Visions

<noinclude>
Album
Critical Reception
Physical Release
Visions is the third studio album by Grimes, released on February 21, 2012. Her first since signing with 4AD.
Visions was streamed on the npr website nine days before it was released.http://www.npr.org/2012/02/06/146463100/first-listen-grimes-visions
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 exclusive tracks.http://4ad.com/news/30/11/2012/grimesvisionsannouncedasalbumoftheyearatroughtradeandresident
==Background==
Visions was a shift in her mentality towards music, explaining in an interview:https://www.theskinny.co.uk/music/interviews/grimes-there-s-no-time-to-be-repetitive
===Inspiration===
When asked to identify the album's main theme, Grimes replied:
When asked who her main influences for the album were, Grimes responded:https://www.vulture.com/2012/02/grimes-on-visions-anime-and-being-the-next-phil-spector.html
In an interview with Exclaim! she deemed her influences "as wide as Enya, TLC and Aphex Twin, drawing from genres like New Jack Swing, IDM, new age, K-pop, industrial and glitch."https://exclaim.ca/music/article/grimes-accidental_pop_star 2NE1 also served as an influence.https://web.archive.org/web/20120229005628/https://www.thefourohfive.com/news/article/total-sensory-deprivation-the-405-meets-grimes
====Name====
The album's name is a reference to medieval Christian mystic and composer Hildegard von Bingen, who also inspired parts of Halfaxa.https://web.archive.org/web/20120513131629/http://forthebeat.com/blog/2010/09/interview-with-grimes/ She explained to Fake Plastic Tunes:https://web.archive.org/web/20120124203939/http://www.fakeplastictunes.com/2012/01/sound-check-part-ii-grimes-interview.html
Grimes wrote her thesis on Hildegard, telling Nightlife.ca:Nightlife.ca/2011/Interview
==Composition==
The album's sound was primarily inspired by the parties Grimes performed at and the responses she got from the audience, stating in an interview with Electronic Beats:https://www.electronicbeats.net/the-visions-the-voice-an-interview-with-grimes/
She further elaborated on her thought process while making the album and its main themes by saying:https://www.undertheradar.co.nz/utr/interviewMore/CID/451/N/Grimes.utr
===Writing===
She described her writing process as being "equally enjoyable and tortuous".https://web.archive.org/web/20120502052512/http://www.7digital.com/features/interviews/grimes 
===Production===
Due to a deadline imposed by Grimes' manager at the time,https://www.fuse.tv/videos/2015/12/grimes-fuse-first-art-angels-visions-interview Visions was fully finished during an extended isolation over a three-week period at Grimes' home in Montreal.http://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/apr/28/grimes-visions-montreal During recording, she was reclusive and insomniac with blacked out windows, for nine days, to induce hallucinations, explaining: "You have no stimulation, so your subconscious starts filling in the blanks. I started to feel like I was channelling spirits. I was convinced my music was a gift from God. It was like I knew exactly what to do next, as if my songs were already written".https://web.archive.org/web/20120219234025/https://pitchfork.com/features/interviews/8774-grimes/ She also ate "little to nothing" describing the process as "an incredible thing to do.":
The album was recorded entirely on Apple's GarageBand software,http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/visions-grimes using the Line 6 M9 vocal processor, the BOSS VE-20 vocal processor, a sampler and a Juno-G keyboard.https://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/grimes It was mixed by Grimes and her manager Sebastian Cowan at their La Brique Studio Space.The Creators Project/Interview The album was finished in August 2011.https://nationalpost.com/entertainment/qa-grimes
==Release and Promotion==
=== Release ===
There is a common misconception that Visions was released on January 31, 2012 at the earliest to the point that some streaming services, online stores and widely used sources such as Wikipedia use this date. This is because this was the original release date as reported by Arbutus Records in October 2011 (her main label at the time which exclusively released her music in Canada),https://web.archive.org/web/20160306232551/http://arbutusrecords.com/?p=925 which media outlets reported.https://hypebeast.com/2011/10/grimes-oblivionhttps://www.refinery29.com/en-us/this-is-our-jam-grimes-oblivonhttps://earmilk.com/2011/10/17/grimes-visions-album/ However, in January 2012 Grimes got signed to 4AD who planned to release Visions on February 21 and March 12 in the United States and Europe, respectively.https://dmy.co/news/grimes-signs-to-4ad The official release date of the album was rescheduled to February 21 in North America and March 12 in Europe as reported by several media outlets.https://www.gorillavsbear.net/grimes-signs-with-4ad/https://consequence.net/2012/01/grimes-signs-with-4ad/https://pitchfork.com/news/44967-grimes-signs-to-4ad-listen-to-new-track-genesis-from-visions/https://fyeahgrimes.tumblr.com/post/15182656538/update-about-visionsnew-label-4ad-new-new This is further supported by none of the album reviews being from January (the earliest album reviews are from around February 12 as this was the date Visions was exclusively available to stream on NPR.org),https://web.archive.org/web/20120214064505/https://www.npr.org/2012/02/06/146463100/first-listen-grimes-visions#playlist there being no mention of the album being released in January by Grimes Tumblr fanblogs active at the time,https://grimes-claireboucher.tumblr.com/archive/2012/1https://fyeahgrimes.tumblr.com/archive/2012/1 as well as there not being any editions of the album released in January on Discogs, a site which serves as a database for every edition of a musical release ever released.https://www.discogs.com/master/411575-Grimes-Visions
=== Promotion ===
Inspired by K-Pop group Girls Generation, Grimes intended to make a music video for each song on Visions.
In the end, only music videos for Oblivion, Genesis and Nightmusic were released. A video for Be A Body (侘寂) was made, but scrapped due to the death of her friend who starred in the video.https://www.reddit.com/r/Grimes/comments/sr5yay/listening_note_booklet/
===Singles===
Visions album artwork.jpg|17 Oct 2011Oblivion
Cover Genesis.png|09 Jan 2012Genesis
== Tour== 
:Main Article: Visions Tour
==Album Visuals==
<tabber>
|-|Album Artwork=
Grimes said of the cover:https://www.vinylmeplease.com/blogs/magazine/grimes-visions-artwork
Grimes got the alien head on the back cover "from a guy's blog, with his permission" and "worked on it [the cover] for about 16 hours straight."http://djmag.ru/cover/grimes-ya-lyublyu-depressivnuyu-tantsevalnuyu-muzyku
The text above the main artwork translates as "I love" in Russian; the Japanese inspired text does not mean anything.
On the right side, The Russian text under "Grimes" is taken from an Anna Akhmatova, poem "But Listen, I Am Warning You" and translate as "But listen, I am warning you. I’m living for the very last time." The four lines of text on the bottom right of the album cover is from another of Akhmatova's poems - "The Song of the Last Meeting" - and reads: "I am betrayed by my doleful, Fickle, evil fate. I answered: "Darling, darling! I too. I will die with you…" The Russian text above the Thanos head translates to "Computing Head".
When asked "Do you really like Akhmatova, or did you include the quote in Russian just for the design?", Grimes replied:
Visions album artwork.jpg|Standard
Visions album artwork back side.jpg|<=
Visions-Japanese.png|Japanese version
</tabber>
==Tracklist==
<tabber>
|-|Standard=
|-|Bonus Tracks=
|-|Bonus Discs=
|-|Canadian 12-inch vinyl=
Taken from the website of Arbutus Records.https://web.archive.org/web/20130417210836/https://arbutusrecords.com/?shopp_product=grimes-visions-pre-order
</tabber>
==Credits==
Credits adapted from the liner notes of Visions.
*Grimes – vocals, production, poetry
*Sebastian Cowan – mastering, mixing
*Anna Akhmatova – poetry
*Jasper Baydala – layout
*Mark Khair – alien head design
==Trivia== 
* Grimes told Discorder: "I would send this record to aliens, but I don’t know if I was trying to speak to aliens on this record."https://sarahberms.com/2012/02/10/grimes-psychedelic/
*This is the first Grimes record that her grandmother likes, after hating her previous records.Complex/Interview
*Retrospectively Grimes told Q Magazine: "I was a much weaker person when I wrote Visions. [..] It was a sad record- cathartic, but victim-y. During [the making of Art Angels] I’ve got control of my music. It feels more developed. On Visions I was still in school, mentally. Since then, I’ve wanted to make something strong and aggressive because it’s more reflective of me."https://loveyouclaire.tumblr.com/post/131387825958/people-are-strange-inspired-by-billy-joel-and
* Grimes described the album's sound as "psychedelic sci-fi twee" in an interview for Pitchfork, when asked to describe it in three words.https://youtu.be/umoqd0VbRI4?si=OdzZUMvw2zQPlqMg&t=329
==References==
Category:Discography
Category:Albums
Category:2012