Shrines by Purity Ring

Shrines, the debut album from Edmonton duo Purity Ring, came out on 4AD on July 20, 2012, and it was made without the two of them in the same room: Megan James and producer Corin Roddick recorded their parts at home over several months and swapped them by email. You'd never guess. Roddick's beats hit with hip-hop weight under shimmering synth-pop and dream-pop haze, Jon Hopkins adds extra production, and James sings sweetly about self-empowerment and love in imagery that is startlingly bloody.

That clash of candy-coated production and gory words is what critics seized on. "Obedear" went out as a promotional single, then "Belispeak" and "Fineshrine". It entered the Billboard 200 at 32 and the Dance/Electronic Albums chart at number two, turned up on year-end lists, earned a 2013 Polaris Music Prize nomination, and Pitchfork later called it a time capsule of how 2012 sounded. Another Eternity came next.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.