Visions/Critical Reception

<noinclude>
Album
Critical Reception
Physical Release
__NOTOC__
==Critical reception==
Visions received mostly positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 80, based on 42 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".https://www.metacritic.com/music/visions/grimes Lindsay Zoladz of Pitchfork Media 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".http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/16211-grimes-visions/ The A.V. Club'​s Evan Rytlewski commented that on Visions, Grimes "continues her march toward accessibility, rendering hazy, quixotic sketches into tangible, hook-heavy electro-pop".https://web.archive.org/web/20140416223751/https://www.avclub.com/review/grimes-emvisionsem-69604 Jon Caramanica of The New York Times hailed Visions as "one of the most impressive albums of the year so far".http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/21/arts/music/reviews-of-albums-from-grimes-galactic-and-tyga.html?_r=1 Rebecca Nicholson of The Guardian described Visions as a "smart, funny album, and it's almost impossible not to dance to it".http://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/mar/08/grimes-visions-review Clash'​s Matthew Bennett wrote, "With 4AD's renewed vigor in all affairs electonique and Boucher's coherent elevation in both song quality and hook there'll be no stopping this creative, sensual explosion of humanity called Grimes".http://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/grimes-visions Benjamin Boles of 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 dream pop".https://nowtoronto.com/music/album-reviews/grimes-visions/
===Accolades===
==== Album ====
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".https://web.archive.org/web/20130105143333/http://www.allmusic.com/lists/best-of/albums/2012/1 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".http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2012/dec/13/best-albums-2012-grimes-visions NME ranked the album at number two on its 50 Best Albums of 2012 list.https://www.nme.com/features/2012-2-2-1041732 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".http://www.clashmusic.com/features/the-top-40-albums-of-2012-5-1 Pitchfork Media 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",http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/9017-the-top-50-albums-of-2012/5/ PopMatters 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".https://web.archive.org/web/20130926161502/http://www.popmatters.com/feature/166270-the-75-best-albums-of-2012/P6/
British magazine FACT ranked Visions the 26th best album of 2012 and commented it "moved beyond the circumstantially lo-fi 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".http://www.factmag.com/2012/12/03/the-50-best-albums-of-2012/26/ Rolling Stone placed Visions at number 33 on its 50 Best Albums of 2012 list, noting the album "uses EDM extremism, medieval chants, sugar-crusted melodies and her own sky-high voice to rethink pop music".http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/50-best-albums-of-2012-20121205/grimes-visions-19691231 The album was listed on Pastes The 50 Best Albums of 2012 list 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".https://web.archive.org/web/20121128074809/https://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2012/11/the-50-best-albums-of-2012.html
Visions was shortlisted for the 2012 Polaris Music Prize on July 17th, 2012, but lost out to Metals by Feast.http://polarismusicprize.ca/2012-nominees/ The album won Electronic Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2013.http://www.torontosun.com/2013/04/21/carly-rae-jepsen-wins-first-juno-award
==== Songs ====
"Oblivion" was ranked the best song of 2012 by both Pitchfork Media and PopMatters; the former called it "beautifully fragmented" and stating it "sounds both chilly and machine-like but also radiates human warmth and imperfection",http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/9015-the-top-100-tracks-of-2012/10/ while the latter opined that "this nouveau dream pop 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".https://web.archive.org/web/20151125063620/https://www.popmatters.com/feature/165966-the-75-best-songs-of-2012/P7/ NME named "Oblivion" and "Genesis" the sixth and sixteenth best tracks of 2012, respectively.https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/50-best-tracks-of-2012-779005 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 loop, 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".http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/50-best-songs-of-2012-20121205/grimes-oblivion-19691231
==Chart performance==
Chart 	Peak
position
Australian Hitseekers Albums (ARIA)http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/23790/20130219-1428/Issue1197.pdf 	7
Belgian Albums Chart (Ultrapop Flanders)http://www.ultratop.be/nl/showitem.asp?interpret=Grimes&titel=Visions&cat=a 	46
Belgian Heatseekers Albums (Ultrapop Wallonia)http://www.ultratop.be/fr/showitem.asp?interpret=Grimes&titel=Visions&cat=a 	9
Irish Albums (IRMA)http://www.chart-track.co.uk/index.jsp?c=p%2Fmusicvideo%2Fmusic%2Farchive%2Findex_test.jsp&ct=240002&arch=t&lyr=2012&year=2012&week=11	65
UK Albums (OO)http://www.officialcharts.com/artist/7322/grimes/ 	67
UK Indie Albums (OOC)http://www.officialcharts.com/charts/independent-albums-chart/20120318/131/ 	8
US Billboard 200http://www.billboard.com/artist/303162/grimes/chart?f=305 	98
US Alternative Albums (Billboard)http://www.billboard.com/artist/303162/grimes/chart?f=794 	17
US Dance/Electronic Albums (Billboard)http://www.billboard.com/artist/303162/grimes/chart?f=322 	8
US Independent Albums (Billboard)http://www.billboard.com/artist/303162/grimes/chart?f=326 	13
==References==