Review Summary: Everything I love is consolidation after you.
There’s always been a macabre edge to most of Grimes’ work, but it’s easy to dismiss due to her saccharine voice and other seemingly innocent aspects of her work. The majority of Halfaxa was flat out claustrophobic at times. The thunderous bass and powerful drums were heavily juxtaposed by the unbridled beauty of her voice. As she progressed and matured, her music became more airy and delicate, resulting in Visions. Art Angels isn’t Visions part two, but it’s definitely the most logical progression.
Grimes has always been one to try to evoke things with her art, but Art Angels is the most vivid thing she’s ever done. Visions was like laying in bed, watching car headlights slowly moving across the ceiling, coming in from your blinds in the middle of the night. This time the light on the ceiling’s coming from a disco ball and you’re having a house party in an alien wasteland. Musically, there aren’t many aspects of Art Angels that have remained the same since Visions. It’s her most varied work yet but it retains the same mood throughout the whole album. On previous works, any present aggression or energy usually took the backseat to let atmosphere and subtlety drive. SCREAM and Kill V. Maim are the most extreme examples of the unrestrained vigor and confidence which are commonplace on the album. Grimes screaming like a feral animal over a surf rock riff with a Taiwanese rapper handling the verses isn’t what anybody expected to come next but it just
works There are many different sounds and textures and ideas floating around on Art Angels, but her energy ties them all together. Soaring vocals, simplistic guitar riffs, and catchy hooks are the centerpiece of most tracks, but it’s intricacy and attention to detail she gives all the tracks which makes them stand out.
If Grimes has captured one thing with her music, it’s whimsicality. It’s a completely different world. Her broad sonic palette rarely includes humanity as a colour. But when she decides to focus on more worldly sounds and emotions (REALiTi is a prime example), it results in some of her best music yet. Art Angels isn’t about feeling like an outsider. It’s a release of all the restrained emotions and moods that have always been on the cusp of her music. Anxiety turns to anger, insecurity to confidence. Cryptic lyrics she would’ve whispered before, she now shouts and screams. It’s spirited and dauntless, and still unabashedly Grimes.
