Montreal-based electro-pop artist Grimes, aka Claire Boucher‘s 3rd album Visions has been on my iPod in constant repeat since it’s release in early February. It has taking me a few weeks to actually process the entire album due to the fact that in every listen I discover something new that I inexplicably love.

After a short intro, Visions begins with the track ‘Genesis,’ a catchy and alluring Madonna-esque synthpop song that introduces that spacey and ethereal atmosphere of the album. Follow by the synth heavy ‘Oblivion’ a beautifully bouncy and dreamy track that showcases Claire Boucher‘s beautiful doll-like voice.

The album continues with the dancey and upbeat ‘Circumambient‘ and the intergalactic, robotic-like voiced ‘Eight.’ Then there is the tribal song ‘Visiting Statue’ a song that feels like an indigenous song being play at a ritual—-but on a foreign planet. The rest of the songs in the album have the same approach; they all  posses a unique psychedelic alien like appeal.

The highlights of the record are the sensual ‘Vowels = Space and Time,’ and the enchanting ‘Skin.’ The lyrics and Claire‘s falsetto in ‘Skin’ are simply touching and will melt your body completely.

“Visions” is a hard album to describe. It contains many musical elements and styles that I never thought could work well together. There are traces of hip-hop, pop, new-wave and industrial sounds that blend so seemingly well to form a cohesively dreamy soundscape. Clare Boucher‘s prominent cooing and feathery child-like voice along with the soothing synth and delicate keyboard play throughout the record have a wistful atmospheric effect that feels remote and delightfully strange. And is that unconventional mixture of genres and sound that makes this record so brilliantly alluring and so special.

“Visions” will definitely appear in the top 5 of my list of best albums of 2012. I Simply adore this record!

Watch the just released video for “Oblivion” below.

Grimes (iTunes)

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