Grimes/Claire Boucher thread

art angels is alllllright imo, kind of feels like she's dodging the spotlight but not in a way that feels confident or purposeful

its a progression from visions but i think visions promises a lot more, or contains more potential in its dna

i agree. i like art angels a lot, but the 3 year gap between albums compounded the disappointment... it really sounds like she skipped an album in between the two, which we know she did... there's a dearth there, despite both albums being great.

Crystal ball desserves more love

But albums are brilliant and Grimes rules. If the new album is half as good as any of them we’re good. Frankly a bit afraid it might not live up to expectations, no idea how you can follow up and improve on what she has done so far.

i revisited art angels the other week and i’m sorta with deej. only about half of it really hits imo (kill v. maim, pin)

yeah both albums are great but there's one missing in there. it's hard to explain but her catalogue feels weirdly sparse & empty, the leap from Visions to Art Angels is too big and incongruous, it feels like the third album in a trilogy and Visions the first.

iirc grimes' evolution in sound between visions to art angels was partly due informed by her live touring

She made an album then scratched it. That material was, I guess, the missing link in her development

right, that's what i was saying. i'm not criticizing her decision, we're not entitled to that work if she doesn't want to release it, i'm just saying the missing link sticks out to me when I put Visions next to Art Angels

although worth noting that the REALiTi demo- a recording that people worship- is from that scrapped album

there are a few duds on Art Angels - Belly of the Beat feels meandering and SCREAM is completely out of place - but the highs (nearly all the rest of it) are so high that it doesn't bother me much and I would definitely put it above Visions even though Visions is a bit more of a cohesive whole

as far as the unreleased material goes I really hope that David gets a proper release someday, that's one of her best tracks

Realiti (aka the best song from the 2010’s) is the missing link you’re looking for.

^ best song psshaw.

i mean it's very good but realti's sort of taking on a life of its own iirc

*taken

could that not be because it's one of the best songs of the 2010s?

Indeed it could, point taken

as far as the unreleased material goes I really hope that David gets a proper release someday, that's one of her best tracks

― ufo, Tuesday, December 26, 2017 8:37 PM (thirty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes. It’s very frustrating. The live video of her performing it is something else.

It’s insane for someone to write a song like that but have so much other great material they don’t even bother releasing it.

artists can do whatever the fuck they want, if it comes about the audience then that's where shit goes south tbh

I agree. Still.

cheers mate, it is a great song

artists can do whatever the fuck they want, if it comes about the audience then that's where shit goes south tbh

― kolakube (Ross), Tuesday, December 26, 2017 8:19 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This feels like the truth is more dialectical than that but sure

Yeah probably an overstatement on my part, probably should take it easy. Steering this convo back to realti as a missing link (and perhaps "go"), how much do you all feel realti demo gave an indication to her direction on art angels? Feels like it still had a lot of the vocal presence of visions. When California hit on art angels it felt like that summed up where she was at for her audience

I'd say your right, Realiti is kind of the zenith of the Visions style whereas Art Angels shed the buried-vocal feel in its quest for high pop.

These are the rare and unreleased songs:

Gloam
Ham Mermaid
The Crazy Doctor
World Brain
Behaviour
The Eye
whoknoidontno
Voignamir
emancipated reality vixen
Fifteen Minutes To
Black Hair
Unknown Track (unplugged)
(Things That Were Not)
Unknown Track #02
Saturn Princess
Fragments of The Future
Ya vas Lyubil
David
Sleepwalking
Go (SXM Version)
REALiTi (Demo)

Surely at least an EP connecting Visions and Art Angels can be made from these (Go and Realiti as singles)

i get the feeling she's made a purposeful decision to not release that material, for whatever reason

Iirc she didn’t feel Realiti was that good (which is bonkers) or didn’t feel like it belonged on her newfound art pop sound for artangels. I suppose that applies to all of those... she didn’t feel like they were part of the new era.

maintain that album version >>>>

Here’s a link to a googledrive with the unreleased songs in case you want to hear:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Grimes/comments/4bxkuj/all_grimes_unreleased_songs_in_one_album/

Moka do you have mp3s of those?

Follow that link I posted. I think they should be there but I’m posting from my cellphone and that link is a year old, it used to have them.

Doh. Thank you

Link seems to still work ✌🏻

whoa, crazy list. i had no idea she had performed so many of these songs live (or are they leaked demos?)

Thanks Moka!!

There’s also this kind of charming post that shows how perfectly amateurish Visions and Grimes as a producer was:

http://web.archive.org/web/20120515000000*/actuallygrimes.tumblr.com

Goes to show if you have talent and passion for what you want to achieve you can make a lot with so little.

which post in specific? that just directs to the wayback machine.

I am happy to learn that Eevee was her fav Pokemon though. So many awesome Eeveelutions.

the reason she gave for not releasing the David-era material was that it was too depressing and she didn't want to tour it

Oh sorry wrong link.
I meant this one were she discussed how to make/record music

https://web.archive.org/web/20150831081620/http://actuallygrimes.tumblr.com/post/44357081528/how-to-make-music-for-almost-free-u-should

re: depressing material, it sounds like visions sleep/food deprivation binge was a heavy time too..

can't begrudge her tendency towards lighter material with art angels

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/apr/28/grimes-visions-montreal

Hmmm might have to try that

Skeptical of any value added by providing finer sampling of her stylistic evolution via the release of 'tweener songs. more fun to embrace the myth of the artistic step function.

i need all the information

there's not enough

This fan edit of David might be the closest to a studio version we’ll get:

https://m.soundcloud.com/littlemonsteralejandro2/david-fanmade-studio

haha that tumblr post is fantastic

this wasn't bad though I like the tegan and sara original more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv1H85AxYiM

speaking of the shift from her "two styles" one could make a case that visions was the intermediary from the extremely depressive, haunting stuff she was releasing pre-visions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBJ-LPPcAqw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vulvMVhDqeU

i love this era of her music too. and the shadow or memory of this sound definitely enriches my appreciation for the aerodynamic sound of art angels. it emerged from the depths.

Easy to forget also the immense pressure of public/commercial/critical expectations after Visions. Remember the backlash against “Go”? Oy