It’s only been two years since eclectic visual artist and electronic musician Claire Boucher made her 4AD debut with Visions, but good god have we been missing Grimes.
Though she had been drawing deep from various and awesome weirdo influences to create uniquely dark, arty pop for two years previous (2010’s Geidi Primes and Halfaxa for Arbutus Records), Visions’ huge crossover appeal was surprising, but also completely welcome. We were so sorely unaware of how badly we needed Grimes in our lives.
“Go,” Grimes’ first bit of new music since then, sees a sharpened focus and unexpected diversion in style by Boucher. The track, which was written originally for Rihanna and features Blood Diamonds, blasts a beat and frenetic club sample, but it’s still not nearly as strange as some of the stuff we’ve heard from her before. Girl’s got a voice—with a powerful presence she’s demonstrated many times before—and here it’s relatively straightforward and reigned in, yet still a stunning force; the wild yelps and falsetto coos Boucher constructed for Visions are replaced by a pop anthem’s melody here, saccharine and echoing.
If Visions wowed us with its acceptance (and adoration) by a wider audience, it’s not too unbelievable to anticipate a mass infiltration by Grimes this time around. This thing is just a Drake guest spot away from becoming summer’s banger hit.
