Grimes, Art Angel - album review

Download: California; Kill V. Maim; Butterfly; Venus Fly

Andy Gill
Friday 13 November 2015 13:10 GMT
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Neil Young, Bluenote Cafe
Neil Young, Bluenote Cafe

With Art Angel, Canadian electropop auteur Claire Boucher, aka Grimes, completely revises the parameters and expectations set by her breakthrough album Visions: 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.

This is most audible in “California”, a double-edged love-letter to the West Coast which fizzes with charm and invention, whilst Grimes asserts her new attitude: “The things they see in me, I cannot see in myself”. Elsewhere, “Kill V. Maim” is akin to the girl from Aqua fronting Wire, whilst “Venus Fly”, on which she’s joined by Janelle Monae, spans the gulf between candy-texture vocals and booming bass in similar manner to Gwen Stefani.

That’s the level at which she obviously aims to operate, and after this it’s surely where she’s bound.

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