Cold Visions
Studio album by Bladee
Released	23 April 2024 (2024-04-23)
Studio	Bladee's house (Stockholm)
Genre	Cloud rap rage rap
Length	63:36
Label	Trash Island
Producer	100yrd Jonah Abraham AM F1lthy James Ferraro Glasear Simon Hessman Lucian Lusi Lukrative Mechatok Mochila Rok Gabriel Schuman Skrillex Warpstr Woesum Whitearmor Yung Sherman
Bladee chronology
Psykos (2024) Cold Visions (2024)

Cold Visions is the seventh solo studio album by the Swedish rapper Bladee. A surprise album, it was self-released under the Trash Island label on 23 April 2024. As his 30th birthday was approaching, Bladee became anxious about ageing and the mixed reception toward his previous solo studio album Spiderr (2022). He recorded Cold Visions at his house in Stockholm across a two-week period. It is his first studio album not to be released by his longtime record label Year0001 because he wanted to make music that was true to himself. The album was executively produced by Bladee and Gabriel Schuman, and was mainly produced by F1lthy, with contributions from a variety of record producers including Skrillex, Whitearmor, and James Ferraro.

A rap album, Cold Visions is Bladee's longest release. The album is characterized by audio logos, references to his past work, and a recurring theme of paranoia. Many critics believed that it is one of Bladee's darker works, especially when compared to his previous material. The album was promoted by a tour across North American and Europe. Several publications featured it on their year-end lists.

Bladee released his sixth solo studio album, Spiderr, on 30 September 2022, to mixed reception.^[1] During March 2024, he released the collaborative studio album Psykos with longtime collaborator Yung Lean,^[1] to critical praise.^[2][3] Though he has used guitars in his music before, this was the first time he committed to a post-punk and alternative rock sound.^[3]

Approaching his 30th birthday, Bladee was in a state of anxiety due to ageing and the mixed reception towards Spiderr.^[1] Kieran Press-Reynolds from Pitchfork wrote that Bladee was experiencing "something like a mid-career crisis".^[4] Cold Visions was recorded at his house in Stockholm across a two-week period. It is Bladee's first studio album not released by his longtime record label and management company Year0001. He stopped working with the label, citing that he no longer wanted to be a bigger artist and wanted to only do what is true to himself.^[1] The album was mainly produced by F1lthy, with contributions from Skrillex, Whitearmor,^[5] James Ferraro, and others.^[6]

Cold Visions was classified as a rap album by publications.^[4][7][8][5] With its 30 tracks, it is Bladee's longest album.^[9] Paranoia is a recurring theme in the album.^[10] Some critics believed that Cold Visions is darker compared to Bladee's previous work. Press-Reynolds believed it was darker compared to the "sublime optimism" in Crest (2022) and 333 (2020) and the "summery bounce" in Good Luck (2020) and The Fool (2021).^[4] Charles Lyons-Burt from Slant Magazine thought that Bladee's work "has never sounded so paranoid, dark, and dangerous".^[11] For HotNewHipHop, Zachary Horvath called it "extremely dark".^[12] Anthony Fantano called it a "more distorted" and "darker" album when compared to Bladee's recent work.^[13] He also thought that it is "the most aggressive project Bladee has put out".^[14] AllMusic's Fred Thomas wrote that the majority of the album is "aggressive and nihilistic", and is "dense, paranoid, and nightmarish".^[8] For Paste, Madelyn Dawson called F1lthy's production "dark" and "distorted".^[15] Quinn Moreland of The Guardian wrote that, across the album, "he purges his demons over raging, blown-out trap beats". Bladee described it as "really honest, more like a diary".^[1] Tom Breihan of Stereogum wrote: "Bladee delivers most of his heavily-accented lyrics in a blurry, downcast, syncopated hum, while the blown-out beats conjure icy-tundra landscapes".^[5] The album contains seamless transitions according to Press-Reynolds.^[4]

Cold Visions also references Bladee's older work.^[15][16] Press-Reynolds wrote that "nearly every song makes some kind of allusion to a previous release". Throughout the album, he mentions his songs "Everlasting Flames" and "Redlight Moments". On "Don't Wanna Hang Out", he reveals more of the "previously established lore about the mystical Drain Gang High School", as described by Press-Reynolds. Audio logos from his previous work are also included on the album, such as a tag taken from the 1998 film Blade and a sound effect from the 2008 video game Street Fighter IV.^[4] Fantano believed the sound effects and audio logos made the album sound like a "badly produced" DatPiff mixtape.^[17] Fans created a document to name every reference and interpolation on the album.^[4] Sam Goldner of Pitchfork called the samples and producer tags "overstimulating".^[18]

"Paranoia Intro"

"Paranoia Intro" contains recurring elements in Cold Visions. This includes themes of paranoia^[10] and the use of audio logos and sound effects;^[4][17] such as the album's title^[15] and Vincent Price's laugh in "Thriller" (1983).^[4][19][20] Critics also highlighted Bladee's embarrassment of his age on the track.^[4][1][21]

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The opening track of Cold Visions is "Paranoia Intro", a track that "sets the tone for the cloudy set of tracks to follow" according to Krueger.^[20] During the opening line, Bladee is cut off by Vincent Price's laugh in "Thriller" (1983) by Michael Jackson.^[4] Bladee raps about being embarrassed about his age over airy synthesizers.^[4][20] "Wodrainer" explores themes of substance abuse, depression, paranoia, as well as not wanting to become mainstream and being loyal towards Drain Gang.^[19] The track "Yung Sherman" is a collaboration with the producer of the same name,^[22] and contains a "sweet melody" and a "strong, compelling emotional vocal break" according to Fantano.^[23] "Flatline" is written about letting somebody down, and his expressive vocals shift between quiet whispers and soft cries.^[4] The track contains delicate emotions, wispy adlibs, and a synth melody.^[11][10] According to Crissy Saucier of The Massachusetts Daily Collegian, the track sees Bladee "reflect[ing] on patterns in his relationships, acknowledging a tendency toward self-destructive behavior".^[10] Consequence's Jonah Krueger described the production on the track as "icy" and "in-your-face", alongside the following "One Second" featuring Yung Lean.^[24] "Sad Meal" contains a harsh delivery and contains references to his debut mixtape Gluee and the scrapped project Rainworld.^[16] The track is also written about being at McDonald's.^[4] "Fun Fact" also features Yung Lean, and Paper's Shaad D'Souza called it "menacing and brusque".^[25] "Only God Is Made Perfect" begins with Bladee announcing "drain gang", with a beat drop cutting off Bladee's line, and being replaced by "the album title cut[ting] in a cunning redaction".^[15]

On "Don't Wanna Hang Out", he expresses that he wants to spend time alone, sharing his irritations with "fake friends and clout chasers" over a beat produced by F1lthy. Writing about the beat, Raphael Helfand of The Fader said that it "crescendos as triumphantly as a Lex Luger beat".^[26] "I Don't Like People (Whitearmor Interlude)" contains an appearance from the producer Whitearmor, on a track that presents Bladee chanting the song's title atop a synth progression.^[10] Another track that features Yung Lean, the lyrics in "I Don't Like People" hint toward Bladee's departure from Year0001.^[27] The track begins with a "haunting synth melody and thunderous bass" and presents Bladee's dark delivery using Auto-Tuned vocals. Yung Lean explores the feeling of "being overwhelmed by constant attention".^[10] "End of the Road Boyz" begins with a sample of "ear-splitting shrieks" taken from a viral Roblox video. The track sees Bladee changing moods, alternating between cheerful warbles and sad murmurs.^[4] Fantano described "D.O.A" with Skrillex as a more approachable track and called its presentation clean.^[28] He also said that the following "Don't Do Drugz" doesn't delve on its topic for too long.^[29] "Lows Partlyy" contains "blooming synths", depressing lyrics, and is "eerily joyous" according to Press-Reynolds.^[4] "So Cold Interlude" gives light into the emotionally vulnerable side of Bladee. The following "Message to Myself" is a moment of "restored confidence" after the previous track.^[19] "Terrible Excellence", a track about being obsessed with loneliness, contains another Yung Lean feature and contains an aggressive and bass-heavy beat.^[12] The title of "Red Cross" is a reference to Bladee's 2022 album with Ecco2K, Crest, and the track is "riddled with paranoia" due to Bladee's vocal delivery.^[19] Thaiboy Digital and Yung Lean feature on "Lucky Luke".^[30]

Joel Rodriguez from the KLSU radio called "River Flows in You" "by the books" rage music.^[19] On "King Nothingg", Bladee makes light of trauma dumping and unwarranted murder. The track contains convulsing bass thuds and shivering synths.^[4] Rodriguez believed that "Bad 4 Business" has "lowkey" production and is "lyrically sparse".^[19] "Otherside" contains a feature from Sickboyrari, also known as Black Kray. Helfand described F1lthy's instrumental as "fried" and says Bladee's flow "starts as a steady stream of consciousness but slows to a trickle by its finish". Sickboyrari appears late in the song, with a "codeine-coated delivery", which Helfand said "allows us to imagine what Chief Keef might sound like if he was born in the south".^[31] "Normal" shows more of Bladee's angry and emotional side.^[19] His vocals on "Flexing & Finessing" twitch "with odd mouth-noises and tone-switches". Press-Reynolds says that Bladee randomly saying "I'm back!" on the track sounds "as if he's returning home from work in the twilight haze".^[4] The track "PM2" critiques Year0001.^[27] On "False", Bladee questions his existence and "his disintegrating beliefs in what or who to follow while at a club". The penultimate track "Can't End on a Loss (Outro)", one of the two outro tracks, sees Bladee reflecting on his childhood and his career. The final track is "Cold Visions (Outro 2)", contains a piano instrumental mixed with synthesizers. Rodriguez described it as "a more emotionally touching closing track".^[19]

On 23 April 2024, Bladee released a music video for Cold Visions's opening track "Paranoia Intro", which led to fans wondering if an album was coming.^[16] Later that day, Cold Visions was self-released as a surprise album under the label Trash Island.^[1][4][32] "One Second" received a music video created by Harmony Korine's creative company EDGLRD on 1 May 2024.^[33] Throughout August and October 2024, Bladee embarked on a North American tour to promote Cold Visions.^[34] He performed songs from the album live for the first time at the Osheaga Festival during August 2024, after shows in Chicago and Houston were postponed due to issues with his visa.^[35] The tour concluded on October 18, in Philadelphia.^[34] He is currently embarking on the European leg of the tour throughout December 2024.^[36]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[8]
The Needle Drop	6/10[37][a]
Pitchfork	8.3/10[4]
Sputnikmusic	2.9/5[39]

Cold Visions was awarded the "Best New Music" accolade from Pitchfork. Press-Reynolds wrote that it is "his most realized project to date" and said "Bladee's version of rap is blemished but beautiful, imperfect and half-coherent in a way that makes banal thoughts feel endearingly askew".^[4] For AllMusic, Thomas said that although "Cold Visions creates an atmosphere that's intense and sometimes challenging to engage with […] Bladee's way with his horrific words and worldview is nothing short of fascinating".^[8] Fantano believed that it could have been a great album, but felt there were too many unnecessary songs in the track list.^[40] Sputnikmusic wrote: "Of the aesthetics and sounds explored using production here, few seem fit for human consumption".^[41]

Cold Visions was placed in both mid-year and year-end lists of the best albums of the year. The staff from The Fader deemed it the fourth best album of the year. Colin Joyce wrote: "Profoundly antisocial and grimly profound with it, Cold Visions weaves the abstract flexes that have become hallmarks of the Drain Gang founder's last few records with meditations on violence and the growing burden of existence in a dark world".^[42] Pitchfork considered it the eighth best album of the year; Goldner called the album a "30-track meltdown" and contains "some of his most inventive flows yet".^[43] It was included in both Slant Magazine's mid-year and year-end list of the best albums of 2024. Lyons-Burt wrote that Bladee "deepens his sound" with the album. He further wrote that the line "it's 9 p.m. in the morning" on "Red Cross" "perfectly describes the eerily inside-out, day-for-night atmosphere that Cold Visions summons".^[11] Paste placed it at 97 in their list of the best albums of the year; Dawson called it a "love letter" to Drain Gang, and "Bladee cements himself as a genuine artist".^[15] It also appeared in an unranked list from AllMusic.^[44]

Notes

• Track titles are stylised in all caps.
• Tracks 9–11, 14, and 29 are stylised without punctuation.

• Gabriel Schuman – executive production, additional production, mixing, mastering, transitions^[47]
• Bladee – executive production, cover artwork^[47][48]
• James Ferraro – additional sound effects^[47]
• Malibu – additional sound effects^[47]
• Inef Coupe – additional sound effects^[47]
• Ville Nordström – cover artwork^[48]
• Ecco2K – cover imaging and post-production^[48]