Grimes/Claire Boucher thread

there's also the element that the stereogum post is aggregating a paywalled wsj interview and pretty clearly aggregating the weirder stuff (at least I can only assume, since I don't pay for the wsj, but know how music blogging works)

xxp on the other hand "we appreciate power" was a pretty bad concept (that now seems slightly less bad in context of the album concept, but still) that was also executed poorly so i'm not optimistic

"kill v maim" rules solely on a musical level - the lyrics don't really amount to much on their own and without her explaining it i'd really have no idea about her ridiculous concept for it

Fair enough, and I don’t mean to imply she’s like, you know, a Bad Person. Just that I’m feeling ideologically opposed to her and other tech-futurist artists like OPN or Holly Herndon. I’m also recently less convinced that art has a lot to offer in terms of politics these days.

For this, I took it as more like — climate change is just another interesting idea to make an album about, and situated it as something in the future involving mostly polar bears, rather than something that is happening now, to people. If people are already immured to the idea then idk how grimes’ psas will do anything aside from give her a marketing angle. the idea of some exaggerating and aestheticizing our relentless patterns of consumption as some badass elephant head eating anime goddess I guess just doesn’t resonate with me.

But I guess we’re at a better place than ten years ago where any talk of environmental issues in art world circles was met with sneers and derision.

I haven't read anything other than this thread but didn't Anohni already do the climate-accelerationist thing?

Good lord - who gives a shit?

xp Yes, so did OPN. Lots of people are addressing climate change in their work in this way and have been for a while. Only recently has the tone shifted from "Hopelessness" (the title of the Anohni album iirc) to "Fuck it" (the correct position)

I mean, what can you do but laugh in the face of extinction?

Hey this is interesting:

According to the timestamps on her original MySpace page, Boucher began writing music under the name Grimes in 2007. Her performer name was chosen because at the time, MySpace allowed artists to list three musical genres. She listed grime for all three, before knowing what grime music was.[18][19]

Relatable

if someone isn't british it's probably pretty easy not to know what grime music is

personally i'm too busy hating on her for providing tedious backstories for her songs up front to hate on her for her objectionable themes

Nothing makes me feel older than reading this thread

I don’t really know what grime music is either, tbh, and I’ve been reading ILM for 12 years

Don't feel bad, I still don't know the difference between drum 'n' bass, house or any of those subgenres. And I'm a professional DJ! (Not really.)

I’ve honestly tried. But so many things are called dubstep that sound nothing like each other.

It’s mostly the british ones. House and techno i get.

Grime music is music that is grimy.

Everybody wanna sound grimey.

and get a Grimy award.

Or a Latin Grimy.

Have any other musicians/groups chosen their name based on a misunderstanding of what another genre was...

Gettin' all kindsa Grimey.

https://www.culturedmag.com/grimes-claire-boucher-c/

“The last album was a piece of crap,” she says. “I feel like people really misread it and it feels like a stain on my life.” She resists the notion that she tried to make a pop record, and considers it more of a genre exercise in which she demonstrated her range as a producer. “I just wish I could make music in a vacuum,” she claims, before retorting, “it’s good to make people mad actually, I retract my statement. If you can make people mad without actually hurting anyone, that’s probably a good thing.”

...

A preview of three new songs finds c excavating her emotions while constructing a sonic environment for her dark supervillain. Ominous guitar feedback meets sharp, whale call-sounding synths to form the underbelly of a standout called “So Heavy I Fell Through the Earth.” c says the song, whose mystifying lyrics ride an angelic vocal melody, is about how love can be like a poison. “Specifically how when a dude comes inside you, you become in their thrall—how it’s an attack on your feminist freedom,” she illustrates.

Grimes otm for a change

grimes

c

incredible Kanye West energy in this promo cycle

which part xxp

“Specifically how when a dude comes inside you, you become in their thrall—how it’s an attack on your feminist freedom,” she illustrates.

I think this is a matter of perspective...

I think I’ll like this record though. Never been disappointed with c’s music in the past

By that logic, are facials considered microaggressions? Is felching the best way to remedey such an attack?

dam thats egdy you should do a comedy sho!w

literally everything negative that people (self included) think about her is a result of her own doing.

also, i dislike everyday people like this:

retorting, “it’s good to make people mad actually, I retract my statement. If you can make people mad without actually hurting anyone, that’s probably a good thing.”

yeah, anger gets us to really productive places. i'm pretty sure dj has this same philosophy.👍🏻

i don't honestly understand what she's talking about. art angels didn't make people angry--it was an amazing and accessible record that everyone loved.

She lost the noise kids

ie people in the milieu she came up in. Not that many people, but artists historically have been hurt / fixated on losing their original or “authentic” fan base.

anecdotally lots of ppl hated art angels yea

It took me a while to be honest and I think plenty of people aren't gonna sit there and listen to it twice. It's a challenging record.

If by 'challenging' you mean 'insufferably poppy', yeah. I hated it when it came out and haven't revisited it since. Maybe I should – my ears are more lenient these days.

i didn't like it at first either bc i missed the moodiness. but then i realized grimes wanted to take me (the listener) out of the gloom that was her trademark and i thought it was a brave choice

flesh without blood is one of my favorite tracks ever tbh.

i feel personally insulted that she is calling that album a "piece of crap" to be honest

Art Angels still mostly rules and she spent the whole promo cycle talking about how she loved pop music and wanted to make something influenced by the pop music she loves so idk what she's on about when she now says she didn't try to make a pop album

there definitely was some backlash to it from fans of Visions who didn't like the new direction but that seemed relatively small overall

when she says she wishes she could make music in a vacuum i'm increasingly wishing that too because every new interview makes her seem more and more ridiculous and obnoxious unfortunately

drugs are a hell of a drugs

mod please change thread title to Grimes/c Boucher thread

By that logic, are facials considered microaggressions? Is felching the best way to remedey such an attack?

― Cousin Slappy, Thursday, April 4, 2019 12:29 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

cousin fp

every new interview makes her seem more and more ridiculous and obnoxious unfortunately

how does this one make her seem obnoxious?

If by 'challenging' you mean 'insufferably poppy', yeah. I hated it when it came out and haven't revisited it since. Maybe I should – my ears are more lenient these days.

― pomenitul, Thursday, April 4, 2019 9:14 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Insufferably poppy to people used to her earlier work, but abrasive and weird to your average top 40 listener, I guess? And I came to it from her earlier stuff, but thought that Scream and Venus Fly were too fucking out there until I went back and revisited it a year or so ago.

A lot of the album seemed to be a direct reaction to people who got upset about the poppiness of her Go single (guilty, as well).

A week or so ago, I had a realization about my personal impressions of c during the lead-up to this album cycle (scorn, impatience, embarassment), I realize that I kinda went through the same shit during the interim between Visions and Art Angels. So, we'll see. My current take is that I'm probably not cool enough to understand Grimes and will probably come around a year or so from now when everybody's dad has heard it.

the problem with 'go' is that it was bad, not that it was too poppy or mainstream

“I just wish I could make music in a vacuum,” she claims

maybe someone could put her in touch with imago?

hahahaha

I loved Go

Grimes is starting to feel like a stain in my life.