Grimes Releases New Song “REALiTI”

Grimes, the musical project of Canadian artist Claire Boucher, has released a new song titled REALiTi alongside its music video. REALiTi is a song from Boucher’s follow-up to her 2012 album Visions; the follow-up album has since been scrapped due to it “sucking,” as she explained last September.

REALiTi still has Boucher’s signature high-pitched harmonies and processed, ethereal, sometimes indecipherable vocals but adds a new pop sound to it as she with Go–another track from the scrapped album. The song is released as a special thank you to every city that Boucher hit during her 2013 Asia tour: Singapore, KL, Manila, Jakarta, HK, Shanghai, Beijing, Taipei, Seoul, Osaka, Nagoya, and Tokyo. The video shows her walking through the streets of these cities, sight seeing,  and playing shows during the tour. Obviously, this tour holds a special place in her heart, and the video is a nice gesture to them. As she explains:

Its the 2 year anniversary of our tour through asia, so seems appropriate 2 put this out

since this is no longer gonna be on the album, I’m releasing it as a special thank you to everyone in Singapore, KL, Manila, Jakarta, HK, Shanghai, Beijing, Taipei, Seoul, Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo who came out to the shows!  It was an honor to play with a bunch of amazing bands and travel to places I would never otherwise be able to go  <3

This song was never finished. its a demo from ~ the lost album ~, recorded early 2013.  i lost the ableton file, so its not mixed or mastered. i tried to doctor the mp3 into a listenable state, but it was poorly recorded in the first place and never meant to be heard by anyone, so its a bit of a mess haha.  

Even at her lowest quality of sound and work, the song delivers an immense sense of her talent, craftmanship, and individuality. If this is a rough demo version, then are we, the world, truly ready for a mastered version? I guess that’ll be answered when her new record gets released sometime this year (hopefully).

“Every morning there are mountains to climb taking all my time away. I get up, this is what I see: welcome to reality,” Boucher chants throughout the song’s chorus.  From being kicked out of university and sleeping outside venues in tents, to becoming one of the biggest names in music and fulfilling her wildest dreams, it seems Claire Boucher has climbed her mountains, but all the time taken away from her has proven to be well spent. She gets up and sees her reality–the fruit of her labor: Grimes and its palpable success.

Check out her new track below:

Follow Grimes on her website, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr.

By Diego Bermejo