Any fans of Grimes know that she’s a thoughtful, sensitive person. She’s written well-reasoned screeds against drugs and sexism, and recently caught a good amount of crap for protesting the ALS Ice Bucket challenge on the grounds that the ALS Association tests on animals, not to mention that she didn’t want to waste water during the California drought.
“All these people with AL.S were like, ‘You’re the worst person ever.’ I was crying for days,” she revealed in a New York Times Magazine profile. Naturally, her critics didn’t seem to register the part where she donated to the Malala Fund, a charity that supports education for girls, instead. These days, that’s par for the course when it comes to being a female celebrity with opinions, but Grimes seems like she just can’t ignore the idiots out there.
Further to wit, a few months ago, 26-year-old Claire Boucher released “Go,” a track she wrote for Rihanna that was ultimately rejected by the pop star. While many of us enjoyed it (see our list of the 57 Best Songs of 2014 So Far), a vocal contingent of Grimes fans apparently let her know they weren’t happy about this change in direction.
“It upsets a lot of my fans, and I get why it upsets them. Everybody was like, ‘Oh, Grimes is pandering to the radio,'” she said. While early headlines reported that Grimes scrapped her entire follow-up to the 2012 breakout, Visions, as a result of that criticism, she cited a different reason.
“It sucked, so I threw it out and started again,” she said. She seems happy with the decision, saying, “I’m just making way more music,” and we hope it comes from a place of confidence. Still, we have to wonder if signing to Jay Z’s Roc Nation hasn’t ramped up the pressure to deliver a grander sound now that she’s experienced fame. Fingers crossed she makes the album she truly wants to make and tunes out the bullshit.
