Grimes – ‘Art Angels’

Leading up to the release of singer/producer Clare Boucher, aka Grimes’, new album Art Angels, it looked as though the experimental DIY wunderkind’s days were numbered. Fans were concerned that the three-year wait, combined with what appeared to be a drastic change in direction for the Grimes project (see: the 2014 reveal of poorly-received EDM-style track ‘Go’, and alleged subsequent scrapping of a whole album) could spell disaster for the new release.

Yet, as the album quietly dropped one morning, it appeared that the tension of Boucher’s potentially disastrous identity crisis has been channelled into an album that, for the most part, succeeds where, of all people, Lady Gaga’s, last solo outing failed: it’s true ‘artpop’ without the pretensions.

Opening with a lush instrumental track that melds playfully plucked and sweepingly bowed strings, a choir, marimba, piano, and a hauntingly cinematic refrain from Boucher, those familiar with her work will notice an ambitious move towards integration of live instrumentation. The track does presuppose the tone of the album slightly misleadingly however, but it showcases Boucher’s significantly improved producer chops within the arresting framework of what sounds like a theme for a Disney princess movie – if the princess were a demon and the film was directed by Guillermo del Toro. Swelling into an orchestral climax, a TARDIS-esque groaning in the background acts to sneakily invert the rest of the album’s usual dynamic, which is to say an emphasis on synthetic music-making but with a hint of live instrumentation never too far in the background, adding just a necessary hint of reality to the otherwise otherworldly.

A theme for a Disney princess movie – if the princess were a demon and the film was directed by Guillermo del Toro.

If Visions – Boucher’s critically acclaimed 2012 major label debut – was the surprisingly affecting, rough-around-the-edges songbook of an alien popstar, then Art Angels is the record that said alien would make after falling to Earth. There is far more of a reliance on pop sensibilities, such as in the sunny guitar-led title track, which has a vocal refrain sugary enough to make Carly Rae Jepsen blush; or in the chilled out ‘Easily’, which leads a downtempo beat into a trap-style breakdown to convincing and catchy effect.

One of the standout tracks (alongside the excellent reworking of previously released trance-twinged demo ‘Realiti’) is a slice of pure dystopian pop bliss: the aggressively bombastic ‘Kill V. Maim’. Searing arpeggiated synth hook reminiscent of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark? Check. Ominously chugging guitar line? Check. Lyrics about mob life supplemented by vampiric screams? Check. An explosive, high-register chorus set to have you overloading the replay button? Double check.

Expectedly, there’s nothing on Art Angels that could be described as a masterstroke of genius, but Boucher has noticeably improved her songwriting, and she puts her skills gained as alien auteur to good use, playing with conventions just enough to make most tracks feel fresh. That said, cuts such as ‘Belly of the Beat’ and ‘California’ fall a little flat – the former being an overlong riff on an inert three-chord pattern and the latter sounding like a glitched-out Gwen Stefani b-side, with some uncharacteristically uninspired lyrics about the nastiness of LA fame.

Boucher has noticeably improved her songwriting, and she puts her skills gained as alien auteur to good use, playing with conventions just enough to make most tracks feel fresh.

Still, even the weaker tracks have the charm of character on their side. Take ‘Scream’, for example, which features underground Taiwanese rapper Aristophanes. By virtue of the lyrics being entirely in Mandarin, one can’t help but feel that there’s an intriguing depth to the song that is simply inaccessible to a solely English speaking listener, but the track has such an infectiously booming bass-heavy beat and a hypnotically breathy flow from Aristophanes, that the mystery only adds to its personality.

In the end, Art Angels was never going to fully satisfy Grimes purists, and make no mistake, it doesn’t have much obvious continuation from her previous work. Whereas Visions was, admittedly, a more potently realised, cohesive body of work, it appears that Boucher has gotten the lofty pretensions of her underground days out of her system. The new album may not be as in-your-face subversive, but it takes cues from its predecessor, and is, in a way, more exciting for its attempt to wrestle with the mainstream. If we are to view the old Grimes as Art Angel’s titular artiste, then Boucher’s pop afterlife signals a hybridised rebirth of promising proportions. This is where Boucher makes a better Gaga than Gaga herself: she’s got both the pop and the art.

Whilst this is Grimes’ most divisive record yet, that’s not necessarily a bad thing – it’s a rare slice of infectiously poppy escapism that you can listen to on the U1 and still feel a little bit cool.