Halfaxa

• Album
• Critical Reception
• Physical Release

Album

Critical Reception

Physical Release

Halfaxa
Album artwork
General Information
Title	Halfaxa
Recorded	2010
Released	30 Sep 2010
Genre	Ethereal Wave • Electronic • Synth Pop • Art Pop • Witch House • Ambient Pop
Length	50:01 • 14 Tracks
Format	CD • LP • digital download • streaming
Credits
Artist	Grimes
Writer(s)	Grimes
Producer(s)	Grimes
Label	Arbutus Records
Album Chronology
(2010)
(2010)
(2012)
Lo Recordings artwork
General Information
Title	Halfaxa (Lo Recordings Version)
Recorded	2010
Released	May 2011
Genre	Ethereal Wave • Electronic • Synth Pop • Art Pop • Ambient Pop • Witch House
Length	56:23 • 16 Tracks
Format	CD • LP • digital download
Credits
Artist	Grimes
Writer(s)	Grimes
Producer(s)	Grimes
Label	Lo Recordings
Album Chronology
(2010)
(2010)
(2012)

Halfaxa is the second solo studio album by Grimes. It was released in Canada on October 5, 2010, by Arbutus Records, and in the United Kingdom and mainland Europe in May 2011 by Lo Recordings.

The default version, released by Arbutus, has a length of 50:01, while the Lo Recordings pressings version features 2 exclusive tracks — ∆∆∆∆Rasik∆∆∆∆ and Heartbeats — which make up a total running time of 56:23. Main genres are synthpop, ambient pop, dark wave and ethereal wave.

Grimes does not own the rights to Halfaxa, and as a result she does not make any money from the the album in any form. In 2016 she gave "permission" to her fans to pirate the music, suggesting downloading the songs for free on Bandcamp.

Background

Inspiration

The inspiration for Halfaxa was "European medieval history [books]" and "medieval savagery," explaining to Nightlife.ca:

❝ Halfaxa is inspired by an impression of medieval life, but also by the conception of music at that time. Everything was abstract, something divine and not physical. Therefore, I didn't write lyrics; I wanted the feeling to be transcendental, something that couldn't be linked to everyday life. I wanted it to be ethereal, as if coming from another world. One thing I don't like about indie music or contemporary music in general is that it talks too much about everyday life. In the Middle Ages, that didn't happen; it was considered self-centered. Everything was devotional. I find art so much grander that way. ❞

Grimes said that "This album is mostly about my vacation in Halifax where [she] went to see [her] friend Duffy where [she] had a fun week there, staying at [Duffy's] house and eating snacks and stuff; went to the harbor."

Name

The album was named after the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, but Grimes wanted to invent a new word so she made the city's name "sound a bit more like a girls' name". Before being named Halfaxa the album went through working titles of Glossolalia and Dragvandil; it was referred to as Dragvandil as late as July 2010.

Composition

Grimes' influences while making the album were Salem, Burial, Al Green, medieval choral music and Mariah Carey, with the latter serving as a primary vocal influence as stated in an interview with DMY:

❝ I worked very hard to reach four octaves now… I practice so much. I listen to Heartbreaker and I’m like ahhh. ❞

Production

Grimes described the sound of the album as the following:

❝ I feel like there's this vague aesthetic idea that pervades the album. It's not totally gimmicky, it's just sort of this weird abstract idea of what is medieval and what the dark ages would sound like if they could be interpreted in an electronic means... I want to combine the feeling of sitting in a beautiful church with a reverb-y choir, but I want to combine that with the feeling of dancing to really good music. They're both really animalistic interpretations of beauty but I wanted them to happen at the same time for the listener. ❞

Grimes sampled her friends' cat Voignamir on the album (on Weregild and Swan Song) due to the cat continuously meowing. Buses can also be heard on this album due to the album being recorded close to a broken part of the road.

Release and Promotion

Weregild was released in July 2010 and Devon was released the following month. The album was officially released on September 30, 2010 but an early version of the album was given to people who attended Grimes' 2010 Canada tour with Pop Winds as early as August 1, 2010. The album got a re-release in February 2011 through Lo Recordings with a new artwork and Heartbeats as a bonus track. The album was again re-released in 2016 by Arbutus Records however the tracks ∆∆∆∆Rasik∆∆∆∆ and Heartbeats were excluded from this version (most likely due to the former having an unauthorized sample and the latter being owned by Lo Recordings).

Album Visuals

Album Artwork

Standard

Lo Recordings

Alt. artwork

Alt. artwork (colourised)

The standard album cover was made quickly in Photoshop days before the release of the album. In 2020, she said the alternate artwork is the "superior one" and the "official cover".

Misc

Original artwork: Dragvandil

From the Lo Recordings CD sleeve.

Tracklist

• Standard
• Lo-Recordings

Halfaxa
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	Outer	Grimes	Grimes	1:12
2.	Intro / Flowers	Grimes	Grimes	2:50
3.	Weregild	Grimes	Grimes	5:14
4.	Sagrad Прекрасный	Grimes	Grimes	5:11
5.	Dragvandil	Grimes	Grimes	1:39
6.	Devon	Grimes	Grimes	4:30
7.	Dream Fortress	Grimes	Grimes	5:00
8.	World ♡ Princess	Grimes	Grimes	4:40
9.	† River †	Grimes	Grimes	1:57
10.	Swan Song	Grimes	Grimes	3:05
11.	≈Ω≈Ω≈Ω≈Ω≈Ω≈Ω≈Ω≈Ω≈	Grimes	Grimes	2:13
12.	My Sister Says The Saddest Things	Grimes	Grimes	4:11
13.	Hallways	Grimes	Grimes	5:44
14.	Favriel	Grimes	Grimes	2:36
Total length:				50:01

Halfaxa (Lo Recordings Exclusive)
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	Outer	Grimes	Grimes	1:12
2.	Intro / Flowers	Grimes	Grimes	2:50
3.	Weregild	Grimes	Grimes	5:14
4.	∆∆∆∆Rasik∆∆∆∆	Grimes	Grimes	1:50
5.	Heartbeats	Grimes	Grimes	4:32
6.	Sagrad Прекрасный	Grimes	Grimes	5:11
7.	Dragvandil	Grimes	Grimes	1:39
8.	Devon	Grimes	Grimes	4:30
9.	Dream Fortress	Grimes	Grimes	5:00
10.	World ♡ Princess	Grimes	Grimes	4:40
11.	† River †	Grimes	Grimes	1:57
12.	Swan Song	Grimes	Grimes	3:05
13.	≈Ω≈Ω≈Ω≈Ω≈Ω≈Ω≈Ω≈Ω≈	Grimes	Grimes	2:13
14.	My Sister Says The Saddest Things	Grimes	Grimes	4:11
15.	Hallways	Grimes	Grimes	5:44
16.	Favriel	Grimes	Grimes	2:36
Total length:				56:23

Outtakes

• Fifteen Minutes To
• whoknoidontno

Credits

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Halfaxa.

• Grimes – vocals, production, composition, illustrations
• Jasper Baydala – design
• Sebastian Cowan – mastering (tracks 1–4, tracks 6–16)
• Antony Ryan – mastering (track 5)

Trivia

• Originally, Grimes wanted to release an EP before Halfaxa, because initially there were no plans to release Halfaxa for free "because I believe music should be free".
• Grimes considers this her most underrated album.
• Grimes no longer has any of the raw files for the album, telling Connect Savannah: When I made those records, I never thought anyone was going to hear them. So when they were done I just deleted them so I could have space on my computer hard drive.
• Grimes described the album's sound as "lo-fi ethereal hardcore" in an interview for Pitchfork, when asked to describe it in three words.
• Grimes had intended this to be 'the water album' "I’m a water sign (pisces) – and this album was actually meant to be the water album, but then it turned into what it is, but it has nothing to do with dark water, or really water at all. I think things need to be really high fi to sound like water, but I do think Halfaxa is very cold".