The dissolving line between underground strangeness and pop music becomes blurrier every day. It’s a shift that was one of the driving forces behind my own culture/subculture reconceptualization projects, and one which Claire Boucher seems to know in her soul. Visions is her third release in as many years, but it shows a remarkable growth in one aspect: it’s perfectly pop in a way that would be bizarre even ten years ago. A cursory listen would suggest that much of the gloominess permeating her earlier work is gone, but in fact it’s simply gone undercover. In my recent interview with Boucher, we spoke on the lurking bleakness behind the sweetness, and that’s really what this album is about: sleepless nights, disconnection from reality and lost opportunities.

READ MY FULL REVIEW OF GRIMES’ ‘VISIONS’ HERE.