Picture You Staring | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | September 2, 2014 | |||
Label | Arbutus | |||
TOPS chronology | ||||
|
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Album of the Year | 75/100 [1] |
AnyDecentMusic? | 7.1/10 [2] |
Metacritic | 80/100 [3] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
The 405 | 7.5/10 [4] |
AllMusic | [5] |
DIY | [6] |
Dummy | 8/10 [7] |
Earbuddy | 6.5/10 [8] |
Exclaim! | 8/10 [9] |
The Line of Best Fit | 8.5/10 [10] |
Pitchfork | 7/10 [11] |
Pretty Much Amazing | C [12] |
Picture You Staring is the second studio album of Canadian indie group TOPS; Dazed debuted the album for streaming on August 28, 2014 [13] before Arbutus Records released it to other formats on September 2, 2014. [14] It was the fourth best album of 2014 according to Gorilla vs. Bear , [15] the seventh best according to Dummy magazine, [16] the 48th best per Stereogum , [17] and 93rd as ranked by Crack Magazine . [18]
Claire Elise Boucher, known professionally as Grimes, is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Her early work has been described as extending from "lo-fi R&B" to futuristic dance-pop, and has incorporated influences from electronic music, hip hop, and rock. Her lyrics often touch on science fiction and feminist themes. She has released five studio albums.
Space Is Only Noise is the debut studio album by Chilean-American musician Nicolás Jaar, released on 28 January 2011 by Circus Company.
R.A.P. Music is the fifth studio album by American rapper Killer Mike. It was released through Williams Street Records on May 15, 2012. The "R.A.P." in the album's title is a backronym for "Rebellious African People". Production was handled by rapper and producer Jaime "El-P" Meline; the album was the first collaboration between Killer Mike and El-P, who would later form the critically acclaimed duo Run the Jewels.
Kill for Love is the fourth studio album by American electronic music band Chromatics. It was released on March 26, 2012, by Italians Do It Better. On May 7, 2012, a drumless version of the album, containing 11 songs with no percussion, was made available by the band for free download.
Matthew Barnes, known by his stage name Forest Swords, is an English record producer, composer, DJ, and artist.
Tops is a Canadian indie rock band from Montreal, Quebec, which currently consists of Jane Penny, David Carriere, Riley Fleck, and Marta Cikojevic. They were formed in 2011 following the disbandment of synthpop group Silly Kissers, of which Carriere, Penny, and Gillies were members, along with Arbutus Records recording artist Sean Nicholas Savage. TOPS are prominent within the Arbutus Records and Canadian indie music scenes. Their debut album, Tender Opposites, was released on February 28, 2012, in Canada and the United States, and October 1, 2012, in the rest of the world, to generally positive reviews. The album was named the eighth best album of 2012 by Gorilla vs. Bear. Their second studio album, Picture You Staring, was released in 2014 on Arbutus Records and featured artwork from LA-based artist Jessica Dean Harrison.
Christopher Michael Taylor, professionally known as Sohn, is an English singer, songwriter and record producer. Following the release of the 2012 EP The Wheel by Aesop, he was signed by 4AD. He released his first album, Tremors, on 7 April 2014 followed by Rennen in January 2017 and Trust in November 2022.
Alexander Guy Cook is an English music producer and the head of the UK record label PC Music. Cook released his first solo singles in 2014. He has also collaborated with PC Music artists such as Hannah Diamond, GFOTY, EASYFUN, Danny L Harle and felicita. He formed the one-off project QT with musician Sophie and performance artist Hayden Dunham, producing the 2014 single "Hey QT".
Ryan DeRobertis is an American electronic musician and singer who grew up in Farmingville, New York and attended Boston College for two years studying music. His electronic music project SAINT PEPSI began in December 2012. After the release of his ninth studio album Hit Vibes in May 2013, he would retire the SAINT PEPSI name due to legal threats from the soft-drink company PepsiCo. He would adopt the name Skylar Spence in 2015, and release his debut record under that moniker, Prom King. In 2019, he would return under the name SAINT PEPSI with the release of Mannequin Challenge, and he currently uses that name for live performances and certain releases.
Oh No is the second album by Canadian musician Jessy Lanza. It was released on May 13, 2016 by Hyperdub. The album features co-production from Junior Boys' Jeremy Greenspan and was preceded by the singles "It Means I Love You" and "VV Violence".
Outside is the second studio album of Canadian electronic musician Michael Silver, known by his stage name as CFCF. Silver began work on a second CFCF LP shortly after the release of his debut album Continent (2009) in order to increase his reputation of being more than just a "house DJ." The record has feelings of being tired and hoping to reach something, which was influenced by Silver's experience in traveling to and from places such as New York, Toronto, and Montreal. He would often look at other landscapes while he was bored during travels and became "immersed" in the fantasies caused by looking at them.
Take Me Apart is the debut studio album by American singer and songwriter Kelela. It was released on October 6, 2017, through Warp. Combining electronic music and R&B, the album was noted for its futuristic sound and its incorporation of various musical styles. Kelela worked on the album for four years with producers she had previously collaborated with on her previous releases, Cut 4 Me (2013) and Hallucinogen (2015).
Dominik Dvorak, known by their stage name felicita, is an English record producer and DJ based in London. They came to prominence through early collaborations with Nabihah Iqbal, Palmistry and Sophie. In 2014, they released the Frenemies EP with Gum Artefacts on digital platforms and vinyl.
Grid of Points is the eleventh studio album by the American musician Liz Harris under the stage name Grouper. It was released in the United States on April 27, 2018, by Kranky.
Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides is the only studio album by Scottish recording artist and producer Sophie. It was released on 15 June 2018, through Transgressive, Future Classic and Sophie's own label, MSMSMSM. According to one source, the title may be a variant spelling of the phrase "I love every person's insides". Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides was met with widespread acclaim by critics and received a nomination for the Best Dance/Electronic Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards. A remix album, Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides Non-Stop Remix Album, was released in July 2019.
Marylou Mayniel, better known by her stage name Oklou, is a French musician, singer, music producer, DJ, composer, and actress.
Pang is the third and major-label debut studio album by American singer-songwriter and producer Caroline Polachek, and debut under her given name. It was released by Sony Music, The Orchard, and Polachek's imprint Perpetual Novice on October 18, 2019. The album received critical acclaim from and was placed on several critics' year-end lists, topping Dazed's list. Commercially, Pang peaked at number 17 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart and number 40 on the Independent Albums chart, making it Polachek's first charting solo album.
Miss Anthropocene is the fifth studio album by Canadian musician Grimes, released on February 21, 2020. It marked her first album in over four years, after the release of 2015's Art Angels. The album was officially announced on March 19, 2019. The name of the album is a pun on the feminine title "Miss", and the words "misanthrope" and "Anthropocene", a neologism popularised in the year 2000 by Paul J. Crutzen that was proposed to denote the current geological age the Earth is in. The album is a loose concept album about an "anthropomorphic goddess of climate change" inspired by Roman mythology and villainy. Miss Anthropocene is Grimes' final album on record label 4AD, to which she has been signed since 2012. The album is darker in style than Grimes' 2015 album Art Angels, containing inspiration from the sounds of industrial music.
Sugar at the Gate is the third studio album of Canadian indie group TOPS, consisting of vocalist Jane Penny, guitarist David Carriere, drummer Riley Fleck, and bassist Jackson MacIntosh. It was released on June 2, 2017 by Arbutus Records. For making the album, the group lived in Los Angeles in order to have the music reflect experiencing a "teenage fantasy" in the city; it was tracked in a Glendale, California-based mansion named Glamdale.
Erika de Casier is a Portugal-born Danish singer, songwriter, and record producer. She began her career performing as half of the R&B duo Saint Cava. After the duo disbanded, she independently released her debut studio album, Essentials, in 2019. She signed to British record label 4AD in 2020 and released her second studio album, Sensational, in 2021.