And now for the third installment of powerful female electronic pop singers here on the 2015 Bacon Top 31. I’ve been a fan of Grimes since I came across her 2012 album Visions sometime in 2013. You may remember her from this video I posted back in February of that year. Grimes is an alter-ego of Claire Boucher, a pixieish woman from just across the border, in Vancouver, BC. She is a tour de force, having written, recorded, engineered and produced the entire album herself. The only parts on the album not created by Boucher are the guest vocals on two songs, respectively from Grimes’ peers in the strong female-led pop, Taiwanese rapper Aristophanes and American performer Janelle Monáe.

There’s a lot going on within this album. According to wikipedia, Grimes learned how to play the guitar, drums, keys, ukulele, and violin for it. There’s intermittent screaming, and dark lyrics sung with her high-pitched and friendly-seeming vocals throughout, but most of it will get you moving in your seat.

With this album I’m breaking my own rules. Somehow it slipped past me that it didn’t come out until November 6, 2015, which means it technically shouldn’t be on this year’s Top 31. It’s too late now; I couldn’t just slot in some other previously-uncharted album here at #12.

I’m jealous of what Boucher has been able to accomplish by age 27. She is more talented than Madonna and less approachable overall, which makes her all the more intriguing. I can’t wait to see what she does next.

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13. The Horse Comanche by Chadwick Stokes
14. Grace Love & the True Loves by Grace Love & the True Loves
15. Shake Shook Shaken by The dø
16. La Di Da Di by Battles
17. Sky City by Amason
18. What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World by The Decemberists
19. Untethered Moon by Built to Spill
20. Viet Cong by Viet Cong
21. The Magic Whip by Blur
22. Savage Hills Ballroom by Youth Lagoon
23. Not Real by Stealing Sheep
24. Beat the Champ by The Mountain Goats
25. Gliss Riffer by Dan Deacon
26. Dark Bird is Home by The Tallest Man on Earth
27. Gunnera by Pfarmers
28. Swimmer to a Liquid Armchair by Ricked Wickey
29. To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar
30. Live in Seattle by Moufang / Czamanski
31. High by Royal Headache

What is the Bacon Top 31?
Past years’ Top 31s