 and Book 3 in which the digital girl group NPC reside. 
==Background==
Grimes started to work on her sixth studio album as early as 2018,https://www.nme.com/news/music/grimes-apologises-calling-4ad-shit-label-2249609 though it is not confirmed if any music made at the time is going to appear on Book 1.https://www.nylon.com/life/grimes-space-opera-album During the release cycle of Miss Anthropocene, Grimes revealed in an interview with Zane Lowe that she had finished working on the album for some months before its release and had started working on its follow-up, with the techno-pop track Violence being intended for Book 1 despite ultimately appearing on Miss Anthropocene.https://www.thefader.com/2019/09/05/grimes-charli-xcx-collaboration-interview-miss-anthropocene-violence After the release of Miss Anthropocene, Grimes' contract with the independent record label 4AD ended and a year later she announced the signing to major label Columbia Records on March 8, 2021.https://www.thefader.com/2021/03/08/grimes-has-signed-to-columbia-records
In 2021, she announced a collaboration with The Weeknd for the song Sci-Fi via Discord,https://www.reddit.com/r/TheWeeknd/comments/rr5yn0/grimes_just_confirmed_a_collab_with_the_weeknd/ which was confirmed to be another song for the album in an interview the following year.https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2022/03/grimes-cover-story-on-music-and-mars In 2022, Grimes teased a collaboration with the artist Eartheater,https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/news/latest-news/grimes-says-new-music-with-eartheater-is-coming-soon who will be present on a song on Book 1. In January 2023 in a since deleted tweet, Grimes teased a music video for the track Utopia, which was confirmed to be the opening track of the album in 2021.https://youtu.be/uCg0rp13Vp0?t=1437 as said in the Discord chat In the photo shared of the Utopia music video editing process a file could be seen called "Divinity in Extremis July", which made many speculate that this will be another album song.https://www.reddit.com/r/Grimes/comments/10n3xox/new_music_video_utopia_soon/
===Delays===
The album has been delayed several times, being considered for a 2021 release at the earliest. In an interview about the album published in July 2021, Grimes had the following to say:https://www.billboard.com/pro/grimes-interview-discord-new-album-futurism/
In an Instagram live chat in October 2021 during her time as an Alter Ego judge, Grimes explained why there was a delay between the album announcement and the first singles:https://youtu.be/VctRhvHwjME?si=wElZzZStxanM-gF3&t=672
In January 2022, Grimes stated:https://pitchfork.com/news/grimes-shares-video-for-new-song-shinigami-eyes-watch/
Grimes originally stated that the final song for the album was finished in September 2021.https://youtu.be/_oC1gYOnJrg?t=197 In September 2022 she said that the album was "done", had 20 songs on it, and was working on two more songs to release a double album, but did not know if she could.https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1571203737972084736https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1573303238320857089 She started working on new music in 2023 that's not apart of Book 1, but considered including the tracks onto the album.https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1650316102579175426 Grimes said the following about the postponement of the album in an interview with Forbidden Fruits published in May 2023:https://open.spotify.com/episode/75xYu6SDuiCEOObcYjifGF
In June 2023, Grimes had an idea to "gradually" release the album, with a song from the album being released every three weeks "[un]till it's essentiallly out."https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1610608453327659008Archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20230430101417/https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1610608453327659008https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1664083781081497600 This plan did not come to fruition. In an interview published in August of that year, when presented with the fact that the album is years overdue, Grimes said:https://www.wired.com/story/grimes-big-interview/
When asked about when the album is going to be released in an interview published in October 2023, she had the following to say:https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/grimes-aespa-k-pop-media-ai-music-1234853710/ 
In May 2024, in an Instagram comment Grimes said that she would be putting out new music once she had "20 or so tracks", mentioning that she wouldn't release an album "right away" sparking speculation that all previous songs and releases would be discarded and not see the light of day. Later that year in September, Grimes made an all-encompassing statement, summarizing all that has happened and what she has in store:https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1830477693475021181
:Grimes repeated the same speech when reassuring her fans:https://x.com/Grimezsz/status/1846415929468682712https://x.com/Grimezsz/status/1846374549182730334https://x.com/Grimezsz/status/1859148117083304060
===Leak===
On January 14th, 2025, nine songs created during the book 1 era but 10 in total, were leaked.https://pixeldrain.com/u/DjUrsvhh These were 100% Tragedy, Afterlife, Digital Calypso, The Infinite Assassin, Futuristic Drugs, Enjoy the angels on earth, Fantasia (Tears Are Data), MUSIC 4 MACHINES, Utopia, and Riot Song. 
:Grimes replied to those who informed her:https://x.com/Grimezsz/status/1879272693683696060
:Previously saying "it's not possible" when she thought her currently in the works songs leaked.https://x.com/Grimezsz/status/1879268411995455945
::She soon clarified that the leaked tracks were not part of any album:https://x.com/Grimezsz/status/1879501192407208146
Grimes said that none of the songs previously thought to be or likely to be on the album will be on her next long play,https://x.com/GrimesWiki/status/1879270319447519561 which means that she has an entirely new album she's working on. 
:Grimes implied VADAKIN to be a co-producer on it,https://x.com/Grimezsz/status/1879881896433422750 which title is not known, and it is also not known whether the "Book" title series will be continued or changed.
==Composition ==
On June 11, 2023, in an Instagram comment, Grimes said:https://twitter.com/grimesfeed/status/1667911726707212290
Grimes experienced a shift in creative and personal thinking from the beginning of this album to now, saying in January 2025:https://x.com/Grimezsz/status/1879271914381906294
==Album Visuals==
On December 3, 2021, Grimes first premiered album visuals photographed by Bryan Huynh on her social medias with the caption: "And so the BOOK 1 era begins",https://www.instagram.com/p/CXAiG74sUgV/ however, a few weeks later she posted alternate artwork by Chen Man.https://www.instagram.com/p/CYCWYVWFwLu/ On January 4, 2022, Grimes asked fans to vote on which cover they would prefer.https://www.instagram.com/p/CYUUtWDFwld/?img_index=1 Grimes went on to continue to work with Bryan Huynh, as he has been her co-creative director for several other photoshoots during the promotional campaign, and Chen Man would go on to use her photos for an NFT collection,https://opensea.io/collection/chen-man-silentnoise-episode-01 but, on May 31, 2023, Grimes tweeted in response to a fan account that she probably won't pick any of the album covers she originally proposed, and that the album cover should be "fluid and ever changing".https://web.archive.org/web/20230708175234/https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1664114762727460864 On May 25, 2024, Grimes revealed that she would be having a photoshoot for an album cover the following week, implying again that the formerly teased visuals were scrapped.https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1794484422349324730
Bryan Huynh (26 May 2021) 1-001.jpg
Book1 album art2.jpg
Facebook Cover photos (26 Jul 2021) 001.jpg
Book 1 Artwork.jpg
Book 1 Artwork 3.png
==Release and Promotion==
===Singles===
Player of Games cover artwork.png|03 Dec 2021 Player of Games
Shinigami Eyes cover artwork.jpg|26 Jan 2022 Shinigami Eyes
I Wanna Be Software single artwork.png|28 Jul 2023 I Wanna Be Software
== Tracklist==
On March 24, 2023, "Book 1.txt" was uploaded to Grimes' website elf.tech.https://www.reddit.com/r/Grimes/comments/120oqy8/book_1_censored_track_list_from_elftech/ A month later on April 30, an updated tracklist called "Book 1-2.txt" replaced the file,https://www.reddit.com/r/Grimes/comments/133ncod/huge_elftech_update/?utm_source=embedv2&utm_medium=post_embed&utm_content=action_bar however, it was online only for a single day before being replaced with lyrics for MUSIC 4 MACHINES. Parts of the tracklist repeat. 
Most of the X's in the tracklist do not match with the letters of confirmed song names. That could either mean that the encoded tracklist does not hold significant meaning or that Grimes has spelled some songs differently, or the album has a different tracklist from her earlier vision.
No.	Book 1.txt 	Book 1-2.txt
1. 	XXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXX 	MUSIC 4 MACHINES
2. 	Player of Games 	XX XXXXXXXX XX
3. 	XXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXX 	XXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXX
4. 	XXXXX XXXXXX XXXX 	XXXXX XXXXXX XXXX
5. 	XX XX 	XX XX
6. 	XX XXXXXXXX XX 	XX XXXXXXXX XX
7. 	XXX XXXXXXX XXXX 	XXX XXXXXXX XXXX
8. 	XXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXX\XXXXXX XXXX	XXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXX\XXXXXX XXXX
9. 	XXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXX 	XXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXX
10.	XXXXXXX 	XXXXXXX
11.	XXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX 	XXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX
12.	XXXXX XXX XXXX 	XXXXX XXX XXXX
13.	XXXX 	XXXX
14.	Shinigami Eyes 	XX XXXXXXXX XX
15.	 	XXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXX
16.	 	XXXXX XXXXXX XXXX
17.	 	XX XX
18.	 	XX XXXXXXXX XX
19.	 	XXX XXXXXXX XXXX
20.	 	XXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXX\XXXXXX XXXX
21.	 	XXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXX
22.	 	XXXXXXX
On May 31, 2023, Grimes tweeted, then deleted, a list of songs that would be on the album.https://www.reddit.com/r/Grimes/comments/13x46if/release_schedule_album_tracklist/ Grimes had stated that they were already behind schedule so the dates are not to be taken seriously However, she soon clarified that the titles were "incorrect", i.e likely spelled differently and not in tracklist order,https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1664082745063247874 and Darq Souls would not be present for the album, but rather would be released independently due to fan requests.https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1664111738286112768 The list was as follows: 
::But Grimes later said that she didn't create the list, so the songs were not necessarily meant for release.https://x.com/Grimezsz/status/1879278239824461876
*I wanna be software
*MUSIC 4 MACHINES
*Enjoy the angels on earth
*The Infinite Assassin
*100% Tragedy
*Riot Song (featuring HANA)
*Afterlife
*Digital Calypso 
*The Light Ages
*Utopia https://youtu.be/uCg0rp13Vp0?t=1437 as said in the Discord chat
*Player of Games
*Shinigami Eyes
*Sci-Fi (featuring The Weeknd)
===Previously Confirmed=== 
*LOVE (matches the amount of characters on track 13.)
*Marie Antoinette 2077 (matches the amount of characters on track 3.) 
*Title unknown (features the lyric "Despite all my rage / I am still just a doll in a cage")
* Futuristic Drugs (featuring Eartheater)
===Unconfirmed=== 
*A Letter for Shttps://www.reddit.com/r/Grimes/comments/xcjn9c/who_do_we_think_s_is_deleted_tweet/
*Discord (registered on ASCAP with Illangelo,https://www.ascap.com/repertory#/ace/search/workID/911956916 the song has 7 characters, the same as track 10 on the encoded tracklist.)
*Divinity in Extremis https://twitter.com/GRIMESBRAZIL/status/1619290136117915648
*Passage (out)
*Fantasia (Tears Are Data) 
*TARATATA
*Digital Bang
*Liberté
===Other===
Songs teased and released throughout the Book 1 era that are not apart of the album: 
*A Drug From God
*Welcome to the Opera
=== Outtakes===
*Violence (used on Miss Anthropocene).
*4ÆMhttps://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1058442374467076096 (used on Miss Anthropocene). 
==Trivia== 
*Book 1 was mostly recorded in Boca Chica, and thus the album is inspired by "(..) living out there [at the rocket factory]".Grimes lived with Elon Musk in Boca Chica from roughly mid 2020 to late 2022
==References==
Category:Albums