Art Angels

Discography

Released November 6, 2015 Format CD • LP • digital download • cassette • vinyl Length 49:37 Genre(s) Art pop • synthpop • dance Writer(s) Grimes • Aristophanes • Janelle Monáe Producer(s) Grimes Label(s) 4AD

Art Angels is the fourth solo studio album by Canadian singer, songwriter and producer Grimes, released digitally on November 6, 2015, via 4AD and in physical formats on December 11 the same year.

Art Angels has been described as being more accessible than Grimes' previous albums while retaining her experimental influences. The album features guest vocals from Taiwanese rapper Aristophanes and American recording artist Janelle Monáe. Two singles, "Flesh without Blood" and "SCREAM", were released ahead of the album and a single double feature music video was made for the tracks Flesh without Blood and "Life in the Vivid Dream". Art Angels sold 11,000 copies in the first week of its release and became Grimes' highest charting album at the time. The album was released to widespread critical acclaim and was ranked by several publications as one of the best albums of 2015, making the top 3 several times.

Background

Boucher began planning the record in 2013 as the follow-up to Grimes' third solo studio album Visions, however, she scrapped most of the material from those sessions and began a new set of recordings in 2014. The track "REALiTi", which came from the earlier recordings, was released as a demo in early 2015, and Grimes made a decision to include a reworked and finished version in Art Angels due to critical acclaim and overall positive reception of the song.

Grimes' constant touring in 2013 for her 2012 album, Visions, almost led to a physical collapse by the end of the year, bringing her to a point where she recalled "putting a hand up and grabbing a piece of [her] hair, and [she] could just pull [her] hair out". She also became tired of how the music industry ignored her technical abilities and would focus on her being a "female musician" and having a "girly voice"; she responded to these generalizations with "yeah, but I'm a producer and I spend all day looking at f***ing graphs and EQs and doing really technical work"^[1].

Recording process

Grimes wrote, recorded, produced and engineered all of the tracks on the album alone after having a lack of control over production while collaborating with other artists. She began using Ableton after recording Visions entirely in GarageBand and also learned how to play the guitar, drums, keys, ukulele, and violin to explore new musical directions on Art Angels. Realizing it was "too much pressure" to pay per hour to work in a professional studio, the album was recorded by Boucher in her home studio in Los Angeles, California^[2].

Tracklist

CD version bonus track

Japanese version bonus track

Promotion

On March 8, 2015, Grimes released a music video for the demo version of her song REALiTi as a gift to her fans. REALiTi was produced during the scrapped recording sessions for Art Angels and not intended to be included on the final version of her solo fourth album. Boucher stated that the demo version which she released was "not mixed or mastered" as she had "lost the ^[song's] Ableton file". Despite Boucher regarding the demo as "a bit of a mess", REALiTi was well received by critics and fans, which led her to consider including a new version of the song on the final release of Art Angels^[3]. When the track listing for Art Angels was announced, a new version of the song appeared on the digital release and the demo version was included as a bonus track in the CD version only^[4].

Grimes shared the title and cover artwork for Art Angels on social media networks on October 19, 2015 and announced that a new music video would be released the following week^[5]. On October 26, 2015, Grimes revealed that her new album would be available digitally on November 6, 2015, with releases in physical formats on December 11 in the same year. To accompany the announcement, Grimes released her Flesh without Blood/Life in the Vivid Dream music video, a digital single for Flesh without Blood and individual artwork for each track on Art Angels^[6]. SCREAM was released as the second single from Art Angels on October 29, 2015. Kill V. Maim was released as a promotional single on January 19, 2016 with a music video^[7]. California followed, with the release of a music video later in May 2016^[8]. On October 5, 2016, Grimes and her friend and singer HANA released 7 videos the same day called ''AC!D Reign Chronicles''^[9][10]. The film includes Grimes' ''Butterfly'^[11], ''Belly of the Beat''^[12], ''World Princess Pt. II''^[13], ''Scream''^[14], and HANA's ''Underwater''^[15], ''Chimera''^[16] and ''Avalanche''^[17].

Critical reception

Art Angels received widespread acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 88, which indicates "universal acclaim", based on 31 reviews^[18]. In a positive review, The A.V. Club called the album "slick and gritty, fun and funny, and horrifying and grotesque all at once" and said that "it will also make you shake your ass like nothing else". They also highlighted the track Kill V. Maim as holding "the full weight of Grimes' abilities as both a producer and singer"^[19]. While Billboard praised Art Angels as "a marvel of meticulous, even obsessive home-studio recording, uncompromised by bandmates or collaborators", they criticized Grimes' voice as "her least impressive, most commonplace tool"^[20]. Clash stated that "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" and commended the production of the album as the "one thing that does tie it all together"^[21]. Although referring to Art Angels as "simultaneously ^[Grimes'] most accessible and her least personal body of work", Consequence of Sound called the album "pure Grimes — performative, maximalist, joyful, and broad"^[22].

Year-end lists

Chart performance

References

1. ↑ http://www.thefader.com/2015/07/28/grimes-cover-story-interview
2. ↑ http://www.thefader.com/2015/10/28/grimes-recording-process-future-music-magazine
3. ↑ http://pitchfork.com/news/58769-grimes-shares-video-for-previously-unheard-track-realiti/
4. ↑ http://www.spin.com/2015/10/grimes-flesh-without-blood-life-in-the-vivid-dream-video/
5. ↑ http://pitchfork.com/news/61479-grimes-announces-art-angels-lp-shares-cover/
6. ↑ http://pitchfork.com/news/61760-grimes-releases-flesh-without-bloodlife-in-the-vivid-dream-video-announces-art-angels-details/
7. ↑ http://www.popmatters.com/post/grimes-scream-ft.-aristophanes-singles-going-steady/
8. ↑ http://pitchfork.com/news/65327-grimes-shares-california-video-watch/
9. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOwhuTlxE54
10. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aqp3Ic8iwWE
11. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADPk5PpkjMg
12. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpAsOEsamA0
13. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQLvqvLvUIY
14. ↑ http://www.factmag.com/2016/10/05/grimes-acid-reign-chronicles-butterfly-scream-belly-beast-videos/
15. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6VUa8z1pQw
16. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHNb1k7YxeA
17. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw-NQGmXUBE
18. ↑ http://www.metacritic.com/music/art-angels/grimes
19. ↑ http://www.avclub.com/review/grimes-brings-horror-dance-floor-art-angels-227993
20. ↑ http://www.billboard.com/articles/review/6754174/grimes-art-angels-album-review
21. ↑ http://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/grimes-art-angels
22. ↑ http://consequenceofsound.net/2015/11/album-review-grimes-art-angels/
23. ↑ http://www.avclub.com/article/15-best-albums-2015-228932
24. ↑ http://www.billboard.com/photos/6792633/best-albums-of-2015
25. ↑ http://blaremagazine.com/2015/12/10/the-top-50-albums-of-2015/
26. ↑ http://clashmusic.com/features/clash-albums-of-the-year-2015-5-1
27. ↑ http://www.complex.com/music/best-albums-of-2015/
28. ↑ http://consequenceofsound.net/2015/12/top-50-albums-of-2015/
29. ↑ http://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/music/a50922/best-albums-2015/
30. ↑ http://crackmagazine.net/article/music/albums-of-the-year/
31. ↑ http://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/28766/1/the-top-20-albums-of-2015
32. ↑ http://diffuser.fm/the-50-best-albums-of-2015/
33. ↑ http://www.digitalspy.com/music/feature/a777428/the-25-best-albums-of-2015-heres-what-we-ranked-from-25-11/
34. ↑ http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4149657-drowned-in-sounds-favourite-albums-of-the-year-2015
35. ↑ http://www.dummymag.com/lists/the-30-best-albums-of-2015-dummy
36. ↑ http://exclaim.ca/music/article/exclaims_top_20_pop_rock_albums_part_two-best_of_2015
37. ↑ http://www.factmag.com/2015/12/09/the-50-best-albums-of-2015/
38. ↑ http://fasterlouder.junkee.com/the-50-best-albums-of-2015/852415
39. ↑ http://www.gigwise.com/features/104657/best-albums-of-2015-55-41-grimes-florence-lana
40. ↑ http://www.gorillavsbear.net/gorilla-vs-bears-albums-of-2015/
41. ↑ http://www.idolator.com/7616923/best-albums-2015
42. ↑ http://mashable.com/2015/12/15/best-albums-2015/#0xhicJxQEkqA
43. ↑ http://www.mixmag.net/feature/top-50-albums-of-2015/30
44. ↑ http://www.musicomh.com/features/lists/musicomhs-top-50-albums-2015
45. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/13/arts/music/best-albums-of-2015.html
46. ↑ http://www.nme.com/photos/nme-s-albums-of-the-year-2015/394320
47. ↑ https://nowtoronto.com/music/album-reviews/top-albums-of-2015/
48. ↑ http://www.noripcord.com/features/top-albums-2015
49. ↑ http://noisey.vice.com/blog/50-best-albums-of-2015
50. ↑ http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/12/the-50-best-albums-of-2015.html?p=2
51. ↑ http://pigeonsandplanes.com/2015/12/best-albums-of-2015/s/grimes-art-angels-2/
52. ↑ http://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/9764-the-50-best-albums-of-2015/
53. ↑ http://www.popmatters.com/feature/the-80-best-albums-of-2015/P6/
54. ↑ http://www.popjustice.com/articles/the-top-33-albums-of-2015/140057/
55. ↑ http://prettymuchamazing.com/features/best-albums-2015
56. ↑ http://www.roughtrade.com/aoty15/4
57. ↑ http://www.australian-charts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Grimes&titel=Art+Angels&cat=a
58. ↑ http://www.ultratop.be/nl/showitem.asp?interpret=Grimes&titel=Art+Angels&cat=a
59. ↑ http://www.billboard.com/artist/303162/Grimes/chart?f=309
60. ↑ http://www.dutchcharts.nl/showitem.asp?interpret=Grimes&titel=Art+Angels&cat=a
61. ↑ http://www.chart-track.co.uk/index.jsp?c=p%2Fmusicvideo%2Fmusic%2Farchive%2Findex_test.jsp&ct=240002&arch=t&lyr=2015&year=2015&week=46
62. ↑ http://www.chart-track.co.uk/index.jsp?c=p%2Fmusicvideo%2Fmusic%2Farchive%2Findex_test.jsp&ct=240002&arch=t&lyr=2015&year=2015&week=46
63. ↑ http://www.chart-track.co.uk/index.jsp?c=p%2Fmusicvideo%2Fmusic%2Farchive%2Findex_test.jsp&ct=240007&arch=t&lyr=2015&year=2015&week=46
64. ↑ http://www.charts.org.nz/showitem.asp?interpret=Grimes&titel=Art+Angels&cat=a
65. ↑ http://www.officialcharts.com/charts/scottish-albums-chart/20151113/40/
66. ↑ http://www.officialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/3/2015-11-13
67. ↑ http://www.officialcharts.com/charts/independent-albums-chart/20151113/131/
68. ↑ http://www.billboard.com/artist/303162/Grimes/chart?f=305
69. ↑ http://www.billboard.com/artist/303162/Grimes/chart?f=794
70. ↑ http://www.billboard.com/artist/303162/Grimes/chart?f=400
71. ↑ http://www.billboard.com/artist/303162/Grimes/chart?f=326