Grimes Unleashes New Video and Single: "Flesh without Blood/Life in the Vivid Dream"

Electronic prodigy Grimes has finally released the lead single and music video from her forthcoming album Art Angels, due November 6 for digital download. The video actually features two songs, "Flesh without Blood" and "Life in the Vivid Dream."

"Flesh without Blood" might sound like a scary title, but this single is anything but. It's actually quite lighthearted, with plenty of mainstream appeal, and even as an avid fan of her last album, Visions (which was rather dark), I found it enjoyable and meaningful. Much like I've felt that I've personally needed her older material, I needed this song both musically and lyrically: "If you don't need me / Just let me go."

"Life in the Vivid Dream" is a quieter, slower song, and I love it as much as its upbeat predecessor. Even though it's short, it definitely leaves an impression. It may not sound that much like her earlier material but it retains the relaxing, dreamy quality her fans know and love. The lyrics are poetic and heartfelt: "I could tell you that people are good in the end, but why / Why would I?"

The production of these guitar-led songs is just spectacular. As much as I love Grimes' older songs, the sound quality was very reminiscent of demos (albeit some damn good demos that I'd love with all my heart even if they were recorded in a windstorm). But now, everything's crystal clear - even the lyrics (for the most part), and we all know how Grimes likes to make it as difficult as possible to discern what she's singing.

As far as the video itself? Well, the quality is pristine. Grimes is the only artist capable of making a video so cute and evil, of being totally whimsical while also being serious. It gets kind of gory within the two minute range, right when the seemingly random elements first begin to come together. I love the concept - sometimes the people that are supposed to be angelic are the ones sticking knives in our guts.

Altogether, I'm very pleased. I can't wait to hear what else she has in store on Art Angels.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Wishes I'd Ask the Book Genie to Grant Me

Top Ten Tuesday is held at The Broke and the Bookish. Every week, book bloggers are given a theme to roll with and compile a list accordingly. Today, we all get to be super imaginative and create a limitless wish list. What if us book lovers could get whatever we want...What if a certain Book Genie gave us ten wishes? 

Top Ten Wishes I'd Ask the Book Genie to Grant Me

Annette Curtis Klause releases a new novel. 

I LOVE Annette Curtis Klause. This lady has written paranormal YA classics like Blood and Chocolate and The Silver Kiss. Three of her four books were published in the 90s, and the last one (Freaks: Alive on the Inside) was published in 2006. Her writing is really beautiful and her stories are different from what has become the typical paranormal YA. I NEEDZ MOAR.

The new Sailor Moon art book gets released.

A couple of years ago I read this exciting news post from Kodansha Comics saying that we would be getting a new Sailor Moon artbook - including in the US. I was really excited because I think Naoko Takeuchi's art is really pretty. So... where is it?

Long lost novel by Charlotte Bronte discovered.

It's no secret that Charlotte Bronte is my spirit animal, but like Annette Curtis Klause, we only have four novels. (Unless you include the chapter of Emma she wrote - which was completed by Another Lady - her little collection of poetry, and her juvenilia.) If someone somehow discovered a long lost, unpublished manuscript you know I'm going to read it!

Meet J.K. Rowling.

Because I think all of us what to meet the Literary Queen in person. Not only has this woman shaped my childhood and helped me get into reading, but now that I'm older I look up to her both as a writer and a human being. Meeting her would be an honor.

Meet the Bronte sisters. All three of them.

Yeah, the fact that they're dead is problematic, but hopefully the Book Genie has an ethical way of making this happen. These women were brave to say what they felt they needed to say in such a sexually repressed time period, and furthermore, they're just geniuses in the storytelling department. I'd love to have dinner with them all and thank them, and I'd let them know that things got a hell of a lot better. 

The Host sequel.

Because really, what has Stephenie Meyer been doing lately for the book world? Not much. At least nothing that she's revealed. (Since drafting this post she has released a new book called Life and Death for Twilight's anniversary.) And honestly I'd be perfectly happy if The Host was a standalone - I really don't think it needs a sequel. But, Meyer told us it would be a trilogy, and now I'm so curious, especially since I regard The Host as one of my favorite books of all time.

A cover of Shades of Earth that matches Across the Universe and A Million Suns.

The fuck was this logic anyway?

The ability to read faster.

Because that would make it a lot easier to read ALL the BOOKS!

What wishes did you ask of the Book Genie? Feel free to share your Top Ten Tuesday list in the comments. Thanks for visiting and have a great day!

Visions | Grimes

Some albums have this wonderful ability to make you completely obsessed with an artist's music and can be repeated several times without ceasing to impress. Visions is one of those albums. It's the third LP from the ever-so-unique electronic artist Grimes (born Claire Boucher), who caught my attention when I saw her open for a Lana Del Rey show last summer. I bought a copy of Visions only a couple weeks later, and gradually, I fell in love with basically every track.

The little introductory song "Infinite Love Without Fulfilment" kicks off the album in such a generally happy way, contrasting with the cover, as it looks like it could be the cover of an angsty punk band with the skull in the center. The girly, light vocals are heavily layered, and eventually the song becomes more mysterious, hypnotic. It's strange, kind of cute, kind of dark... I guess that's Grimes in a nutshell.

This leads us to "Genesis," the first full track, which is infused with echoey synths that initially made me visualize an underwater setting. The repetitive lyrics are as beautiful as the instrumentation, which just builds and builds as it goes. Eventually harps and a piano are added in the electronic mix, and it feels so lighthearted and beautiful... "Genesis" is the sound a soul makes when someone is so happy they could cry, it's the sound a heart makes when it flutters. I've never heard anything like this, and I've never run into a song that makes me feel like this. Grimes' trademark girlish vocals are the perfect fit for the pretty instrumentation. I get chills just about every time she ends with "I am the one in love" and her backing vocals layer and fade, leaving us with one last snippet of the echoing keyboard. Even though it took me a little while to truly hear "Genesis" for what it is, it is my favorite Grimes song.

"Oblivion" follows, and it's another of the seemingly examples of how Grimes can make certain aspects of a song that are repetitive not even feel repetitive because she keeps adding new interesting layers of instrumentation and vocals. The music itself is a lovely combination of dark and bubbly, but those lyrics are more intense than one would expect as Grimes tackles the concept of assault and its aftermath: "I will wait forever / Always looking straight / Thinking, counting all the hours you wait." She repeats "See you on a dark night" as the music climaxes.

These singles from Visions feel very peaceful, but that calm bubble is burst with track four's mere power. "Eight" is one of the craziest things I've ever heard in my life. It sounds like an alien invasion. The deep synthesized vocals that repeat throughout the entire song clash with Grimes' pitched voice (and considering how light her voice is without being pitched... well, it's high) to create something chaotic, but once we hear her normal voice it takes the edge off without killing the song's level of oddness. I always have to dance along when I hear this one and the song that follows, "Circumambient," in all of its darkness and catchiness, as it was the first Grimes song to stand out to me. Before we reach the second half of the album we hear "Vowels = Time and Space," which sounds bright enough to be a slowed down Aqua song.

"Visiting Statues" is like a short interlude marking the midpoint, an intermission of sorts, but it definitely stands out on its own with its light instrumentation in the spotlight. The only vocals prominent seem to mainly be backing vocals, giving the track an atmospheric feel - it's peaceful, perfect background music for writing. This song leads into "Be a Body (侘寂)," another standout with its fleeting electronic spurts and pretty, empowering lyrics: "I close my eyes until I see / I don't need hands to touch me / Be a body." The second repetition of those lyrics constitutes the part that truly made me fall in love with this song with its dark, pulsating instrumentation. The music becomes darker still with "Colour of Moonlight (Antiochus)" with its prominent percussion and the instrumentation's gorgeous melodies. It's one of the calmest, ballad-like songs from Visions, and I sway every time I hear it.

The album continues to feel peaceful and relaxing with "Symphonia IX (My Wait is U)," but then things get a little chaotic with the masterpiece "Nightmusic," which is a very fitting title. In all of Grimes' music it's sometimes difficult to understand what she's saying (especially since she never released official lyrics to her songs), but "Nightmusic" owns that element. After multiple listens (forwards and reversed), I've reached the conclusion that while some of the vocals are indeed reversed and one portion actually does seem to be regular English ("Tonight's the night, I waited 'til the end" etc.), much of it is just gibberish - she truly lets us see the depths of insanity and it sounds wonderful. The synth part in the middle just before and during the regular English section is truly the climax, and as great as it is on Visions, it's even better live with new percussion and harmonies. "Nightmusic" is without a doubt one of Grimes' best.

The final full song before we reach the album's outro is "Skin," with its muted instrumentation. It took me a while to give this song a full chance since Grimes' voice is almost unbearably light in the beginning, but she slowly comes down to a more normal level during the first verse. Instrumentally it depicts loneliness very well, and lyrically... This song resonated with me on a very emotional level. The best part impresses me every time I hear it: "And you can't, and you can't, see the wind in the trees / And you can't, and you can't, see the wind in the leaves / And you can't, and you can't, see the weight in the dark / And you can't, and you can't see the weight in the heart."

"Know the Way (Outro)" kind of reminds us that we probably know the way to leave Visions and come back to reality even if we don't want to... I didn't want to. Grimes created a whole other world with this album and I love every moment of it. It's this perfect combination of light and dark, and even when I can't understand a word she's saying, the songs still manage to resonate with me. There are so many layers in her music, so there are so many ways to love it. And even though Boucher's voice is so unique and memorable, she never makes it the spotlight: It's another instrument in her wonderful sound collage.

No one else sounds like Grimes and artists rarely release albums as creative and good as Visions. By now I have I have become a huge fan, and I anxiously await her next LP, which is to be released as a surprise sometime this month. Until then, Visions will continue to be replayed.

Imperfect Birds | by: Anne Lamott

Imperfect Birds is the third book of Anne Lamott's contemporary Rosie Ferguson series, which I have not read with the exception of this latest installment. (It's one of those series you an jump in at any time.) I don't think I would have ever picked this up (or even knew it existed) if it wasn't required for one of my university classes which examines adolescent feelings and behavior even though Imperfect Birds is technically an adult book, for it tells the story of teenage Rosie as well as that of her parents while she spirals out of control. Rosie lies, steals, and takes drugs - and she is able to manipulate her mother Elizabeth for much of the ride. Elizabeth must confront some of her own emotional problems and find a way to stand up to her daughter before it's too late.

Imperfect Birds tries to tackle some big topics. Much like with any dramatic soap opera, it'll hold your attention whether you like it or not... The only problem is that it's just not very good. It's odd, really: Once in a while Lamott will have a line that I find exceptionally creative and truthful, but a number of my issues stemmed from the way it was written, the ways she chooses to tell the story. Much of the dialogue felt unrealistically descriptive, and once in a while she'd try to throw in teenage slang and it just didn't reflect how teens talk. It was awkward. (To provide a comparison, I think John Green replicates teen slang perfectly.) Plus, some descriptions in general were just awkward.

One thing I noticed right away is that there is no strategic reveal of character traits - we are told what each and every character is like from the get-go, leaving readers with little to figure out on our own and giving us a very slow start. (I feel like this would have been even more irritating if I read the previous books in the series.) The characters are not likable in any sense, but they aren't supposed to be. Unfortunately, though, it makes them easier to be frustrated with them than sympathetic - especially since I couldn't relate to much of any of them. They're all so troubled in their own ways, and as they mix and mingle they each become even more troubled. There's a lot of drama within these pages. But it also became apparent as I was reading that Lamott likes writing about little moments. This would be fine if it wasn't all she liked to write. Some of the biggest events of the plot that would surely contain a lot of drama are glossed over, skipped... I don't think I've ever read a book where this happened regularly.

The ending does not have the clearest of resolutions, which generally does not bother me as we are left with hopeful clues that Rosie will be okay with time. (Most of the time when books don't have clear resolutions we can figure it out or know enough to sort of formulate a couple different potential endings anyway.) However... this book just ended so abruptly. I don't mind it in terms of the resolution itself and wondering what may happen, but the exact placement just felt so off, like she would have at least needed a couple more paragraphs. It felt as though the story dropped off in the middle of a moment, but not in a strategic way at all.

Overall I just didn't feel like Imperfect Birds was very good. While it deals with some tough topics and there's enough overall drama to stay interested, the characters and the execution of the story just didn't win me over in the slightest.

Blue Pool EP | Vanessa Carlton

Much of the world has forgotten about singer-songwriter Vanessa Carlton, who momentarily took over the world with the singles "A Thousand Miles" and "Ordinary Day" from her debut Be Not Nobody. "A Thousand Miles" can still be heard on the radio regularly, but for whatever odd reason, not a lot of people decided to stick with her. However, I am proud to say that I have not stopped paying attention to her in the past thirteen years. I have always been in love with her sophomore effort, Harmonium, and enjoyed some songs from Heroes and Thieves and Rabbits on the Run. Recently she has released the Blue Pool EP, a precoursor to her full-length album Liberman, which is scheduled for release on October 23.

Between Carlton's initial sound on Be Not Nobody and the popularity of other female singer-songwriters in the early 2000s, she fit in the mainstream music scene pretty well. Now, she fits into the indie scene, and frankly, I love it. Her music has held onto its reliance on piano and its peacefulness, but it has certainly evolved over the past thirteen years, and in my opinion, she's shown improvement.

The Blue Pool EP starts off with "Take it Easy," which begins with subtle synths before acoustic guitars and Carlton's light voice start to take their soothing toll on listeners. It's lovely and peaceful, but overall leaves the least amount of an impression on me. "Blue Pool," on the other hand, is without a doubt one of the best singles released this year. It's a perfect combination of dark and light, of loneliness and adventure, of cold and warm, and of newness and nostalgia. I often sing along to the lyrics to the chorus since they're so pretty: "'Cause the garden walls grow quick / Before you know you're outside of it / And the ivy's coming in / It's so beautiful if you can find it." The outro will leave listeners in a daze, for that final piano section is so gorgeous and dreamy. Carlton achieved perfection with this song, and I don't think I've loved a song by her so much since Harmonium.

The last two tracks on the EP are live living room sessions of brand new songs, "Operator" and "Nothing Where Something Used to Be." "Operator" immediately became a favorite alongside "Blue Pool." All it consists of is Carlton and her piano (in the living room), and that's all it needs. She sounds exactly the same as she does in her studio recordings, and sometimes when I listen to these living room sessions I forget they're live. The piano part is wonderful from start to finish, and lyrically, Carlton considers running away with someone: "Leave your house for a home." "Nothing Where Something Used to Be" is also quite beautiful, and there's something cozy about it that makes me think of winter.

Carlton's Blue Pool EP is a very tantalizing teaser for what's to come - overall I enjoy this direction more so than her work on Heroes and Thieves and Rabbits on the Run, and I hope I can say this again in October when we get Liberman. She's an artist that stays true to herself as she naturally evolves, and this mini release has some of her best pieces yet.

Hammerstep's Short Film Features Score by Amy Lee of Evanescence

Amy Lee of Evanescence has joined forces with Dave Eggar and Chuck Palmer to create another dark and beautiful film score. In the past they composed a score for the indie film War Story and released the music on an album called Aftermath, which I thoroughly appreciated. This time, they composed music for a project called Indigo Grey: The Passage, which is a short film by Hammerstep, a visually stunning dance group seen on America's Got Talent. The newly-released film features some lovely snippets from Aftermath, but the spotlight is on the new songs that Hammerstep dances to. Granted, the film is only seven minutes long - we don't have a lot of new material from the classical-contemporary trio, but what we have is pretty damn good. While Aftermath was very brooding, the music for this film was made to dance to and has more electronic influences; therefore, it has more of a sense of urgency.

"Resurrection," a song Lee fans may recognize from YouTube clips of her performance with her collaborators at Bluegrass Underground, is one of the most prominent tracks. Personally, I can testify that this is one of my favorite songs EVER, and I'm so happy we can hear parts of the studio version now. And of course, Hammerstep's choreography is always fun to watch. The concept is simple and appropriate for its tiny time slot - whether someone watches it for Hammerstep or Lee and the guys, they should be content with the final product.

Lee, Eggar, and Palmer have won the Moondance International Award for Best Score. Evanescence fans, be proud.