Grimes. Visions LP

Grimes Visions
2012, 4AD, Listen on NPR

by Jordan Brown

9.2 / 10

In this day and age there are very few artists that know how to push the envelope in terms of composing truly unique music landscapes. However, Montreal-based singer Claire Boucher definitely has the know-how. With her third release, Visions, Claire takes on the role as a curator of “sound” as she style-flexes from genres such as IDM and glitch to trip-hop and dream pop with relative ease. The result is something I can only describe as a faux futuristic, almost otherworldly listening experience at times. 

Pulling from influences such as Enya, Aphex Twin, and Kate Bush, Visions is undoubtably an atmospheric journey from to start to finish. The bulk of the album is riddled with emotional and sensual overtones that find themselves forced through some sort of futuristic filter. The resulting product can only be described as fantastic. Despite all these alien descriptors, at its core Visions still feels very organic and natural in its presentation.

Experimenting with a variety of sounds, Claire still finds a way to entice listeners with incredibly catchy hooks and pulsating rhythms. Lead singles “Oblivion” and “Genesis” manage to do just that by mixing tribal-like influences with that of ultramodern percussion and electronic elements creating a sound that you'd expect to hear from neighboring planets. The two-minute track “Eight” takes a page right out of early Daft Punk’s book with a robotic backbone and a distinct pop hook. “Vowels = Space and Time” is a nod to her previous work, highlighting her distinctive falsetto over an ethereal ambience that takes the listener on a truly emotional and phantasmal trip. One of the album’s clear highlights is “Skin” which is possibly the closest thing to a completely stripped down, vulnerable slow jam that we have ever seen from her to date. “Cicumambient” and “Nightmusic” also stand out amongst the other greats on Visions, as both are truly rich, eerily sexy songs that you can’t help but want to blast through your speakers.

As a whole, there are very few faults to be found here. At 48 minutes and 13 tracks long, I am sure some will find fault with the album's length and cite that there is some filler that could be cut. However, I do not personally find this to be true. If anything, "Colour of Moonlight (Antiochus)" is the only true clunker on the album, as the song itself meanders around and ultimately fails to build into anything meaningful or exciting. With that said, Visions still remains the most cohesive and best Grimes album to date.

Visions is, in brief, a sonic listen from start to finish. It’s clear that Claire has taken marked strides from her earlier lo-fi releases and found a way to focus her often-schizophrenic sound into dazzlingly complex and impeccable works of pop genius. Beneath its software-sculpted landscape is a beautifully crafted album that is waiting to reward its listeners with each and every layer unearthed. Despite being admittingly crafted during a time of darkness in her life, it’s hard to not to see anything but a very bright future for Grimes.