Grimes/Claire Boucher thread

Ok, I can totally understand that.

What is it specifically that people mean when they say the production or mix is bad? What are the problems with it? How is it amateurish? And how / where / on what / to what are people listening?

I don't listen in anywhere near like the way I used to 10 or 15 years ago, and I'm not atuned to latest trends like I almost was once upon a time, but I'm not hearing amateurishness here. I've bought the CD, ripped it to my server as FLAC files, and stuck it on my iPhone as 128aac files like I do with everything else. Listening is in the kitchen (off the server), in the livingroom (hi-fi), and out-and-about (Koss Portapros). Yes, there's loads of compression and reverb, yes the songs are way less strident and pop than Art Angels, but I'm not hearing anything here as 'wrong'.

― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, February 26, 2020 2:47 AM (yesterday)

Poor use of compression and EQ. Beats, specifically kicks, sound fuzzy and distorted, but not in a good way. A great visual analogy for me is looking at a JPG with a ton of compression artifacts. This album is that but with its mix. It's not a huge deal for me, better than poor brick wall limited mastering, but it's disappointing given her previous work and the quality of the new songs.

Artists of Grimes' caliber and popularity generally don't produce mixes like this and often hire external help to adjust the mix level settings/compression/EQ at the track level. I am not a fan of artists getting lazier with craft and calling it "art". I also admit I'm more anal about this than others because I produce and know how easy it would be to fix these issues

i guess the thing w/this album is to me it seems like a specific choice vs a problem she would have wanted fixed, and i guess it doesn't particularly bother me nor do i notice it (i'm not a producer btw). the tunes have a lot of hooks which come through. but historically i also enjoy a lot of albums in this realm and style, so idk. it sounds like grimes.

often hire external help to adjust the mix level settings/compression/EQ at the track level

But there are "mixers" credited on every track... I think IDORU is the only one where Grimes is the credited mixer?

Yeah I saw that... which is why it's likely a deliberate choice, and one that I don't agree with.

Oh it’s totally a deliberate choice (sorry, guess I misunderstood your comment). I personally think it “works” and sounds great, but obviously that’s a matter of taste.

I don't know that I buy that, there are plenty of records where a professional engineer just fucked up the mix. I definitely hear digital clipping on the kicks and it does not sound purposeful to me.

moodles otm, basically the line between production and mixing doesn't really exist anymore so you have producers making mix decisions and vice versa and it can end up with the mixer sorta being the label's enforcer to juice and maximize things to earbleed levels sometimes or rush things to release.

but it sounds great on my iphone speakers, and i don't notice the mediocre quality when i am commuting with headphones on. it suffers played back to back with extremely expensively made records. but at the end of the day the album is fascinating, and sort of suggests a chillwavey nostalgia-as-future-anxiety with the past being y2k era instead of vhs, and the future anxiety being apocalypse rather than joblessness. the garbage comparison resonates because it hits that period where the digital hooks were going in and we weren't really noticing, and now look where it got us.

speaking of hooks ... it is absolutely packed with hooks and ... i think people have differing definitions of what a hook is? i have had like 5-6 different ones running through my head after just two listens

people hear things differently... like the tonic of “sweet home Alabama” or w/e

I think there’s been a lot of projecting w/the relatively few reviews calling this a failure, little discussion of her skills as a musician creating a melodic work and more about her skill in executing the concept album she mentioned which like i said before was more a jumping-off point wrt inspiration vs any explicitly told dystopian tale.

Interestingly I think like AA it comes off better as a whole, when listened to in one sitting. vs listening to the tracks as they were rolling out — they sounded cool but it works well as a piece. Also idk if it’s better than AA but I think it’s a more consistent record so maybe I’ll agree w D-40 eventually.

chillwavey nostalgia-as-future-anxiety with the past being y2k era instead of vhs, and the future anxiety being apocalypse rather than joblessness

Holy shit I love this description thank you

Interestingly, in another forum someone took the leaked album and inverted the audio from the official release to see if there were adjustments made between then and now. Only You'll miss me when I'm not around had any changes.

a forgotten hyper corporate alt rock album downloaded from Kazaa at >128kpbs ca. 1998

^^this is the description I luv

maybe it's the grimes album for ppl who aren't particularly grimes fans? idk... none of her stuff other than "oblivian" has really grabbed me, but I'm so locked in to this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCrhTU9HkVQ

can anyone confirm if grimes likes anime

almost as hard to determine as whether she's been into tumblr

Having just listened to the new Caribou album, yeah, this sounds like shit. Still enjoy it though.

Is it just me or are her music videos very low effort this album cycle?

Friendship with @Fantano CANCELED ! Friendship with @pitchfork RENEWED pic.twitter.com/DgKnFynbN4

— ༺GRIMES༻ 🤍 小仙女 (@Grimezsz) February 28, 2020

ha ha, that’s awesome

pic.twitter.com/Ed4HLucaXe

— maddie (@elfnymph) February 28, 2020

That is how artists should respond to good/bad reviews xxpost

otm good stuff

Answering my own question but I wasn’t too far off with the “lesser effort” in her music videos for this cycle compared to previous albums, from an AMA he did in reddit a couple hours ago:

There was also a lot of stuff planned that didn't pan out due to my manager's passing (LAUREN FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!) and my pregnancy. We had planned a short film with Jodeb that was about all the Goddesses fighting but being pregnant got too crazy to make somethning like that, and a "modern demonology" with Heavy Metal Magazine that would be a coffee table book with all the Gods

Kinda sucks that her original vision for the visuals of the album got slashed away.

Here’s the AMA : https://www.reddit.com/r/popheads/comments/fb38tj/popheads_its_grimes_and_my_new_album_miss/

the ama also has grimes talking about the mix:

For Miss A i think each song is a mini world/ personality whereas AA is more of a cohesive statement. So some songs just required specific personelle to finish. Like with So heavy, its such a wierd song production wise, i needed someone who could keep the bass heavy but bring the vocals up without losing verb and without muddying the mix, which is why Illangelo was the only option to mix. He's worked extednsively with the weeknd and i think a song like the hills is one of the only songs that has lots of reverb on the vocal and still bangs.

I know she’s just typing fast, but I genuinely dig the “personelle” neologism.

I listened to this one again yesterday and my new conclusion is that not all of the songs have an awful sound, just the ones I would actually listen to (delete forever, idoru). The songs that I don’t care much about don’t sound that bad like say, “you’ll miss me when I’m not around”, that one actually sounds good to me.

Do we know who’s working with her in each track? Illangelo is hit or miss to me but most of his work with the weeknd is great. Did that quote means he worked in the whole album or just on “so heavy”?

Carlo “Illangelo” Montagnese is only credited as “mixer” on that particular track.

I’ve had delete forever in my head all week, such a weird flat disturbing yet beautiful song. The pro tools sterilized banjo is affecting in a way hard to articulate

it is my song of the year so far

I'm really getting into this album, it's full of hooks and it's not super long so I can listen to most of it in a single commute.

Yeah I was wrong about wanting those other mixes on the CD, it’s actually the perfect length.

I highly appreciate “we appreciate power” but she was correct in not including it on this imo.

At first I was disappointed but the flow of the album is vv good and musically it doesn’t quite fit in.

I’ve officially warmed up to “delete forever” again after listening to it on cheaper headphones. It still sounds a bit flat to my ears but it’s a good Grimes song regardless of how it sounds.

Just want to point out how clever it is that "You'll Miss Me When I'm Not Around" (poppiest song ever about suicide?) features gurgling, watery "You'll miss me when I'm down" vocals at the end -- musically expressing the "I'll tie my feet to rocks and drown" sentiment via the chopped 'n screwed chorus treatment so prevalent in recent pop hits.

guYS i mIgHt kILl mYSeLf!!1

Oh, go soak yr head ;-)

“You’ll miss me when I’m not around“ has some good hooks though I think it probably is the least essential of the 10 tracks. which isn’t to say it’s not good just that I think the rest of the album is quite a bit better.

oh man, I think it's such a great jam!

("before the fever" is the least essential to me... kinda feels mainly like a "bridge" into "IDORU"?)

I think it’s a jam but maybe just a step below for me?

Idk though I usually have shifting opinions with strong albums like this which are dense w/quality cuts. Some rise above others in my estimation over time after previously having been slightly lesser.

I really loved “violence” and “so heavy I fell through the earth”, looking forward to hearing this

After two listens I'd say there's a greater confidence here. Doesn't wash over you like some of the earlier stuff. Wish it really rocked more or had straight up perverse disco like "violence".

guYS i mIgHt kILl mYSeLf!!1

― strangely hookworm but they manage ream shoegaze poetry (imago), Monday, March 2, 2020 7:01 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

^^ unheimisch feeling of "uh oh, this post will not age well"

Love suicide humor, but I guess she has it coming

Accordingly, the earthiest musical moment on her new album, the strummed acoustic guitars on the track “Delete Forever” (which shares its bizarro-country vibes with 2015’s “California”) is not what it sounds like. “Actually, hilariously,” she says, “that guitar is from a sample pack that I chopped up.” She fakes it so real she’s beyond fake.

no wonder it sounds so off to me then

Good album.

otm

no wonder it sounds so off to me then

― ufo, Thursday, March 5, 2020 4:50 PM (twenty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

all rap music does this fwiw