grimes' ART ANGELS poll

i was thinking about starting this poll last night. really like to outright love everything on this.

Life in the... and Butterfly is really one song IMO

this is like the only album i have been playing for the last month. it's "California" for me as i drive to work.

it would be "Realiti" if it was the single version but the albums version just isn't as good.

Kill V. Maim deserves a vote just for being the most bonkers

as great as most of this is it's impossible to go past Realiti

'REALiTi' will walk this.

Either California or Belly of the Beat. BotB has the best lyrics.

voted realiti, demo version was included on cd version of album right?

I voted Easily, which is subdued by this album's standards but is an impressive collage of sounds with a fantastic melody

Flesh Without Blooooooooooooodddddd

"realiti" is my favorite song but "flesh without blood" is the one where i'm like how did grimes level up so much as a producer for this album

I have said this before on ilx, but i am pretty sure flesh without blood is my favorite song

Voted Realiti. I like the context that's there's two versions versions of it - you hear the demo and get blown away, and then you hear the full version and it becomes a whole other experience.

Also I hope at least someone votes Pin because that's one's seriously underrated

even in the weaker version realiti still the best grimes song

I see people are still spreading this "the demo is better" meme (it really, really, really, REALLY isn't)

but it is and it really isn't close.

i'm sure there's some effect where if you heard one version of a song first you're predisposed to like that one the best

Yeah no, the demo is just an incredible seamless emotional wave, the album version is a well intentioned reconstruction.

at this point both are so good it doesn't matter to me, each has some things I prefer

i think it's the production that loses the song of that original punch. the demo is so alive with emotion while the album version tones it down. it works for the album overall but as a stand alone song, the demo is what brings out the core.

Gotta go with "California." Might even choose it over Joni in a songs called "California" poll.

katherine otm. The sequencers on the album version give it an inexorable "Blue Monday" tug.

I agree with the people who say the demo of realiti is better, taken as a stand alone track. But the album version works better on the album, and the album as a whole is a greater accomplishment than the demo of realiti. It's good that both exist.

I like the fact that all grimes tracks and albums exist in the exact forms that they do.

I voted for "Flesh Without Blood" thanks to the "If you had every chah-nce you'd destroy everything" bit.

Baby believe me

I love the discrepancy between the wistful lyrics and the exuberant production and tempo. There should be a tension but somehow there isn't -- she captures the previously uncharted mood of exultant conflictedness. ("Just. Let. Me. Go.")

It's like, a celebration of change and freedom that doesn't ignore how painful these things are. A reference point might be tangled up in blue but grimes is able to capture the mood without conjuring a bunch of baroque narratives.

Kill V Maim 4 Eva!!!!!!

the demo is a mess with terrible vocals, the album version is polished and perfect

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 dont think it's bad for fans to like demo better than originals. It's just what they like, not what's "better." I agree though that Bee OK's descriptions of the two versions seemed off. If anything the album version feels more alive than the languid and almost melancholy demo.

the song gets buried in the production. the demo version would not work on the album. and, of course, the artist will like the tinkered version better. the song on the album is just another song on an epic album. it's not as good and is not the version people talk about. there are two version of this song. one that works on an album and one the should have been a world-wide smash hit.

the demo version was ILM Number 1 song in 2015 right?

it was. i will shut up now, just wanted to put my opinion out there.

couldn't choose so voted butterfly, the last one i woke up singing

demo version of realiti does appear as a bonus track on CD version but not, imo, in this poll

times like this are when I wonder if I have some kind of permanent hearing problem (certainly a lot of people would agree) but I went back and listened to the demo, and no, it is not better. let's break it down:

- the vocals on the demo are objectively off-key. for an early and striking example, compare "no life" to the version on the album and try to tell me with a straight face that the former is better; or the weak quaver at the end of the line. I've mentioned these before and it would feel mean to nitpick it to this extent if these were not the exact things that got fixed.

- the vocals are less emotive; on the demo the chorus is sung like it's a scale exercise (replace "mor-ning-there-are-moun-tains-to-climb" with "do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do" and you'd get the same levels of stress and emotion), where on the album version the chorus is sung like a chorus.

- the vocals are also faint in the mix, which is weird for lyrics that are supposed to be meaningful. on the album version, they are loud and clear and commanding, particularly on the verses.

- the production is muddy and clunky, as expected for a demo. there's a sweep to the album version that just doesn't exist on the demo (particularly noticeable on the bridge). the percussion, in particular, drags the demo down constantly.

- most importantly, the stupid and glorious and perfect alice deejay synth is barely audible in the mix on the demo, when it's one of the best parts.

and yet a lot of people like the demo better. what a crazy world.

more like FART ANGELS

and I suspect a lot of that is via just being so used to the demo that any other version is automatically sacrilege, or latching onto the demo as a way of signalling they are a True Grimes Fan, unlike those casuals who just buy the album

or s/buy/stream/pirate or whatever, the point still stands

To me, the demo sounds like it would fit on visions almost. There is a moodiness there that Grimes decidely rejected in Art Angels. They sound like they belong to different eras of her career. they're like, in dialogue with each other

"Better or worse" seems like a boring question. They're different and the differences are instructive to people who are interested in Grimes' music.

but the album version is plenty moody! the production being clear only adds to the mood!

when the album was released I was disappointed that some things I loved about the demo (the swirling synth backdrop being present in the verse, delivery of "in death if we are always the same", dreamier feel) were missing from the album version but now I better appreciate the ways the things the album version is better at as well. both are fantastic and I'll take as many versions of it as Grimes wants to make

Looking forward to the 20th anniversary Art Angels Sessions complete with 60 different takes of Realiti so that we can really sort out what's what

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.

If Belly of the Beat gets no votes I will be sad I voted for California.

whoa whoa whoa whoa Belly of the Beat is one of the best songs on here, I loved that song immediately. title track took a bit longer bc the gtr hook gave me early aughts adult contemporary pop PTSD

idk why anyone would vote for laughing and not being normal. great song title wasted on an intro

I voted for the title track and I'm surprised it doesn't get any love on this thread. The way it culminates with the ooooohs at the end is just euphoric!

Title track probably my second favourite after "Pin".

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Wow, I did not expect that

it's a deserving choice

It was my pick, but I didn't at all think it was so well loved given t g at most of the conversation here focused on other tracks.

*given that

http://songexploder.net/grimes

i voted for flesh w/out blood before i re-listened to the album for the first time in several months. i'm glad it did well but i feel some pangs of regret for not sending more love to the title track or pins.

another thing i noticed upon re-listening is that this is my favorite album from the last 10 years at least and i typically prefer music that's a little less, i dunno, polished?

oh and the demo version of realiti is best

I will rep for some of the "nil points" tracks - "Life in the Vivid Dream" is no way the best song on the album, but it gets me in the feels like none of the others. And "Belly of the Beat" is a perplexing no-show, it's so beautiful and enveloping. Yep, literally unable/unwilling to vote here.

The fact that Belly of the Beat got shut out means this poll needs to be redone within the next year

"Laughing and not being normal" was my second choice

so when is the demo vs album version poll? it's the only way to be sure.

the short tracks are great, intro works beautifully and life in the vivid dream has some of my fav moments on the album, would love to hear more grimes along those lines

flappy otm

is this a slightly different mix like the California video?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpAsOEsamA0&feature=youtu.be

whoops

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpAsOEsamA0

Yeah, I've been thinking that as well. Much more bass?

https://devonrecordclub.com/2016/10/08/grimes-art-angels-round-95-toms-selection/

...in which I make a hamfisted attempt to justify Art Angels' soon-to-be clasic status.

Love this album. First three tracks are a great rebuttal to the fans that expected more of the same visions style, California in particular is a great rebuttal. World princess would be my choice on here

Fuck didn't mean to use the same term twice there

The fact that Belly of the Beat got shut out means this poll needs to be redone within the next year

― flappy bird, Wednesday, September 28, 2016 8:07 AM (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

flappy otm

― florence foster wallace (difficult listening hour), Wednesday, September 28, 2016 1:13 PM (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

*emoji looking at wristwatch*

pitting visions against art angels feels reductive, they're both great records.

i would prob have liked art angels more if a project that felt like an intensification of the ideas on visions had ever happened idk

What do you mean? Sincere question

the ‘bridge’ album between visions and art angels is missing. REALiTi is our only glimpse into it

i know what you're saying flappy but do artists need to create transitional records?

Need? No. But knowing such an album exists (or did exist) with one amazing song as its only extant document makes fantasizing about it all the more frustrating. And I loved Art Angels, but it’s like knowing that Revolver or Rubber Soul exists and not knowing how they jumped from Help to Sgt Pepper, and how many great songs will never be heard.

That's a great analogy.

Thought this revive was going to be about her threatening to get a face tat on instagram.

What do you mean? Sincere question

― stoker (Ross), Wednesday, June 27, 2018 7:31 AM (ten hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ths is more about my openness to art angels but visions offered a whole bunch of cool ideas i would have liked to have heard expanded on & instead it felt like she just went left ... in rap this happens a lot where a mixtape rapper has a dope mixtape, the album is an expansion of that sound to establish it on a bigger platform, then the artist pulls the audience in a knew direction ... "visions" felt like the mixtape to me more than the Official Debut, the earliest articulation of a style ... I think Famous Dex actually made the same 'mistake.' 10 years from now it wont matter or anything

thanks d-40. i'm curious what the new record will be like, whether it will bridge those albums in a way

From the previews so far it sounds more like art angels 2.0 - closer to a more energetic pop / rock sound than to the synth / dream pop of Visions but who knows.

she's said she's going for a darker and less pop vibe than Art Angels so it might bridge the two more