"I would be at home, and need to get the fuck out of there and then I’d be on tour and I wouldn’t have any sense of home, and think: 'this is a disaster, I need to go home.' And then it wouldn’t feel like home anymore, and then I would go on tour and then it’d be the same thing. I was stuck in this horrible cycle of not living anywhere, just not having any concrete sense of well-being or stability or home. That was really interesting, but that fueled a lot of the emotional momentum of the album."
—Grimes for Clash
I will wait for you, if you want me to.
Visions is the third studio album from Canadian musician Grimes, released January 31st, 2012. The album was recorded in August 2011 within the span of two weeks while locked away in her Montreal apartment with the windows blacked out, attempting to emulate Hildegard von Bingen. The album was produced entirely on GarageBand with a Juno-G keyboard, vocal pedals, and a sampler. It was preceded by two singles, "Genesis" and "Oblivion," the latter of which has since become her Signature Song. Genre-wise it is considered Dream Pop, Synth-Pop, and Indie Pop.
The album received critical acclaim upon release, and marked Grimes' breakthrough into indie stardom. Visions is also credited for bringing the Montreal DIY scene into the public sphere.
The album is now considered a landmark of indie music in the 2010s, one of the best indie records of the decade, and a precursor for musical genres such as Hyper Pop. On their list of the 200 Best Songs of the 2010s, Pitchfork ranked "Oblivion" at #2, just behind "Alright" by Kendrick Lamar.
Succeeded by Art Angels in 2015.
Tracklist
- Infinite Love Without Fulfillment
- Genesis
- Oblivion
- Eight
- Circumambient
- Vowels = space and time
- Visiting Statue
- Be a Body
- Colour of Moonlight (Antiochus)
- Symphonia IX (My Wait Is U)
- Nightmusic
- Skin
- Know the Way
Bonus Tracks (not available on streaming)
- Angel
- Life After Death
- Christmas Song (with Jay Worthy)
Girl you know you gotta watch your tropes:
- Album Intro Track: "Infinite Love Without Fulfillment."
- All Love Is Unrequited: "Skin" and "Symphonia IX."
- Bittersweet Ending: The final song, "Know the Way" is about giving up religion, but sounds more serene rather than sad in the face of uncertainty about the future.
- Catholic School Girls Rule: A non-sexualized example in "Genesis." She wears a Catholic-school inspired outfit in the video, complete with pigtails, a plaid skirt, and bows on her socks. Could also be a dual tribute to Sailor Fuku as well, since Grimes is a fan of anime.
- Crisis of Faith: "Know the Way" is about rejecting Christianity. In the notes for the album, she says the song was like a farewell to her "religious brain" and Catholic upbringing.She's giving up the crossShe'll end her faith in love
- Christmas Songs: The bonus track with Jay Worthy is titled "Christmas Song" but the lyrics don't really have anything to do with Christmas.
- Design Student's Orgasm: The cover absolutely is. According to her, she drew it while watching Enter the Void after she finished the album, and it took fourteen hours to complete.
- Desperately Seeking A Purpose In Life: The undercurrent of the entire record is the feeling of lostness, not having a home, and seeking human connection after horrible trauma.
- Earth Song: "Life After Death" is about deforestation.
- Echoing Acoustics: All over the place.
- Gratuitous Panning: One of the vocal melodies on "Skin" does this.
- Gratuitous Japanese: "Be a Body" on some versions of the album comes with the subtitle "侘寂," read as "wabisabi," in parentheses. Wabisabi is a Japanese-originating aesthetic that finds in the beauty in things that are transient and imperfect. There's some symbols on the album cover that look sort of like Japanese hiragana, but it's just gibberish.
- Gratuitous Russian: The cover features quotes from Russian poet Anna Akhmatova on the cover, and various other Russian phrases. Somewhat justified since Grimes studied Russian language in school.
- At the top of the illustration: "Я ЛЮБЛЮ" note
- Below the text "Grimes": "НО Я ПРЕДУПРЕЖЦАЮ ВА / ЧТО Я ЖИВУ В ПОСЛЕДНИИ РАЗ" note
- Above the alien head: "ВЫЧИСЛИТЕЛЬНАЯ ГОЛОВА" note
- Below the alien head: "Я ОБМАНУТ МОЕЙ УНЫЛОЙ / ПЕРЕМЕНЧИВОЙ, ЗЛОЙ СУДЬБОЙ. Я ОТВЕТИЛА: "'МИЛЫЙ, МИЛЫЙ! / И Я ТОЖЕ. УМРУ С ТОБОЙ...'" note
- Heart Symbol: "Infinite ❤ Without Fulfillment."
- Helium Speech: Significantly pitches up her voice on "Eight" and "Be a Body."
- Hipster: Lampshaded by Grimes herself, who calls it a "hipster-ass album."
- I Will Wait for You: Said verbatim on "Infinite Love Without Fulfillment" and "Oblivion."
- Lyrical Dissonance: "Oblivion" has some of the darkest lyrics on the record, but the music is dreamy and ethereal.
- Non-Appearing Title: The word "visions" never appears in the actual album, and is more referring to how she attempted to drive herself insane while making the album and believed she was channeling spirits and receiving visions from God by the end of it.
- Sdrawkcab Speech: On "Nightmusic." The reversed lines are actually saying, "They sing in the dark, they're talking to me, and sing in the dark, enlighten the phase."
- Self-Backing Vocalist: Most of the songs feature layers and layers of her own vocals.
- Shout-Out:
- The cover features quotes from Anna Akhmatova poems "But Listen, I Am Warning You" and "A Song of the Final Meeting." (See Gratuitous Russian above).
- "Nightmusic" is a reference to "Nachtmusik" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
- The "Genesis" music video is loosely based on "The Seven Deadly Sins and The Four Last Things"◊ by Hieronymus Bosch and Catholic/medieval imagery, hence the schoolgirl uniform, Flaming Sword, Epic Flail, and the snake.
- Singing Simlish: Less so than on Halfaxa, but still there.
- Word Salad Lyrics: A few of the songs have a lyrical focus, but many of them are this.
Word of God says that "Genesis" originally wasn't meant to be on the album and was only supposed to be played live, so the song doesn't really have lyrics. Doesn't stop people from trying to figure them out, though.
