The image of the musician who sits in his or her bedroom – without having formal music training, using a basic home setup to search out for interesting sounds – is one that is becoming more commonplace in the last few years. Despite this, I don’t think I was ready to be so charmed by Halfaxa, the second album from Canadian Clare Boucher under the name Grimes. It is an album with ethereal, reverb-drenched vocals that are placed together with sounds that genre-hop through dream pop, new wave, and even a spooky kind of late night R&B.
In terms of specific contemporaries, I think Grimes’ closest sonic relatives are other female fronted acts like Fever Ray, Crystal Castles, Cocteau Twins, Gang Gang Dance, or even anything off the Italians Do It Better label that was all over blogs a few years ago – you get the idea. Boucher has said that her lack of musical training is her greatest talent; as such it stands to reason that Boucher mostly has her own instinct (and ear) to go on when she’s making music. Whether that’s truly a talent or not is probably up to you, but there’s no denying that there are tracks that hit harder than some. When Boucher is on, she’s on. “Dream Fortress” is a great chilled-out track with relaxed synths, dashes of violin and an stuttering beat that anchors it all; “Sagrad” on the other hand is one for the clubs with a thumping 4/4 beat and many layers of vocals. “Weregild” is another highlight where the DIY hazy production combined with Boucher’s otherworldly vocals and pop-oriented melodies create a spacious, menacing and mesmerizing mix.
Make no mistake though, this definitely sounds like someone who is still in the infancy of their career, with sparse production that can sound too simplistic and vocals that sound unsure (albeit compelling). There are obvious lowlights in terms of songwriting – “Hallways” and “Favriel” both tend to drag the album out somewhat, and these songs especially demonstrate how easily her production can go from sounding haunting and exciting to cheap and clunky. There’s no doubting though that Boucher’s future releases will be far more streamlined.
Grimes has created an interesting debut – one that sounds of-the-moment and that takes inspiration from many disparate sources to create something pretty fresh and that more often than not hints at great things to come. And if new single “Vanessa” is anything to go by, she’s already well on her way.
Wyatt Lawton-Masi
