When Grimes released ‘Flesh without Blood’, the first single from Art Angels, I was anxious. Claire Boucher has been silent for three years since the release of Visions, a slick synthpop production that gained her notoriety on the alternative music scene. Visions was an impressive entrance into the public eye: an elegant, cohesive package. Floating vocals, but few discernible words – Visions is consistently weird, but in a comfortable, ethereal kind of way. ‘Flesh without Blood’ stands in stark contrast with Visions. Insistent guitar and distinctly poppy vocals demand your attention, and I worried for Art Angels, which I feared was destined to be another mediocre pop album.

In a way, ‘Flesh without Blood’ is representative of every track on Art Angels, in that it doesn’t sound like any of the others. The opening track, ‘laughing and not being normal’, sounds like a dance-orchestral haunted house. But this is where any connection between Visions and Art Angels begins to unravel. ‘California’, the next track, is upbeat, breezy and light; much like ‘Flesh without Blood’, it amounts to a quirky yet insubstantial pop song. But this is only one flavour of Grimes’ kaleidoscopic new album. ‘SCREAM’, the third single, features Aristophanes, a Taiwanese rapper spitting in Mandarin. We’re not sure what she’s saying, but her flow is unpredictable and the jarring interplay between it and Boucher’s electric guitar, drums and actual screams is thrilling in itself. We get something entirely different again with ‘Easily’, a grooving ballad where Boucher features the range of her vocal ability. ‘Venus Fly’, featuring Janelle Monáe, is martial and reminiscent, somehow, of Beyoncé’s anthem ‘Run the World (Girls)’.

A musician-friend of mine once told me that the only way to write really good songs is by writing really bad ones and “getting them out of the way”. When an artist suddenly appears on everyone’s radar, we see the end product of a long period of experimentation, often just a part of a musician’s potential versatility. Visions was a tight production with each track slurring into a hazy, enticing whole, but most people would struggle to name more than two tracks. Ironically, it was almost reserved – as far as Grimes can be.

Art Angels, by contrast, sounds almost like a window into Boucher’s mind – conflicting influences, funky beats, random words. It is a much braver album, and has a sense of experimentation that Visions was lacking. Boucher has a very vocal public persona. Her much-lambasted “best songs of 2012” Tumblr post included Lana Del Rey, Justin Bieber, and ‘Gangnam Style’ – Boucher takes her pop influences seriously. That’s why although Art Angels is a lot more accessible than Visions, it’s also more reflective of Boucher’s diverse tastes. In the same vein, it feels challengingly girly. As one of very few female producers, Boucher laments the pressure to suppress her femaleness. Art Angels embraces femininity in many forms, from girlish melodies to obstinate yelling, a far cry from the airy cooing of Visions.

I need not have worried. Although every track does not consistently hit the mark, Art Angels undoubtedly marks an evolution for Grimes as an artist. This new Grimes undoubtedly needs refinement, but it’s better than more of the same. As she sings in 'Butterfly', “If you’re looking for a dream girl / I’ll never be your dream girl.”