3. Art Angels – Grimes

“Grimes as one person can not represent more than a couple ideas,” Claire Elise Boucher a.k.a. Grimes explained to the Fader Magazine in July. “That’s why I started developing some of the other characters really abstract from who I am and how I am.” The results were the Art Angels that flutter and dance across this fantastical and animated record which includes the singer’s catchiest tunes to date. Solely writing, singing, and producing every track, Grimes creates an album that feels like an electronic sculpture garden, surprisingly organic in all its artificiality. Each track is alive with well-orchestrated beats and strangely vivid energy that bring the individual art angels to life. Energized and spunky on the fiery banger “Kill V. Maim,” the angel becomes soft and sugar-coated on “California” before transforming into a rough and emphatic beast on “Scream.” A self-diagnosed control freak, Grimes has impressed critics with her refusal to be pinned down in an industry that craves categorization. Art Angels is an aggressive pop juggernaut but it’s also an electronic masterpiece, a dazzling alternative standout, and much, much more.