''Visions'' is the third studio album by Canadian musician

Grimes Claire Elise Boucher (; born March 17, 1988), known professionally as Grimes, is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Her early work has been described as extending from "lo-fi R&B" to futuristic dance-pop, and has i ...

. It was released through

4AD 4AD is a British record label owned by Beggars Group. It was founded in London under the name "Axis" (after the Hendrix album) by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent in 1980 as an imprint of Beggars Banquet Records. The name was changed to 4AD a ...

on January 31, 2012. Her first since signing with 4AD, the album was recorded entirely on

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...

's GarageBand software in Grimes' apartment over a three-week period. It was mixed by Grimes and her manager, Sebastian Cowan, at their La Brique Studio Space in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

. ''Visions'' was streamed on the

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

website a week before it was released in the United States. ''Visions'' was acclaimed by music critics and was included in several year-end lists. The album's two

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

s, " Oblivion" and "

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...

", were named among the best songs of 2012 by many publications including ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

'' and ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

''. It has also appeared on several decade-end lists, with '' Gorilla vs. Bear'' naming it the best album of the decade and ''Pitchfork'' naming "Oblivion" as the second best song of the decade. It was also ranked as the 252nd best album of all time by ''NME''. ''Visions'' won a Juno Award and was also nominated for the

2012 Polaris Music Prize The 2012 edition of the Canadian Polaris Music Prize was presented on September 24, 2012 ''Visions'' is labeled as bringing the DIY music scene of the

Mile End Mile End is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London, England, east-northeast of Charing Cross. Situated on the London-to-Colchester road, it was one of the earliest suburbs of London. It became part of the m ...

neighbourhood of Montreal to international popularity.

Background and recording

Claire Boucher released her debut album as Grimes, '' Geidi Primes'' on Canadian record label Arbutus Records in January 2010, followed by '' Halfaxa'', in October of the same year. Shortly after, she began publicly promoting Grimes and started touring beyond Montreal. In 2011, she released a split 12" EP with fellow

based musician

d'Eon D'Eon is a surname. People with the surname include: * d'Eon (musician), Canadian electronic musician * Chevalier d'Éon (1728–1810), French diplomat and spy * Dwight d'Eon (born 1978), Canadian musician See also * Deon * Dion (disambiguation ...

, '' Darkbloom'' and, beginning in May, opened for Swedish singer

Lykke Li Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson (born 18 March 1986), known as Lykke Li (), is a Swedish singer. Her music often blends elements of indie pop, dream pop and Electronic music, electronic. Her debut studio album, ''Youth Novels'', was released in 2008 ...

on her North American Tour, and the following August her debut album was re-released through No Pain in Pop Records, in CD and vinyl format for the first time. Growing frustrated with touring and a lack of stability in her life, Boucher began work on ''Visions'' in August 2011 over three weeks at her home in Montreal. While under a release deadline set before she had started the album by her then manager, she recorded the album at a "psychotic pace", not sleeping or eating for nine days while using amphetamines to meet the deadline. Most songs on the album were finished in a single day, without many demos being created beforehand. She described the process as being "equally enjoyable and tortuous". She created the album hoping to "clear ermental slate. Overriding everything I’d done previously, too" stating the album "is a pretty good representation of the beginning of the future.” ''Visions'' was recorded using

's GarageBand, primarily using a

Roland Juno-G Roland Juno-G is a music workstation/synth introduced in 2006 by Roland Corporation. It is based on the Roland Fantom-X, Fantom-X series, having a vintage design that resembles the first Juno synthesizers, such as the Roland Juno-106, Juno-106. ...

keyboard, vocal pedals, and a sampler. The album was mixed by Boucher and Sebastian Cowan at their La Brique Studio Space. She signed with record label

in January 2012.

Composition

Musically, the album has been described as synth-pop,

dream pop Dream pop (also typeset as dreampop) is a subgenre of alternative rock and neo-psychedelia that emphasizes atmosphere and sonic texture as much as pop melody. Common characteristics include breathy vocals, dense productions, and effects such as ...

art pop Art pop (also typeset art-pop or artpop) is a loosely defined style of pop music influenced by art theories as well as ideas from other art mediums, such as fashion, fine art, cinema, and avant-garde literature. The genre draws on pop art's ...

, electropop,

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a ...

alternative pop Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commercial ...

, pop, and dance-pop. According to Eleanor Kagan of ''

'', "Its dreamy, psychedelic dance-pop songs beg for the subwoofer to be turned all the way up." According ''

'', rimesdid more than anyone this year to stoke the hot romance between R&B and dream pop."

Release and promotion

''Visions'' was released on February 21, 2012. Worldwide releases followed throughout March. The album was streamed on the

website a week before it was released in the United States. The Canadian vinyl version of the album featured a different track listing; it featured 9 songs, including two previously unreleased song "Life After Death" and "Ambrosia". "Oblivion" was released onto the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

in October 2011 as a promotional single, along with the announcement of the album. "Genesis" was issued as the lead single on January 9, 2012. The album debuted at No. 98 on the ''Billboard'' 200 albums chart on its first week of release. It also debuted at No. 8 on the

Top Dance/Electronic Albums Top Dance/Electronic Albums, Dance/Electronic Albums (formerly Top Electronic Albums) is a music chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine which ranks the top-selling electronic music albums in the United States based on sales compiled by ...

chart. As of December 2015, the album has sold 110,000 copies in the US. It has sold over 150,000 units. In 2012 it was awarded a silver certification from the

Independent Music Companies Association The Independent Music Companies Association (IMPALA), originally the Independent Music Publishers and Labels Association, is a non-profit trade association established in 2000 to help European independent record labels represent their agenda a ...

which indicated sales of at least 20,000 copies throughout Europe. In November 2012, with the announcement that ''Visions'' was named album of the year by record shops Rough Trade and Resident, two exclusive bonus discs were made available with any purchase of the album in each shop, featuring remixes and rare tracks.

Visuals

The music video for "Oblivion", directed by Emily Kai Bock, was shot in

Olympic Stadium ''Olympic Stadium'' is the name usually given to the main stadium of an Olympic Games. An Olympic stadium is the site of the opening and closing ceremonies. Many, though not all, of these venues actually contain the words ''Olympic Stadium'' as ...

and at

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...

Molson Stadium Percival Molson Memorial Stadium (also known in French as ''Stade Percival-Molson''; commonly referred to as Molson Stadium in English or Stade Molson in French) is an outdoor football stadium in Downtown Montreal, on the slopes of Mount Royal ...

, during a football game and a

motocross Motocross is a form of off-road motorcycle racing held on enclosed off-road circuits. The sport evolved from motorcycle trials competitions held in the United Kingdom. History Motocross first evolved in Britain from motorcycle trials competiti ...

rally. The video debuted on March 2, 2012, and shows Grimes amongst shirtless

frat boy Fraternities and sororities are social organizations at colleges and universities in North America. Generally, membership in a fraternity or sorority is obtained as an undergraduate student, but continues thereafter for life. Some accept gradu ...

s, as well as in a men's locker room surrounded by

weightlifting Weightlifting generally refers to activities in which people lift weights, often in the form of dumbbells or barbells. People lift various kinds of weights for a variety of different reasons. These may include various types of competition; promo ...

athletes. "Art gives me an outlet where I can be aggressive in a world where I usually can't be, and part of it was asserting this abstract female power in these male-dominated arenas—the video is somewhat about objectifying men. Not in a disrespectful way, though", Grimes explained. In an interview with '' Spin'', she revealed that the song is about "going into this masculine world that is associated with sexual assault, but presented as something really welcoming and nice. The song's sort of about being—I was assaulted and I had a really hard time engaging in any types of relationship with men, because I was just so terrified of men for a while." The video for "Nightmusic" was directed by John Londono and premiered on May 10, 2012. It takes place in a "barren, greywashed" landscape, and features Grimes wearing one of the " pussy rings" she designed in collaboration with Montreal-based jeweler and sculptor Morgan Black. The self-directed video for "Genesis" premiered on August 22, 2012. It was filmed in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

and co-stars rapper and stripper Brooke Candy, whom Grimes describes as "a very contemporary muse". In the video, Grimes is seen alongside a group of friends while driving an

Escalade {{Unreferenced, date=May 2007 Escalade is the act of scaling defensive walls or ramparts with the aid of ladders. Escalade was a prominent feature of sieges in ancient and medieval warfare, and though it is no longer common in modern warfare ...

in the desert, holding an

albino python The Burmese python (''Python bivittatus'') is one of the largest species of snakes. It is native to a large area of Southeast Asia and is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Until 2009, it was considered a subspecies of the Indian pytho ...

in the back of a limousine, and posing in the woods. She said of the concept of the video: "It's loosely based on this painting by my favorite painter,

Hieronymus Bosch Hieronymus Bosch (, ; born Jheronimus van Aken ; – 9 August 1516) was a Dutch/ Netherlandish painter from Brabant. He is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school. His work, generally oil on o ...

, called '' The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things''. I wanted to play with Medieval/Catholic imagery. I was raised in a Catholic household and went to a Catholic school, and my childhood brain perceived medieval Catholicism as an action movie: There's this crazy omnipresent guy who can destroy you at any moment." ''Visions''' album cover was designed by Grimes herself and took her fourteen hours while she watched films like '' Silence of the Lambs'', '' The Shining'', and ''

Enter the Void ''Enter the Void'' is a 2009 English-language experimental art film written and directed by Gaspar Noé and starring Nathaniel Brown, Paz de la Huerta, and Cyril Roy. It is a psychological drama fantasy film set in the neon-lit nightclub env ...

''. Of the artwork, Grimes said “I think it’s technically proficient, super intense, laid out well, and it has a lot of meaning. It seems so agonized.” About the meaning of the cover, she stated that “It represents based, disgusting dead humanity in the most basic form...this idea of death no one understands but everyone is obsessed with.” The line across the top reads "I love" in Russian. The two vertical lines of text below resemble

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

but do not actually mean anything. The right side of the cover art contains a block of purple text which is the word 'Grimes' repeated in a grid pattern. In the top right, there are the first two lines of the poem "But Listen, I Am Warning You" by

Anna Akhmatova Anna Andreyevna Gorenko rus, А́нна Андре́евна Горе́нко, p=ˈanːə ɐnˈdrʲe(j)ɪvnə ɡɐˈrʲɛnkə, a=Anna Andreyevna Gorenko.ru.oga, links=yes; uk, А́нна Андрі́ївна Горе́нко, Ánna Andríyivn ...

. The bottom right features lines from another poem by Anna Akmatova, "A Song of the Final Meeting".

Critical reception

''Visions'' received generally positive reviews from music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a

weighted mean The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 80, based on 42 reviews, which indicates "widespread acclaim". Lindsay Zoladz of ''

'' awarded the album a "Best New Music" designation, claiming it "showcases a streamlined aesthetic, resulting in a statement that feels focused, cohesive, and assured. It's simple enough to leave room for Grimes to grow, but this thing is so compulsively listenable it's hard to come away from it wanting much more". ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

''s Evan Rytlewski commented that on ''Visions'', Grimes "continues her march toward accessibility, rendering hazy, quixotic sketches into tangible,

hook A hook is a tool consisting of a length of material, typically metal, that contains a portion that is curved or indented, such that it can be used to grab onto, connect, or otherwise attach itself onto another object. In a number of uses, one e ...

-heavy electro-pop". Jon Caramanica of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' hailed ''Visions'' as "one of the most impressive albums of the year so far". Rebecca Nicholson of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' described ''Visions'' as a "smart, funny album, and it's almost impossible not to dance to it". '' Clash''s Matthew Bennett wrote, "With 4AD's renewed vigor in all affairs electronique and Boucher's coherent elevation in both song quality and hook there'll be no stopping this creative, sensual explosion of humanity called Grimes." Benjamin Boles of ''

Now Now most commonly refers to the present time. Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to: Organizations * Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization * National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization * Now ...

'' called the album "richly textured and inventive", noting that "while ''Visions'' is unmistakably 2012 sonically in its references to R&B and hip-hop, it also fits remarkably gracefully into 4AD's impressive back catalogue of

". According to Priya Elan of ''

'', "Visions goes beyond electropop. Melody isn’t king here. Instead, tunes flap and flit in the wind, sunny and sinister, like a grinning Jolly Roger run up a mast." Matt James of

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...

praised the album as "an absolute blast" and opined, "Sure, it could have done without some of the interludes ..but its overall sense of ambition is intoxicating. ''Visions'' rebellious contrariness to evade classification is part of the design and certainly part of the charm". Heather Phares of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

concluded, "Fresh and surprisingly accessible despite its quirks,''Visions'' is bewitching". Eric Harvey of '' Spin'' wrote, "The pervasive sense on ''Visions'' is of a young woman carefully pushing out of her own introversion, which makes the moments where she sings from the gut instead of the throat ..or strives for human-on-human sensuality ..all the more thrilling". Harvey continued, "Boucher's talent lies in the balance of exploiting her gifts and leveraging what's come before her, but judiciously". Kevin Liedel of Slant Magazine viewed the album as "a flawed but intimate glimpse into the fantasies of its creator, and while it might not act as a springboard to greater fame for Grimes, it's just as satisfying to hear her take her bedroom music into a darkened basement, away from the prying world." However, Luke Winkie of '' Under the Radar'' felt that ''Visions'' "isn't as much of an evolution as it is an elongation; Boucher is still making warped, sparsely-populated electro-pop, and the potential still outweighs the content", adding that the album "stands as a half-formed concept". Reyan Ali of '' The Phoenix'' stated that "the ever-fascinating Boucher clearly has unusual ideas sloshing around her skull", but ultimately criticized the album as "unnecessarily oblique, listlessly long (48 minutes!), and painfully shapeless". ''

''s

Jody Rosen Jody Rosen (born June 21, 1969 in New York City) is an American journalist and author. He is a contributing writer for ''The New York Times Magazine''. Career Journalism Rosen served as critic-at-large for '' T: The New York Times Style Magaz ...

expressed that "Grimes isn't spooky enough to be 'ghostly,' and not substantial enough to hold your attention."

Accolades

AllMusic proclaimed ''Visions'' the best album of 2012 and stated, "On ''Visions'', Claire Boucher honed the mix of little-girl-lost vocals and dark synth-scapes she'd forged on her first two Grimes albums, '' Geidi Primes'' and '' Halfaxa'', into something just as unique, but far catchier." ''The Guardian'' named it the second best album of 2012, calling it "a masterpiece in gonzo pop that is weird, original and derivative at the same time". The ''

'' ranked the album at number two on its 50 Best Albums of 2012 list and number 252 in its The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time list. The album appeared at number five on ''Clash''s list of The Top 40 Albums of 2012, and the magazine referred to Grimes as a "creative, sensual explosion of humanity". ''Pitchfork'' placed the album at number six on its list of The 50 Best Albums of 2012 and praised it as "a triumphant meeting of human and computer, an album that blows the traditions of both pop and experimental music to pieces and glues them back together in gorgeous, entrancing ways".

included the album at number 11 on its list of The 75 Best Albums of 2012, concluding, "Astoundingly catchy, occasionally haunting, and frequently brilliant, ''Visions'' is top-rate art and pop in equal measure, and deserves to be talked about for years to come". British magazine '' Fact'' ranked ''Visions'' the 26th best album of 2012 and commented it "moved beyond the circumstantially

lo-fi Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate choice. The ...

character of her early offerings ''Geidi Primes'' and ''Halfaxa'' for a profoundly inventive and just plain weird take on electro-pop. While the shifty rhythms can get a bit repetitive, they're usually voiced differently, and they're always paired with otherworldly synth-work that darts into uneasy, industrial territory". ''Rolling Stone'' placed ''Visions'' at number 33 on its 50 Best Albums of 2012 list, noting the album "uses

EDM EDM or E-DM may refer to: Music * Electronic dance music * Early Day Miners, American band Science and technology * Electric dipole moment * Electrical discharge machining * Electronic distance measurement *Entry, Descent, and landing demonstrat ...

extremism, medieval chants, sugar-crusted melodies and her own sky-high voice to rethink pop music". The album was listed on '' Paste''s The 50 Best Albums of 2012 at number 50, and the magazine wrote, "With its constantly shifting tonal landscapes and non-standard structures, it's the kind of music that's exceptionally hard to peg on paper, but that never stops ''Visions'' tracks from looping in your head long after it spins to a close". "Oblivion" was ranked the best song of 2012 by both ''Pitchfork'' and PopMatters; the former called it "beautifully fragmented" and stating it "sound both chilly and machine-like but also radiate human warmth and imperfection", while the later opined that "this ''nouveau''

triumph is surely the album's calling card, the definitive encapsulation of everything that makes the record (not to mention the musician behind it) so beguiling to listen to". The ''NME'' named "Oblivion" and "Genesis" the sixth and 16th best tracks of 2012, respectively. ''Rolling Stone'' included "Oblivion" at number 28 on its list of the 50 Best Songs of 2012, writing that on the song, Grimes "drops sugar-dust vocals over a thwunking

synth A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

loop Loop or LOOP may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Loop (mobile), a Bulgarian virtual network operator and co-founder of Loop Live * Loop, clothing, a company founded by Carlos Vasquez in the 1990s and worn by Digable Planets * Loop Mobile, an ...

, sounding perfectly dreamy until you listen to the words: 'I never walk alone after dark.../Someone could break your neck/Coming up behind you and you'd never have a clue.' The catchiness only makes it creepier". ''Visions'' was shortlisted for the

2012 Polaris Music Prize The 2012 edition of the Canadian Polaris Music Prize was presented on September 24, 2012Feist's ''

Metals A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typical ...

''. The album won Electronic Album of the Year at the

Juno Awards of 2013 The Juno Awards of 2013 honoured Canadian music industry achievements in the latter part of 2011 and in most of 2012. The awards were presented in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, during the weekend of 20–21 April 2013. The main ceremony was hoste ...

Year-end and decade-end lists

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Visions''. *

– vocals, production, poetry *

– poetry * Jasper Baydala – layout * Sebastian Cowan – mastering, mixing * Mark Khair – alien head design

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

*
Visions
' at

*
Visions
' at Arbutus Records {{Authority control 2012 albums 4AD albums Albums recorded in a home studio Grimes albums Juno Award for Electronic Album of the Year albums