Label: 4AD
Released: March 2012
Format: LP
Grimes latest offering, 'Visions' on big independent 4AD has been very well recieved in both the mainstream and the underground presses. It's not hard to understand why, the atmosphere is fantastically dark and subtly cinematic. The ghost of R&B is omnipresent, opener 'Infinite Love Without Fulfilment' with its rolling, creaking beat sounds like the last 10 years of chart music compressed into a black hole whilst 'Be a Body' has huge, slablike synth stabs that wouldn't sound out of place on a Rhianna record. Her voice floats delicately, high in the register but tightly anchored to the solid orchestration.
It's consistently strong throughout, 'Oblivion' has a particularly gorgeous vocal hook, and perhaps that's the key to her success; the skilful blending of avant garde elements with modern pop music in such a way that it doesn't at any point feel like a cop out or become too overwhelming. All her influences are handled softly, and in such a way that they combine to create a uniquely gothic sound that is enormously addictive.
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