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CRITIC REVIEWS
100
All adds up to a fearless and fascinating record.
100
Boucher herself has come out to claim her music as genre-less, but the Art Angels incarnation of Grimes is through-and-through Frankenstein pop, influenced by so many irresistible sounds ... smashed together, somehow coming out just the right way.
100
It’s impossible to resist the instant, limb-grabbing appeal of the pop music Grimes is making here, and dizzyingly big, this is a record about shaking off every constraint, and wrenching hold of reality with both fists.
100
Grimes has given us a complete record that's everything pop should be in 2015: utterly uncompromising, imaginative and, somehow, universally accessible.
100
She’s crafted a glorious pop monster entirely by her own mind, hand, and voice. Part dazzling confection, part snarling beast, Art Angels is a stitched together, hook ridden masterwork.
91
After Visions, the only thing Grimes could do was to grow as big as the landscape around her. Here’s her mountain.
91
It’s slick and gritty, fun and funny, and horrifying and grotesque all at once. It will also make you shake your ass like nothing else.
90
Art Angels is an uncompromisingly colorful conception of pop music’s kaleidoscopic future, a clash between modern dance pop conventions and the independent sensibility of a singular artist.
90
Not many self-sufficient artists could create such a beautiful beast.
4mo
90
Amidst these unpredictable soundscapes, the choruses are so catchy and touching that it’s easy to forget just how weird this music is, and that’s what makes it such a thrill.
90
Art Angels is a marvel of meticulous, even obsessive home-studio recording, uncompromised by bandmates or collaborators.
85
Art Angels is what a pop album would sounds like if you took the top 10 chart and deliberately swapped everything for unexpected patterns and instruments.
85
Here, she closes the gap between the pop she's idolized and the pop she is capable of.
85
Visions put Grimes on the map as pop's pure misfit but Art Angels secured her tangible place as the genre's most unconventional star. For those that doubted, she's done that thing she does, but better. More defined.
82
Art Angels wipes the fog from her lens and lays out her vision, clear and uncompromising.
80
In its ability to appeal to so many listeners, while being as thrilling on its first spin as it is on its fifteenth, Art Angels is likely to emerge from 2015 as one of the most universally adored albums of the year.
80
She may be glossier now, but, there’s plenty on Art Angels to recommend to her initial fan base.
80
It’s not so much that she’s changed direction completely, as that she’s drained her art of the obfuscating sonic blabber to leave her pop aesthetic.
80
While Art Angels is a thrilling listen by design, some songs can’t carry through the excitement of some of the bigger sounds on the album.
80
Crackling with radio-primed hooks, whipsnap breakbeats and Boucher’s helium-pitched vocals, Grimes’ third album makes a convincing strike for playlist ubiquity, with a healthy dollop of the oddball chucked in.
80
You sense the deceptively complex Art Angels will only continue to yield further depths with time.
80
It could all lead to sonic whiplash, but Boucher's staunchly independent viewpoint is the glue that holds together Art Angels.
80
With pacing like a serial manga franchise, the album shines through its relentless ability to grow on you, despite all odds.
80
Grimes manages to face mounting hype with a skillful redefinition of boundaries. It may be new territory, but she's navigating it pretty damn well.
80
It’s a triumph of Grimes as gloriously and unapologetically DIY producer, a pop singer politically and emotionally invested in your knowing that she made this all on her own — as if anything workshopped with a team of songwriters could sound so bracing and unpredictable.
80
This is the truest representation of Grimes we’ve heard yet: 'Art Angels' is boundary pushing, it’s listenable and it’s Boucher’s most ambitious and most consistent work to date.
80
Claire Boucher is very good at making pop music. Strange, esoteric pop music that sounds like something not quite of this world, but which manages to remain totally accessible.
80
There’s something that feels tangibly joyful on Art Angels that we didn’t hear on Visions.
80
It would be reductive to call this record Boucher's ‘Grimes goes Pop’ moment, but it certainly feels like an attempt to bridge the gap between her fervent online cult and tangible, real-world success.
70
The big news on her fourth album is how much she's upped her game as a writer and a singer, giving her music new polish and resonance.
70
Grimes returns with a diverse, well-produced pop album that's both accessible and odd.
70
There's still some room for Boucher to further focus her ambitions, but this album is the surest evidence so far that she's game for the challenge.
60
Somehow she's always managed to tread a rare, thin line between catchy left-field creations and catchy mainstream pop. On Art Angels, we hear that high art experimentation fall into mainstream territory with only fleeting moments of brilliance.
60
Packed as it is with all this goodness, Art Angels fails to comprehensively blow your mind. Ultimately, Grimes has not reinvented the pop wheel, she’s just driven it off road a little.
40
Although, it’s still admirably produced completely by Boucher – when she could have easily sacrificed control – the clarity of her sound is significantly greater.
Her album covers are the best, they're so creative, but they do look like they were ripped straight out of a 16 year old's tumblr. Anyway, music good
I don't get the hate. I love this album. I don't think is too mainstream. If you don't like her previous release you never gonna like this. The best pop album of 2015 so far. Best tracks: California, Flesh Without Blood, Kill V. Maim, World Princess part II, Realiti, Venus Fly. The whole album is a standout.
This album took a little bit to warm up but everything after Belly of the Beat until REALTI shines on as an amazing pop record from one of the strangest people in music currently. I really respect Grimes for going from Visions to this and I think it was a choice in the right direction even if I don't rank this
(2015) Grimes - Art Angels:
01. "Laughing And Not Being Normal" (5/10)
02. "California" (9/10)
03. "Scream (feat. Aristophanes)" (6/10)
04. "Flesh Without Blood" (10/10) ♡
05. "Belly Of The Beat" (6/10)
06. "Kill V. Maim" (10/10) ♡
07. "Artangels" (9/10)
08. "Easily" (10/10) ♡
09. "Pin" (5/10)
10. "REALiTi" (8/10)
11. "World Princess, Pr. II" (7/10)
12. "Venus Fly (feat. ... read more
My favorite Grimes album. The release of this during my sophomore year of high school really defined a lot of my pop-taste going forward. Her style of pop here is just undeniably catchy and forces me to dance!
Favs: Kill V Main, Butterfly
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Track List
| 1 | Laughing and Not Being Normal 1:47 | 84 |
| 2 | California 3:18 | 85 |
| 3 | Scream 2:20 feat. Aristophanes 貍貓 | 74 |
| 4 | Flesh without Blood 4:24 | 92 |
| 5 | Belly of the Beat 3:25 | 82 |
| 6 | Kill V. Maim 4:06 | 95 |
| 7 | Artangels 4:07 | 89 |
| 8 | Easily 3:03 | 82 |
| 9 | Pin 3:32 | 87 |
| 10 | REALiTi 5:06 | 92 |
| 11 | World Princess, Pt. II 5:05 | 89 |
| 12 | Venus Fly 3:45 feat. Janelle Monáe | 91 |
| 13 | Life in the Vivid Dream 1:27 | 84 |
| 14 | Butterfly 4:12 | 90 |
Total Length: 49 minutes
Year End Lists
| #1 | / | Gorilla vs. Bear |
| #1 | / | Idolator |
| #1 | / | NME |
| #1 | / | Pigeons & Planes |
| #1 | / | Stereogum |
| #2 | / | Cosmopolitan |
| #2 | / | Dazed |
| #3 | / | Billboard |
| #3 | / | Clash |
| #3 | / | Consequence of Sound |
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Added on: October 20, 2015