The Light Appears

In the past year, Claire Boucher, better known as Grimes has been a busy woman. The Vancouver native, now living in Montreal, has released 3 albums as well as a split 12” with D’eon and toured with Lykke Li. Grimes latest release is Visions and is also her first on legendary label 4AD (Grimes remains on the Arbutus Record label in Canada).

Already making waves across the internet, Visions is absolutely stunning and one that is not easily comparable to other artists. In spots Grimes sounds like a lighter, poppier version of Crystal Castles with a dose of Austra thrown in for good measure. The upbeat “Circumambient” is one remix away from being club ready as is “Be a Body” with its slashing keyboard lines. Visions really shines on tracks such as the Japanese sounding “Genesis”, the haunting echoed vocal effected “Nightmare” and first single “Oblivion” with its buried lyric – “it’s hard to understand cause when you’re really by yourself it’s hard to find someone to really hold your hand”.

The hype surrounding Grimes coming into this year was well justified. Visions is one of the first great albums of the year and sure to hold up as one of the best of 2012.

9/10

Grimes – Oblivion