Highest Recent Ratings

Albums to watch

Visions

Grimes

Visions

Third album of alternative electro-pop from the Montreal-based musician Claire Boucher

ADM rating[?]

7.6

Label
4ad
UK Release date
12/03/2012
US Release date
21/02/2012
Listen on Spotify
Related Links
Last.fm Myspace Wikipedia
Share
Share |

  1. 9.1 |   A.V. Club

    Visions is anchored less by Boucher’s voice, a small but versatile falsetto with unexpected range, than by her personality, which grounds even the album’s oddest digressions with sweetness and sensuality
    Read Review

  2. 9.0 |   Blurt

    A collection of discrete miniatures managing to be expansive and intimate all at once.
    Read Review

  3. 9.0 |   musicOMH

    An album to live in and love, to dance to and to wallow in
    Read Review

  4. 8.5 |   The Quietus

    It doesn't sound like it's striving or straining to be pop music, or conversely that it's determined to be awkward - it's just going where pleasure leads it
    Read Review

  5. 8.5 |   Pitchfork

    This thing is so compulsively listenable it's hard to come away from it wanting much more
    Read Review

  6. 8.5 |   Bowlegs

    There’s nothing out there that sounds quite like it
    Read Review

  7. 8.0 |   BBC

    One to savour
    Read Review

  8. 8.0 |   NME

    When Grimes pours her dissonant fuckery over these songs, they take you somewhere unexpected, for that wonderful "something different"
    Read Review

  9. 8.0 |   The Irish Times

    Tracks such as Genesis, Oblivion and Circumambien have a directness and fluidity that work wonders when combined with the singer’s airy vocals and giddy playfulness
    Read Review

  10. 8.0 |   The Guardian

    A smart, funny album, and it's almost impossible not to dance to it
    Read Review

  11. 8.0 |   State

    Visions makes good on this promise, creating clarity through diversity, proving that Grimes is one talent to keep a very close eye on
    Read Review

  12. 8.0 |   Clash

    There’ll be no stopping this creative, sensual explosion of humanity called Grimes
    Read Review

  13. 8.0 |   Tiny Mix Tapes

    The entire first third of the album is rife with such mind-boggling earworms, and if there’s any complaint to be leveled at Visions, it’s that it thereafter grows the slightest bit more complacent
    Read Review

  14. 8.0 |   PopMatters

    It’s the sound of ghosts in the machine, pixies in the garden, strange lights in the sky. It’s a little bit Nite Jewel, a little bit Glasser, but Grimes is ultimately her own sound
    Read Review

  15. 8.0 |   Prefix

    When you pay special attention to a songs like "Be a Body" or "Symphonia IX (my wait is u)" it's clear that there actually is some worth there
    Read Review

  16. 8.0 |   The Skinny

    Although apt to bewitch the listener with its seductive pop signifiers, this is music that stands up to obsessive scrutiny
    Read Review

  17. 8.0 |   Q

    It's over the top and exhilaratingly offbeat. Print edition only

  18. 8.0 |   Mojo

    A glitchy shimmering dance record. Print edition only

  19. 8.0 |   The Fly

    Grimes’ main trick with ‘Visions’ is the multiple ways she channels what is effectively the same idea – sparse, skeletal synths and a multitude of pitch-shifted alternate-selves – without it ever becoming boring
    Read Review

  20. 8.0 |   Independent on Sunday

    Marks Boucher out as a kind of one-woman Avalanches
    Read Review

  21. 8.0 |   DIY

    An album of shifting, shimmering textures that is both a spaced out exploration and the perfect pop album
    Read Review

  22. 8.0 |   Scotland on Sunday

    An entertaining, diverse album that’s soothing and slightly scary
    Read Review

  23. 8.0 |   Entertainment.ie

    A masterpiece of dreamy electro-pop and its no-frills construction places Claire Boucher firmly at the forefront of the cutting edge of a brave new musical movement
    Read Review

  24. 8.0 |   No Ripcord

    This album has the feeling of a breakthrough of sorts. Grimes has operated hitherto on the margins, but with her signing to 4AD she seems to have reached a point of definition in her music
    Read Review

  25. 8.0 |   The Arts Desk

    A creative force to be reckoned
    Read Review

  26. 8.0 |   FasterLouder

    Visions is a fun, intelligent and nuanced album that moves the dialogue of pop music forward a step, and that is no small thing
    Read Review

  27. 8.0 |   All Music

    Fresh and surprisingly accessible despite its quirks, Visions is bewitching
    Read Review

  28. 7.8 |   Beats Per Minute

    Showcases an artist with clear talent and potential
    Read Review

  29. 7.7 |   The AU Review

    One of the most eclectic and unique albums I’ve had the pleasure of listening to this year! Highly recommended if you have the time to give something new a chance. You won’t regret it
    Read Review

  30. 7.0 |   The Digital Fix

    A much more fun listening experience than initial impressions would indicate
    Read Review

  31. 7.0 |   Rave Magazine

    In a couple of years someone will probably repackage what Grimes is doing now and hit it big, but for now she is just a bit too ahead of her time to be mainstream. And that’s why this album is worth your time
    Read Review

  32. 7.0 |   Spin

    Visions' R&B-inflected bedroom dance-pop is collaged from many sources
    Read Review

  33. 7.0 |   Consequence Of Sound

    Visions is a remarkable outing for Boucher in that it manages to showcase her knack for spinning bits and pieces from all points on the musical spectrum into crafty, easily digestible pop
    Read Review

  34. 7.0 |   Uncut

    Beguiling GarageBand pop. Print edition only

  35. 7.0 |   Slant Magazine

    A flawed but intimate glimpse into the fantasies of its creator
    Read Review

  36. 7.0 |   Drowned In Sound

    Your new favourite album. Hard work, but ultimately rewarding
    Read Review

  37. 6.0 |   The Observer

    A beguiling decoction of pretty much everything going on in hipster musical circles, sweet and savvy and scary at the same time
    Read Review

  38. 6.0 |   The Scotsman

    Won’t suit everybody but she should find favour with fans of her equally mercurial contemporaries Joanna Newsom and St Vincent
    Read Review

  39. 5.0 |   Under The Radar

    There’s enough promise here to hope for the future, maybe with a heftier budget or some added maturity, but Visions stands as a half-formed concept
    Read Review

  40. 5.0 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    For the most part it’s an album that is – yes – atmospheric but it is also, sadly, dull
    Read Review

  41. 4.5 |   hhv.de mag

    If an album like »Visions« limits itself to only Gothic and synthesizers, there’s just not much excitement to be found on it
    Read Review

  42. Back to main chart

blog comments powered by Disqus
buy it at amazon download it from itunes

Watch it

Roll over video for more options

Hear it

Grimes - Oblivion by bangkokerror

Preview & download it

Grimes: Visions

  • Download full album for just £5.00
  • 1. Infinite Love Without Fulfilment £0.89
  • 2. Genesis £0.89
  • 3. Oblivion £0.89
  • 4. Eight £0.89
  • 5. Circumambient £0.89
  • 6. Vowels = space and time £0.89
  • 7. Visiting Statue £0.89
  • 8. Be A Body £0.89
  • 9. Colour of Moonlight (Antiochus) £0.89
  • 10. Symphonia IX (My Wait Is U) £0.89
  • 11. Nightmusic £0.89
  • 12. Skin £0.89
  • 13. Know The Way £0.89
  • Service provided by 7Digital

Latest Reviews

Fat White Family  Forgiveness Is Yours

Even when they don’t quite hit the mark, they remain a curiously compelling act who play by their own rules – chaos remains their lifeblood, for good and for bad musicOMH

Fat White Family  Forgiveness Is Yours

A certain rock'n'roll energy is lacking. Print edition only Mojo

Fat White Family  Forgiveness Is Yours

Forgiveness Is Yours sometimes becomes too diffuse, hampered by a surplus of bold ideas that do not get all the necessary follow-through. But it Abounds with queasy pleasures all the same. Print edition only Uncut

More reviews

All-time top 10

Since we've been around, that is. So, the highest-rated albums from the past twelve years or so. Rankings are calculated to two decimal places.

  1. 9.3

    Kendrick Lamar To Pimp A Butterfly

  2. 9.2

    Fiona Apple Fetch The Bolt Cutters

  3. 9.1

    Kendrick Lamar Damn.

  4. 9.1

    D'Angelo And The Vanguard Black Messiah

  5. 9.0

    Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Ghosteen

  6. 9.0

    Self Esteem Prioritise Pleasure

  7. 8.9

    Bob Dylan Rough and Rowdy Ways

  8. 8.9

    Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Skeleton Tree

  9. 8.9

    Frank Ocean Channel Orange

  10. 8.9

    Dave We’re All Alone In This Together

See full list