Grimes/Claire Boucher thread

Yeah, I think that was my first comment on her over in the Sandbox: Cranes with a laptop, which is p much like total and completely WCC-bait.

huh, the invocation of Cranes makes me want to give this another try; my initial reaction was "nice enough, but not nice enough to seek out"

i think i much prefer halfaxa to visions, and i really like visions. but stuff like "dream fortress" is just otherworldly

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/422518_10150717333636763_671491762_11222055_6886399_n.jpg

I like this!

GRIMES IN 2012

GRIMES VS GRIME

Reading things like this...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/mar/08/grimes-visions-review

...make me understand why Lex doesn't like Grimes.

But then again reading things like Circumambient, a close runner-up to Oblivion in the standout stakes, sounds like an R&B song with all the money sucked out of it. makes me want to punch indie music criticism in the face.

I finally managed to d/l this off the 4AD website.

I like it. I was already predisposed to like it, so I'm relieved that I do like it.

It's just odd, that the amount of ink that seems to have been spilled over this record, none of it seems to bear the slightest connection to the music that I am hearing.

Coming around to the idea that reading about music may actually be the worst possible way of discovering music I might like.

I've always looked at music criticism, reviews, message boards, etc. as a way of finding and rediscovering music without giving any weight at all to the opinions behind the writing. I kinda sift through the opinions for keywords or phrases that are suited to my taste or warn me that I probably won't be into the music being discussed. The idea that someone can interpret a song, or any art for that matter, and bludgeon everyone else with that interpretation seems pretty dickish.

That said, I hope Grimes isn't dissected into oblivion by fans and critics alike. She's so damn likable, but even better than that she has interesting songs and you can actually dance to some of them. The ideas behind them are what stick out for me.

into "oblivion"

It was unavoidable. I love that word.

Not tired at 4:30 AM and having a bedroom dance party to Visions. This is what it was made for.

If The xx were 2AM music for when I'm sad, and Claire's first two albums are music for when I want to zone out and drift (in a good way), this one is designed for dancing alone in the dark.

Also, the two Canadian-vinyl-only bonus tracks are pretty darn awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxoSVzNn8Gs

Grimes - Life After Death

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPK3MyUlx9o

Grimes - Ambrosia

They're the two extra tracks on a 12" vinyl version that cuts a bunch of the rest of the album - 8 tracks total, but two are 'new'.

When you figure out where to slot them into the full length version of the album (I've put Ambrosia before Symphonia IX and Life After Death right before Nightmusic) and tack on the Amazon bonus 'Angel' at the end (and exclude 'Christmas Song', the track what has her brother rapping on it), Visions is a formidable album.

I just got this and it's still growing on me, so I'm not sure where it will end up on my scale of 1-10. This does seem a bit more diverse in its influences than typical electropop, with nods to house and R&B among other things. The combination of fairly fast, steady tempos, sing-songy melodies, glitches (or whatever they're called now), and the slightly affectless, introverted vocals remind me a bit of Lali Puna.

"Vowels = Space and Time" is so perfect. Especially when the bassline comes in and she's singing little girl-like and then switches to breathy ethereality on the line "'cos boy you could [something something something]... yeah yeah yeah!"

people have really complex thoughts about her. i have only heard one song which i thought was slight but nice. i liked her more upon noticing the triforce tattoo on her arm.

I do like how she uses her voice on this album - I just think she could have a bit more presence.

Just saw her live for the first time in a year - holy shit - what a difference. Stage presence to spare, gigantic dance party for an hour and openers Born Gold were damn good too. Miles away from the soft-spoken and slightly-flustered set I saw opening for How to Dress Well. Glad to see the material is finally translating to a live setting really well.

Only complaints: (1) nothing off the first two albums which have basically been declared non-existent, Shakira style, (2) only the uptempo stuff got played. Not sure how 'skin' would have translated live, but wish she'd have tried.

still, amazing. off to afterparty now.

this album is dope

actually I guess this entire album really wants to be J-Pop by way of Sweden?

― (thinks and smiles) (DJP), Tuesday, February 21, 2012 4:01 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark

my thoughts exactly -- pretty freaking novel and great IMO

It feels very right to me that you like this J0rdan!

yeah i was sleeping, no excuse

i like certain tracks on this a lot, and like the overall aesthetic, some songs are def not standing with the best ones to me? it feels inconsistent

Srs question how much have you listened to it deej? My experience was first few times I liked a couple of tunes a lot and was not so hot on the others, and then each time I listened the tracks that had blurred past me the first time got more and more distinct, and now my favourite tracks are probably "Vowels = Space & Time" and "Nightmusic" which I would never have said early on.

yah i havent listened to it as much will try to spend some more time i suppose

the vocals on "vowels = space and time" are so good

sounds very r&b to me

gtfo no

yeah, like r&b only way better

xpost

/troll

it's really kinda beautiful & novel imo... it's almost like an entire song of backing vocals

novel if you haven't heard many weak-voiced women cooing aimlessly over timid electronic twiddling

idk her voice sounds pretty great on that song

one of the things I really like about her is that many of the vocal arrangements/lines in one song are little hooks/songs by themselves.

novel if you haven't heard many weak-voiced women cooing aimlessly over timid electronic twiddling

― lex pretend, Wednesday, 4 April 2012 17:49 (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

*bookmarks post*

if only boucher was a strong-willed women singing the kind of authentic r&b music that critics ignore in this day and age!

if only she could write any sort of hook or make any sort of interesting sound

Her voice is many things. "Weak" is not one of them. I recognise that the theatricalness of her voice may be off-putting to some, but to dismiss that as "weak" is evidence of your bias, not a lack of strength or skill or personality in her technique and performance.

this is gonna sound weird, but i almost think visions is like love king, where like every element is its own little hook, one of the reasons i like it a lot

and yes i did just compare boucher to terius

every element is its own little hook

this is how i hear the record too, which makes lex's comments increasingly obscure to me

anyway looking forward to him dropping into this thread periodically to tell us about how he doesn't like grimes

i gave this album way more chances than i usually give albums that i don't enjoy initially, and after all of them i could not recall a single hook, if they existed at all

some of my favorite moments on this are the brief seconds when she switches to a recognizably "good" singing voice, amidst all the swirling multitracked chipmunkisms

it's a choice, you know, lex.

it's just completely unmemorable to me, and i didn't find it "interesting" enough to even admire from a distance (like with julia holter)

Lex, you're allowed not to like a record. But when you continually drop into a thread to tell how much you hate it and we're all stupid for liking it, that is unbelievably tedious. It's not for you. Move on.

this is gonna sound weird, but i almost think visions is like love king, where like every element is its own little hook, one of the reasons i like it a lot

― "I know its hard to hear but I'm a Realest." (rennavate), Wednesday, April 4, 2012 12:57 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

*yanks rope on bus*

anyway it's not like lex revived this thread, i did -- it's cool

It's just... It doesn't make me doubt my judgement over Grimes. But it does make me rethink my areas of agreement with Lex's taste, which generally do overlap and have a lot of common ground. Bah stupid meta, will shut up now.

i think it's obvious that she has a good, powerful singing voice and this is one of the first recent indie albums i've heard where manipulating the vocals or choosing not to sing 'traditionally' really works for it -- she's not attempting to mask or hide any sort of vocal deficiency, but a lot of times it's like you're trying to reach out and grab these great hooks or melodies that aren't pushed to the forefront... but for like the entire album. again tho i think it works because she can sing.