In the midst of the peplum and wedge sneaker epidemic of the early 2010s, Claire Boucher, known by most as her stage name, Grimes, released her third studio album, Visions, on Feb. 21, 2012. Grimes is likely most well known for her relationship with Elon Musk and their son so thoughtfully named “X Æ A-Xii“.
Even beyond her choices in lovers and baby names, Grimes does have her fair share of quirks. In 2019, she claimed to have had a reconstructive surgery on her eyeball to remove all blue light, a surgery labeled by experts as both illegitimate and illogical. Regardless, Grimes has not once conformed to any standard set by her industry or even common sense, except, perhaps, the notion that one must be mentally tortured to make great art.
In the process of making Visions, Grimes infamously trapped herself in a self-made quasi-bunker without food, sleep, or even another tortured soul. The result? A masterpiece. In just 14 tracks and 49 minutes, Grimes serves a slice of her mind on a titanium platter. Over synthy bass lines, punchy beats, Grimes reaches her highest register, accompanying eerily composed tracks with her dreamy, at times child-like, vocals. In “Symphonia IX (My Wait Is U)”, a favorite track of mine, Grimes layers a crunchy beat with borderline intelligible lyrics. However, with a closer listen, layered over the main vocal track, Grimes sings, almost monotonically, “Be in the dark to be in a deep mind”.
I find that artists like to produce “tragic art” for the same reason people like to consume it. The artist is able to find some solace in the thought that their audience may be as troubled as they are and the audience finally receives validation that they are not alone. Boucher has said Visions was composed in a rut of unfulfillment, a state of constantly chasing what she didn’t have and then not being satisfied when she finally got it.
Grimes routinely makes self-deprecating remarks, ironically once commenting that anyone can do what she does, it’s just a matter of confidence. Centuries worth of tortured artists, from Van Gogh to Cobain, have long been unintentionally infusing their strongest emotions into their work, creating art that, whether they realized it or not, could never quite be replicated. By amplifying the intensity of the creative process, Grimes produced something truly herself, something unrepeatable and forever irreplaceable.
Grimes’ legacy will likely be tainted by her association with Musk, grouped in with headlines of X rants and oval office visits. For the time being, Grimes remains a star, even five years after the release of her last album. She now has nearly seven million monthly listeners on Spotify and, with a couple of scrolls on TikTok, you’ll likely encounter the mystical openings of Visions tracks “Genesis” and “Oblivion” which now occupy viral status. A certified millennial, Grimes remains an icon of 21st century youth: unafraid, messy and original.
