“A lot of people have been really excited about this,” the young lady at the check-out counter informed me when I picked up this new CD at Newbury Comics in Northampton last Saturday. Make that a lot of people plus me. And add Grimes (the nom de musique of Vancouver, BC native Claire Boucher) to the list of fabulous femmes who make the widely disparate conglomeration of musical styles inadequately but inevitably grouped together under the banner of “indie” my current favorite source for unique and stimulating new sounds.

Hardly any of which have been more stimulating than “Art Angels.” What non-stop energy and invention! With a voice like a superannuated Powerpuff girl, multi-dubbed and multi-layered to a fair-thee-well, placed over, under, and inside of a minutely detailed, constantly shifting instrumental soundtrack, propelled by beasts infectious enough to raise the recently deceased, “Art Angels” plays like the coolest Pandora station you’ve ever heard, all in one handy package. As is often the case with similar artists, the bubbling optimism of Grimes’s music is somewhat at odds with her lyrics (sample here) — thank goodness. Even if you overlook all the other non-classical stuff I post about on this site, don’t overlook this one.