Arcade Fire’s Will Butler calls Claire Boucher (who goes by Grimes in her music) a “world builder." I wholeheartedly agree; it’s that quality that drew listeners to her work as Grimes in the first place, and it’s that quality that keeps listeners hooked. All of her albums before "Art Angels," however, did this in a very reserved manner, creating spaces of abrasion and peace but at a cost of not being accessible at all times, of not feeling truly generous. This album takes the abrasion to a new level, genuinely brutal at times towards the music industry, anonymous comments, and the media’s perception of artistry, to name a few focal points. The little peace present is tight and concentrated, ditching the constant floating serenity that 2010's "Halfaxa" depended on and 2012's "Visions" kept coming back to for a refined, unique sound, beautiful, lush and thrumming through every single track on the album. Most of all, however, the generosity of "Art Angels" really shines through; this is an album full of upbeat, infectious music that Claire Boucher actually wants you to listen to.
However, Grimes doesn’t lose her melancholy so easily. “Belly of the Beat” is a funeral song for Grimes’ older, escapism-oriented music, echoing the pulse of "Halfaxa's" "Devon” and “Grisgris.” “Life in the Vivid Dream” is a helpless ode to the wild and a hopeless plea to us to give it what it needs to survive. Despite keeping its somber subject matter, “World Princess, Part II” is a swift departure from its preceding "Halfaxa" track, a song about Boucher’s best friend who has passed away. Instead of taking after “World ♡ Princess” and resting so deeply in the nightmare of loss, “Part II” breathes life into the departed's memory, giving Grimes the strength to move forward and claim the identity that is so rightfully hers. That message is the beating heart of the album. Grimes has reached a point in her artistry where isolation inside a dark room for weeks could elicit significantly weaker material than being present in the world.
However, for all the idealistic beauty "Art Angels" does find in the world around it, the record does not pull punches on reality; there are more dig tracks on the album than tracks that aren’t. “California” is specific in its target, panning Pitchfork's fair-weather portrayal of Grimes and other female artists, and “laughing and not being normal” is a pang, an ache of self-assessment that comes with the former track’s scenario, and "Art Angels" ends how it began. On “Butterfly,” Grimes’ angelic voice crooning “if you’re looking for a dream girl/I’ll never be your dream girl” is, if anything, a more direct way of phrasing the sarcasm dripping from the opening track just in case you didn’t get the message. "Art Angels" prioritizes women, misandry casual and constant — the chorus of "I'm only a man/I do what I can" resounding through "Kill V Maim," and the war against the gaze of a male-dominated industry on "Venus Fly." We are reminded constantly throughout the album that these songs are on nobody’s terms, but Grimes (and Janelle Monae’s) and, as a result, are privileged to hear her at her most unlocked: absolutely unhinged and voracious (“Kill V Maim”) and at her most composed and driving (“Art Angels”) on back to back songs, for example. Grimes isn’t making music to ogle at and appreciate, or to pick apart like a cultural locus. She’s, as Jessica Hopper states in Pitchfork’s review, “[closed the gap] between the pop she's idolized and the pop she is capable of." Look no further than the album art: haphazard and Grimes-y as ever, but her face is more present in the album art than it’s ever been.
Maybe it’s just the fact that "Geidi Primes" is a "Dunes" concept album, but I can equate Grimes’ discography to a genuinely incredible sci-fi saga. "Geidi," "Halfaxa" and "Visions" are the original trilogy, and "Art Angels" is many, many things at once: the gritty reboot, the previous three remastered, and the hopeful and ambitious sequel that ever so slightly misses the mark of its predecessors. However, unlike every successful sci-fi franchise, Grimes’ new epic doesn’t rest on its laurels for one second. Every song on "Art Angels" isn’t a thinly veiled, marketable rehash of a previous love song crowd-pleaser; these are unique, luscious pieces of new work. It is pure ingenuity with no trace of ingenue. Nobody is too good for pop music, especially good pop music.
