GRIMES Art Angels 4AD
YOU COULD WRITE A FASCINATING alternate history of music by following the progressions of weirdos and outsiders who, after a few albums, yielded to the gravitational pull of mainstream music: The Velvet Underground, Yoko Ono, The Tubes, Genesis, Talking Heads, Scritti Politti, Simple Minds, Liz Phair, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and, more recently, Tune-Yards and Marina & The Diamonds. As Art Angels confirms, Grimes, the alter ego of Claire Boucher, is heiress to this tradition, with a few crucial differences.
If you hear the lyrics as personal, Boucher, 27, expresses wariness in these songs: “When you get bored of me, I’ll be back on the shelf,” she sings melancholically over a clapping, double-Dutch beat in “California,” the state where this Canadian musicianproducer relocated in the run-up…