grimes' ART ANGELS poll

Kill V. Maim without hesitation

though I can never remember the real lyrics

Italiana mobstah lookin so precious

Voted for SCREAM because it's great fun and I can't imagine anyone else voting for it. This album is top.

Listened to this again today, not regretting my vote for Flesh Without Blood but California and the title track are sounding pretty great too.

i do not get or like Grimes' music. She seems like a decent sort though.

Thanks for sharing

It's not that mystifying - Grimes is what would happen if you gave the average ILM poster musical talent and vision. I think she's very slightly overrated on here because she's such a perfect fit - precision-engineered for music-critic types with her embrace of Pop As Art - but it's still great stuff and ultimately I have no problem with her centrality to the discourse.

yo who tf else is voting for Pin so the results of this poll can be valid and true

katherine relentlessly otm itt

the demo is interesting but it sounds unfinished (obv bc it is a demo ffs)

and wrt the demo being a culmination of the visions sound, i really disagree, it still sounds like an unfinished demo and would sound that way on visions too

lol at people seeming offended at the idea that a demo could be superior to a studio version, it's not that uncommon there's even a really cool thread for essential demos Essential demos, alternative takes, original versions, and peel sessions of CLASSIC songs...

like, has it ever occurred to you that maybe grimes knows what the fuck she's doing (and has spent a lot of time fighting against people who assume she doesn't) and if she took the time, after losing the fucking Ableton file, to entirely reconstruct the track instead of dropping the demo on the album as would be easy, then maybe the re-recorded version is closer to her artistic vision

yes & i like the demo better

i can respect grimes' artistic vision and also like whatever the fuck i like, you know?

yeah, there's no disrespect to grimes' vision in preferring the demo - for all we know she might prefer it in some ways

Given the lecturing tone of posts itemising why I should prefer the album version to the demo, I feel compelled to explain why I don't. The latter comfortably outstrips the demo in production values, but there are artistic choices which reduce its emotional impact. Specifically, the vocals on the demo are bedded seamlessly into the mix, giving it a far more organic and dreamlike feel. For the album version she consciously increases the light and shade, dropping the instrumental bed away during the verses, and singing lines in different styles with different treatments - this is pretty grating on the second line, where she takes a deliberately arch tone and sings "death" off-key. The prechorus vocal elements are treated differently to each other and become a kind of call-and-response effect instead of the blurred, overlapping murmur of the demo. The vocal melody is tweaked with note bends and lifts on the word "reality", along with countermelodies throughout (vocal and instrumental) which again are adding variety. This is precisely the problem for me - the demo beds the vocal deep in the waves of instrumentation, and the vocal take sounds almost distracted and unselfconscious, carried along by the track's pulse and drifting in the ocean of reverb. The whole becomes hypnotic, oneiric, meditative and deeply emotional in a way I don't respond to the album recreation.

otm, the vocals seem less sincere, more of a self-conscious act on the album version - like she's singing lyrics she's familiar with to the point of boredom

but same thing kinda goes for the beat and synths - it's all too clear and pounding on the album, the vagueness of the demo is what's appealing!

I'm glad that some prefer the album version though, and I agree it makes more sense in the album context

That's it for me... I don't know how to explain it in technical terms like MatthewK but she sounds less mechanical in the demo version. Not trying to imprint my own fan fiction into the story of the song or anything but I don't think it's a crazy notion that she had more fun and was more infatuated with Realiti when creating it the first time than the second time and it 'feels' somehow. I might be remembering wrong but didn't she say at one point that Realiti 2.0 wouldn't be in the album at all because she felt it didn't feel like it was part of Art Angels but as a transition in sound between Visions and Art Angels.

Hell, the vinyl version removed the song completely. If Realiti 2.0 is closer to her artistic vision than the demo then why does it feel like Grimes herself wasn't happy with forcing it into the album?

My theory: She lost the original files, loved the song, had toremake the song either way because she needs the original files to play it live or something. Vinyl takes longer than CD/digital files to print so the original tracklist doesn't include Realiti at all. While waiting for the vinyl release she was still working on Realiti 2.0 and when she finished she said 'well, here it is, might as well add it in the cd/digital version'.

how is a demo less self-conscious than a studio recording?

the two versions are very different. they're completely different songs that evoke different emotions.

the demo is languid and reflective and the album version is sung with conviction. the demo is great but it wouldn't fit on art angels, which imo is a major departure from her earlier sound.

I'm glad we've reached consensus.

that's what i'm here for

hahaha

hmm interesting theory, moka, but it conspicuously fails to address the reptilians, seen here directly influencing grimes' decisions during the recording process.

when I get up, this is what I see
Welcome to "realiti"

give me a sign

http://i.imgur.com/b2OXthk.jpg

i understand where katherine is coming from. if people here were saying they liked grimes' "old stuff" better than her newer, riskier material (it was def risky for her to make an album that was more about expression than atmosphere, not to mention one that had been mostly stripped of wistful, melancholy moments) i would probably hit them. but i don't think that's the argument people are making.

By the way I completely agree the album version suits the album better, AND I love both Visions and Art Angels, AND I love the demo REALiTi and Grimes is one of my favourite and most respected artists.

i feel like the word "genius" isn't applied to her often enough

in some ways it's a bankrupt concept, but like, if any working mainstream artist should have a reputation as a mad visionary, uniquely immune from certain ordinary limits, i think it's grimes

So just to wrap up my opinion:

REALiTi demo is the bridge between Visions and Art Angels. At that point that demo was, imho, the best song she had ever crafted, the peak of her pre-art angels sound. I don't know if Grimes thought the same about it but that was the last song she released before shifting her sound and ambitions for Art Angels. It's like she just said 'ok, I already know how to do this sort of music... it's been fun and all but let's move on to something trickier now'.

REALiTi 2.0 is, then, the sound of Grimes revisiting a previous sound but with her new found pop ambitions. Whereas I think REALiTi demo is the best of her pre-art angels songs, REALiTi 2.0 is one of the least exciting things in here, and it's not because we've heard the song before, it's because it's written differently than the rest of the material. In Art Angels she is working with much less restrictions than before - again I suck at technicalities so don't know how to explain this - while her previous albums sound very loop-based and are in turn limited by them, art angels is much more 'maximalist' so to speak.

Oddly enough I don't think she's zany or crazy enough for the mainstream, but yes, she's quite talented and she does ticks all the boxes for huge mainstream recognition. I'd still prefer if she just stayed in between both worlds... having her as a pop tourist instead of a full-blown pop icon works better for her and her music I think.

But hey, if she opens the way for like-minded pop artists to dominate the airwaves then bring it on.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Voted "World Princess Part II". "Venus Fly" is worthy of more love though.

Je comprends
Je l'ai dit
C'est la vie
Oh Montréal, pull apart

There are just SO MANY GOOD SONGS ON ART ANGELS. Could make a case for most of them as "best".

conversation about literally any other track on this record >>>>>>>> conversation about realti demo vs realiti studio

xp Alfred, a demo recording, like a first take, can be less self conscious in the sense that you don't yet know what it should or could sound like, and because you're not trying to get the definitive take

brad otfm can we please talk about Pin or something

whom up and whom voting for PIN

cuz I think this scar is permanent

FALLING OFF THE EDGE WITH YOU

it was too good to be true AH OOH AH OOH AH OOH AH OOH-OOH

Which songs will get no votes? Instrumental passages like 'Laughing and not being normal' and 'Life in the Vivid Dream' I suppose... and actual songs with low votes? Belly of the Beat and title track?

i voted for the title track

I honestly cant remember what I voted for... I guess it was realiti if not that then easily or flesh

Oh! or butterfly that one is amazing

Realiti vs. Realiti was the best part of this poll.