If pop is basically personality music, GRIMES might be the Next Weird Thing. Real name Claire Boucher; she’s got a unique look and an endearingly free-spirited personality (with a backstory involving a DIY, Tom Sawyer-esque houseboat misadventure). Visions finds her dialing back the ambient experimentalism of her back catalogue for what is essentially a twisted take on electro-pop, something Madonna might have made in the 80s if she’d taken more acid.
One thing Madonna doesn’t have is GRIMES’ vocal sound. The love song platitudes she sweetly delivers are over-dubbed, harmonized, pitch-warped, panned and echoed. This Cocteau-Twins-meets-The-Beach-Boys effect leaves GRIMES sprawling all over her backing tracks in a beautiful mess. It’s attention-commanding, bona fide pop star stuff.
The first thirty seconds of opener ‘Infinite ♥ Without Fulfillment’ give you a pretty good idea of what to expect from the album. The vintage drum machines, ethereal vocals and pulsing synth bass are put together with an ear for sing-song pop melody. This basic formula is tweaked again and again to take in a fascinating variety of influences. ‘Genesis’ sounds like something Aphex Twin could have produced, while ‘Nightmusic’ samples Mozart. ‘Oblivion’ marries a propulsive rhythm straight from 1984 to an enchanting vocal, GRIMES crooning “see you in the dark” like some kind of benevolent witch.
The GRIMES package is hard to fault. Visions is pop enough to be palatable, and edgy enough to stand out from the pack. GRIMES’ vocals would sound great over just about anything, and she tries out quite a few of those things while maintaining a stylistic consistency. It makes for a captivating listen – surely one of the most idiosyncratic and enjoyable albums of the year.
You can stream the album in full over HERE.
Words by Matt Nielson.
