Grimes/Claire Boucher thread

So I ordered this from 4ad, thinking that I'd get access to a digital copy today, but it's not looking that way. Do I really get to* wait until December when they ship the CD to hear it.

*trying to stay positive =/

"Kill V. Maim" reminds me of Gwen Stefani's "Bubble Pop Electric," haha.

― jaymc,

Much of this album sounds more like Stefani than the last one.

also agree w/ holy shit @ 'kill v maim' thats a pretty huge highlight

i am....not feeling kill v. maim

it's the soundtrack to the industrial mega man level of my dreams

only at "kill v maim" so far but yeah this is remarkably...shiny and clean?

my sympathies to the disappointed but i can't believe no one is in raptures about how good this is. it's much brighter than I expected & so percussive with it, towards the end of the album especially. i always enjoyed grimes from a mumbler's perspective, and that's gone, but her vocals on this are righteous. i can't remember instantly loving an album this much. the melisma in "what do you me-an?" is just like the way arthur russell sings "leave it a-lone" on lucky cloud & just as perfect. she has nailed this.

also that bit of kill maim sounds so much like "gucci gucci"

i'm not quiiiiiiiite loving this as much as expected, but it might sound better in my car/over my stereo than these crappy headphones

listen to grimes in yr car, good plan

choreographing a dance to "kill v. maim" brb

Also just listened on rubbish headphones that just accented the trebliness of the record, but there are at least three great songs on here: "Flesh Without Blood", "Easily" and "Butterfly". Couldn't hear what was so amazing about "Kill V. Maim", my least favourite on first play.

(Full disclosure - I never really got into Visions.)

A few songs into this and I'm already liking it much, much more than Visions. There were a couple decent tracks on Visions, but it was a bit too incomplete and amateurish for me to truly enjoy it. I like how polished this sounds. It's more poppy but also more creative than Visions.

I adore this, it's honestly the happiest I've felt listening to an album since E•MO•TION.

The title track and "World Princess Part II" are the early highlights for me. I don't really think she improved "Realiti" from the demo but I'm not bothered by the new version, it sounds fine and more of a piece with the rest of the record

On first listen I'm standing by my true romance / sucker comparison tho I am liking this a lot more than sucker already.

the sucker comparison is v otm

Is true romance really comparable to visions? I never checked it out.

Not really, but the internal relation between each artist's respective albums feels similar.

Sucker was Charli XCX trying on a new persona, Art Angels is more like Grimes figuring out how to do the things she wanted to do all along

Well that's one reason it works a lot better, yeah!

But sonically and stylistically I think the comparison stands.

"Art Angels is more like Grimes figuring out how to do the things she wanted to do all along"

yeah, i don't think this is true at all.

Love how many of the takes here are based on how closely she met your expectations. Aw, did your manic pixie dream girl let you down?
I think the record is loose and fun and for what it's worth, I think she's set her sights on the high ecstasy of pure pop, everything and anything is grabbed in service of that feel. Which I love.

Hm, I think that was overgeneralisation, on reflection. As you were.

aaand written before I heard the final line of Butterfly. Oops.

Haha I just got there myself and I was about to say...

Finally got home to listen to this. I'm on Easily and am really happy with this. Not even to the remake of Realiti yet! I'm pretty nervous. This is great so far, but cryptic hints like

aaand written before I heard the final line of Butterfly. Oops.

― MatthewK, Friday, November 6, 2015 8:44 PM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ARRRRRRGH. What is THAT supposed to mean? Why am I on this thread right now?

At Venus Fly now. Realiti a relief, thank god. Could hear these songs at the Area:One festival maybe? I love it.

The 'obscure Japanese sample' on here is the guitar riff at the start of Butterfly

oh man this album is amazing. Butterfly, in particular. That whole song is perfect and the end is the biggest payoff.

After 5 or so listens and a headphone upgrade, I'm starting to get into Art Angels. Even though I'd have been perfectly happy with Visions Pt. II, I'm glad that she made the album she wanted to instead of what people expected.

Judas

Just now getting to this. nu-Realiti isn't better or worse, but I'm not comfortable with its differences yet. The title track is straight out of 1991...like Curve meets Happy Mondays.

I think this is nice enough on laptop speakers but will give it the headphone treatment on my walk tomorrow morning

having followed her statements on music since she scrapped the first visions follow-up, this is pretty much the album i expected.

lyrics and feels from "Pin" easily hit some of the musical young love/ crush moments of E•MO•TION for me...

It wasn't quite what I expected but it's still very enjoyable. On some level it's disappointing because there's nothing else in the same vein as Realiti, but that's ok. I do hope we hear more from the scrapped album she said she might release, since both tracks we've heard from around then are great (Realiti and David).

I feel like Visions is probably a more successful/cohesive whole but the uneven start is really the only issue I have with this.

I really need to stop reading this thread. I'm getting impatient to the point of anger.

Wait, why can't you listen to it now? It came out today.

As explained upthread, I ordered from 4ad with the thought that I would get digital access today, but that's not happening, apparently.

I can't really stream it because my computer is fussy about such things (still running Vista and so on) and I want to be able to listen away from a computer screen anyway.

I may just fold and buy it on Amazon mp3.

I anticipated listening to this so much I dreamt about this album all night, and it sounds just as good irl. Only one listen in, but this album is fucking wonderful. I love the new REALiTi, too - it's lost a little demo stardust but it's not like you can't listen to both.

I figure if you paid for a physical copy there's no big moral issue with dling alb from your favorite torrent site (but then again i see no big issue in the first place)

it's on spotify too

This album sounds better played over speakers in the common living area with the dog running around and roommates debating whether to get take out. Visions sounds better in my room while i look at the window, absently refresh ilx, or maybe read a few pages of anna karenina before taking my laundry downstairs.

That's oddly specific.

when your lens is Treeship, your focus is specific

or whenever your lens is actually a good lens

I agree with Treeship except on one minor detail that is that for me it sounds best if I leave the laundry in the room. As soon as I leave to take it down stairs for some reason it's charms fade.

"Pin", love the dancey power pop feel, the lyrics-- "tearin at your hair like banshee", "Dirt on your fingernails, blood on your knees
But did that ever make you happy?", etc etc

All of the little touches like how right after she says "just after 3" she makes this little exclamatory squeal that i find myself doing along with her and kind of doing this strange dance where i stick out my arms right at that moment...

are you looking for a harmony?

there is harmony in everything