Boucher herself has come out to claim her music as genre-less, but the Art Angels incarnation of Grimes is through-and-through Frankenstein pop, influenced by so many irresistible sounds ... smashed together, somehow coming out just the right way.
All adds up to a fearless and fascinating record.
She’s crafted a glorious pop monster entirely by her own mind, hand, and voice. Part dazzling confection, part snarling beast, Art Angels is a stitched together, hook ridden masterwork.
After Visions, the only thing Grimes could do was to grow as big as the landscape around her. Here’s her mountain.
Art Angels is a marvel of meticulous, even obsessive home-studio recording, uncompromised by bandmates or collaborators.
Art Angels is an uncompromisingly colorful conception of pop music’s kaleidoscopic future, a clash between modern dance pop conventions and the independent sensibility of a singular artist.
Amidst these unpredictable soundscapes, the choruses are so catchy and touching that it’s easy to forget just how weird this music is, and that’s what makes it such a thrill.
Visions put Grimes on the map as pop's pure misfit but Art Angels secured her tangible place as the genre's most unconventional star. For those that doubted, she's done that thing she does, but better. More defined.
Art Angels is what a pop album would sounds like if you took the top 10 chart and deliberately swapped everything for unexpected patterns and instruments.
Art Angels wipes the fog from her lens and lays out her vision, clear and uncompromising.
It’s not so much that she’s changed direction completely, as that she’s drained her art of the obfuscating sonic blabber to leave her pop aesthetic.
While Art Angels is a thrilling listen by design, some songs can’t carry through the excitement of some of the bigger sounds on the album.
She may be glossier now, but, there’s plenty on Art Angels to recommend to her initial fan base.
In its ability to appeal to so many listeners, while being as thrilling on its first spin as it is on its fifteenth, Art Angels is likely to emerge from 2015 as one of the most universally adored albums of the year.
You sense the deceptively complex Art Angels will only continue to yield further depths with time.
This is the truest representation of Grimes we’ve heard yet: 'Art Angels' is boundary pushing, it’s listenable and it’s Boucher’s most ambitious and most consistent work to date.
There’s something that feels tangibly joyful on Art Angels that we didn’t hear on Visions.
It’s a triumph of Grimes as gloriously and unapologetically DIY producer, a pop singer politically and emotionally invested in your knowing that she made this all on her own — as if anything workshopped with a team of songwriters could sound so bracing and unpredictable.
It would be reductive to call this record Boucher's ‘Grimes goes Pop’ moment, but it certainly feels like an attempt to bridge the gap between her fervent online cult and tangible, real-world success.
It could all lead to sonic whiplash, but Boucher's staunchly independent viewpoint is the glue that holds together Art Angels.
Grimes returns with a diverse, well-produced pop album that's both accessible and odd.
Somehow she's always managed to tread a rare, thin line between catchy left-field creations and catchy mainstream pop. On Art Angels, we hear that high art experimentation fall into mainstream territory with only fleeting moments of brilliance.
Packed as it is with all this goodness, Art Angels fails to comprehensively blow your mind. Ultimately, Grimes has not reinvented the pop wheel, she’s just driven it off road a little.
Although, it’s still admirably produced completely by Boucher – when she could have easily sacrificed control – the clarity of her sound is significantly greater.
I don't get the hate. I love this album. I don't think is too mainstream. If you don't like her previous release you never gonna like this. The best pop album of 2015 so far. Best tracks: California, Flesh Without Blood, Kill V. Maim, World Princess part II, Realiti, Venus Fly. The whole album is a standout.
It's such a shame that grimes lost her way, because at her peak she was making pop music that was crazy, intriguing, and innovative. DAMN YOU ELON!!!!!!
Much more energetic than her past projects, Art Angels is where Grimes really began to show her true weirdo in persona and music. Produced much like hyperpop, Grimes makes unique electronic songs (like Kill V Maim) while not losing what made her popular with her more ethereal beats (like Realiti). Despite some dry spots in the album, Art Angels carves a new niche for Grimes while leaving room for improvement on future projects.
My first Grimes project and wow this blew me away. I've loved kill v maim since I first heard it years ago but I never listened to the album until now, and jeez the production on this is so creative, I wouldn't have really expected this to have come out in 2015. Yeah this one is solid, creative, fun, and I love it
1 | Laughing and Not Being Normal 1:47 | 83 |
2 | California 3:18 | 84 |
3 | Scream 2:20 feat. Aristophanes 貍貓 | 74 |
4 | Flesh without Blood 4:24 | 92 |
5 | Belly of the Beat 3:25 | 82 |
6 | Kill V. Maim 4:06 | 94 |
7 | Artangels 4:07 | 88 |
8 | Easily 3:03 | 82 |
9 | Pin 3:32 | 87 |
10 | REALiTi 5:06 | 91 |
11 | World Princess, Pt. II 5:05 | 88 |
12 | Venus Fly 3:45 feat. Janelle Monáe | 90 |
13 | Life in the Vivid Dream 1:27 | 82 |
14 | Butterfly 4:12 | 90 |
#1 | / | Gorilla vs. Bear |
#1 | / | Idolator |
#1 | / | NME |
#1 | / | Pigeons & Planes |
#1 | / | Stereogum |
#2 | / | Cosmopolitan |
#2 | / | Dazed |
#3 | / | Billboard |
#3 | / | Clash |
#3 | / | Consequence of Sound |