Here’s my theory on Grimes‘ latest track, “REALiTi”. When Claire Boucher released her Visions album back in 2012, it really signalled how talented her music was for being creative & artistic, but at the same time being quite lighthearted and fun. I think people really caught on to the album as time progressed. And with the popularity of her music, I think she took it to heart, and really played with it. From her later music videos, where she’s all dressed up, and teasing the camera, she became this image-central character. Maybe it was something she always wanted to try, but probably shied away from in the past.

When she went back to writing new material for her next album, she was ambitious, and really wanted to create something that would standout, and become noticed. I think she wanted to dip into new but familiar territory, and wanted to collaborate with other artists who had shared her love for music. But somewhere, and at sometime during her travels while touring, my guess is that she had time to reflect on her experiences, and took a new spiritual vision in writing her songs. What resulted was a full album’s worth of music that conflicted with itself artistically.

Expanding on my theory, the whole album-to-be would eventually become scrapped. I believe the first half of the material that she had created, she just wasn’t in the same time, and space in mind. And out of all the tracks that had been written, the collaboration with Blood Diamonds for her heavily dubstep/Harlem shake inspired song, “Go” was salvaged, and released.

Six months later, as in today, she releases her new track, that I’m thinking would have been from the second half of the material, that she wrote a couple years ago. The track is called, “REALiTi”, it’s a more personal endeavour, that’s closer to her last release, Visions. In the video she’s playing to the crowds in Asian cities, and having fun like she normally does in her videos. But something really strikes me in her music, for being authentic, or as the title would suggest… REAL. The lyrics are personal, and well-acquainted. Everything just comes together so well in this track, resulting in a song that is quite magical.

I hope this a glimpse of things to come from Grimes. Take this track for a listen…