The smart money has, for a while, been on album number three being the one that is gonna do it for Grimes. Claire Boucher’s already, via two albums in two years, impressed plenty with her talent for merging breathy, wafting vocals, glitchy electronics and weirdo aesthetics, and now Visions brings those elements together, and then some.  

“Electro pop” is such a reductive term for what Grimes does, and yet, it is both. One minute is it fleetingly frothy (“Oblivion)”, then passes into something more ambient and enveloping (“Be a Body”), only to turn sci fi/tribal (“Eight”) or distant, skittish and minimal (“Symphonia IX”). Our picks for highlights include the lilting “Visiting Statue”, the surprisingly muted “Skin” and above all, “Vowels = Space and Time” a charming standout on every listen. A fascinating record, and lot of folks agree. For instance:

Consequence of Sound: Boucher’s striking falsetto, and the billowing reverb/delay she covers it in for nearly all of Visions, could easily pass as any number of the hallowed names in their catalog, but it falls closest to that of Liz Fraser, the impressionistic singer for 4AD’s former flagship act, the Cocteau Twins.

XLR8R: Across 13 tracks, Boucher toys with the rhythms of hip-hop, house, and electro, unearths the melodic soul of all manners of pop and R&B (maybe even opera, too), and cherry-picks bits of noise, ambient, and classical music—reappropriating their elements and contorting each piece to fit her simultaneously visceral and ethereal sound palette.

Pitchfork: More solidly constructed and a lot more fun to listen to than anything she's put her name to so far, the electro cotton-candy of Visions is an inviting entrance into Grimes' peculiar kind of bliss.

Resident Advisor: Visions is marked by a number of characteristics that make up a broad swathe of forgettable, barely-there music—it sounds distant, cheaply produced, with songs that seem to flutter in and out of earshot rather than command attention—but it's executed with such personality, earnestness, and feeling that it feels so much louder and present than it really is.

See what you think. Discover Grimes’ first release on 4AD,Visions – a record that’s likely to be the beginning of a whole new career for Claire Boucher.