Grimes' 'Art Angels' excellent, ambitious pop record

Claire Boucher, a.k.a. Grimes, is a singer and producer from Vancouver. She’s become a darling of indie music listeners, especially after the release of her third album, “Visions” (2012) -- her strongest to date. “Visions” was met with acclaim from critics and fans alike; it’s a strange, intriguing masterpiece, as Boucher is able to explore the wild recesses of her mind and convey her discoveries, but not at the expense of many catchy, and often spellbinding, hooks and vocals. Boucher’s music is, at its most basic, pop music, though it's more complex than the loaded genre moniker may suggest. Grimes has experimented with many pop styles, including art-pop and dream-pop, and garners influence from myriad different genres, including R&B, hip-hop and electronica. Her fourth studio album, “Art Angels,” was released on Nov. 6. It’s Boucher’s most polished, eclectic and radio-friendly album and includes important underlying political messages in its collection of dreamy future-pop tracks.

When Boucher recorded “Visions,” she took an extreme and reclusive approach to achieving inspiration for her album: over multiple weeks, she took several drugs and kept herself awake for days at a time to induce hallucinations. In an interview with The Guardian in 2012, Boucher explained that, in her approach to recording “Visions,” she entered states in which “you have no stimulation, so your subconscious starts filling in the blanks. I started to feel like I was channeling spirits. I was convinced my music was a gift from God. It was like I knew exactly what to do next, as if my songs were already written."

“Visions” is definitely out there, so to speak; it’s weird and spooky in places, but also innocent and adorable in others. Boucher didn’t go to the same dangerous lengths to record “Art Angels,” however, and the album, coincidentally or not, sounds like a more mature Grimes. It has fewer loose ends and doesn’t peak as drastically as “Visions” does.

Boucher also focuses her attention on making “Art Angels” a monument to women's strength and creativity. None of the featured collaborators are men, which is a powerful challenge to the sexist, male-dominated conventions of the music industry. In an interview with The Fader earlier this year, Boucher stated that, in her experiences working in music studios, "There [were] all these engineers [that didn't let her] touch the equipment [...] and then a male producer would come in, and he’d be allowed to do it." This left her "disillusioned with the music industry" and made her "realize what [she] was doing is important."

“Art Angels” is at its best when it combines catchy riffs and choruses with Grimes’ signature airiness, either quirky and cute or scary and gripping. “Flesh Without Blood” focuses on Grimes’ disappointment in a friend she had once admired. It’s funky and gleeful, as Grimes reaches a blissful state after making peace with her decision to leave the friend behind. “REALiTi,” originally released as a demo earlier this year, is changed up to fit the sound of “Art Angels” more smoothly. It sounds great here, and Grimes reaches a similar state of eclectic highness that she’d found on “Genesis,” one of the highlights of “Visions.” “California” and “Butterfly” are two excellent pop cuts, with country-pop influences, which gives them a strange, familiar feel, despite their off-kilter beats and spacey vocals. The former, “California,” is undeniably adorable, uplifting and groovy all at once. Though “Art Angels” may make it seem like Boucher has fully realized her mainstream potential, that argument is a lazy one, as “Art Angels” is still an outstanding project despite being less “experimental” than “Visions.”

The original follow-up to “Visions” (2012) was scrapped in 2014 due to Boucher’s dissatisfaction with the material, but the fully realized “Art Angels” shows Boucher at her most confident and comfortable.