In The Realms Of Reality

In The Realms Of Reality is the debut mini-album by pop singer and URAPS Idol 12 finalist Iris, released on the 12th of September 2011 independantly, through Iris's own funds. The album was released one week before the debut single "Against The Wall" and peaked at #1 on the albums charts.

Singles
The first single from the album was the Iris written and produced track "Against The Wall" which was released 19 September, 2011 and peacked at #6 on the singles charts.

The second single, "Hearts On The Radio" was released 30 January 2012 and charted at #8.

Critical Reception
"In The Realms Of Reality" received positive reviews from most music critics upon its release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 71, based on 33 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Dan Martin of NME gave it an eight out of 10 rating, stating "Iris doesn't know when to hold back – and it's a damn good thing", and complimented Iris for pushing musical boundaries to its "ultimate degree." Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine opined: "There's nothing small about this album, and Iris sings the shit out of every single track." Cinquemani called it "bloated, self-important, proudly British, an exercise in extraordinary excess." BBC Music called the album a "marvelous record" and commended Iris for "actually putting a bit of effort and imagination back into pop." Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield praised Iris's vocals and musical style, expressing that "the more excessive Iris gets, the more honest she sounds." Bill Lamb of About.com gave the album four out of five stars and concluded in his review, "In The Realms Of Reality takes us into the mind of Iris, which couldn't be further from reality." Spin felt that "excess is Iris's riskiest musical gamble, but it's also her greatest weapon, and In The Realms Of Reality relentlessly bludgeons listeners' pleasure centres”, and concluded that “she's making a convincing case that she's evolving into our most surreally original pop star.” Adam Markovitz of Entertainment Weekly found the album "rewarding but wildly uneven", adding that "If Iris doesn't find a stand-alone hit here, the album’s sprawl still shows off the breadth of her talent." Despite criticizing her for "perhaps being so bizzare it isolates listeners", Allmusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the album three-and-a-half out of five stars and complimented Iris's composing "sensibility" and "considerable dexterity at delivering the basics". In his consumer guide for MSN Music, critic Robert Christgau viewed Iris as a whole, stating that "the album will be looked back at in 10 years when Iris is most likely dead, and will be remembered as one of the most innovative musical outputs of these times."

However, Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune felt that the album was rushed, describing it as "hyperventilating". Kot expressed that it felt like the sound "of a new artist sprinting to establish herself far too hard." Randall Roberts of the Los Angeles Times opined that Iris's lack of normality also had a negative side, stating that "although musical adventure comes naturally to her." He continued: "If it were not for the Ben Johnston and Elice Claire presence on the album, the album could appear quite off-putting and scary." Chris Richards of The Washington Post found it "messed up", writing, "Yes, In The Realms Of Reality is a dark, dense and surprisingly aggressive listen... [but] at its worst, it sounds as confused as Iris appears to be in her life." The Boston Globe called the album "An album by a psycho, to the psycho's." The Independent gave In The Realms Of Reality three out of five stars. While complimenting her vocal range, criticized the diversity within the album and stated "the broader she spreads her net musically, the less distinctive her art becomes." Evan Sawdey of PopMatters gave the album a five out of 10 rating and dubbed it "a cry for help to the asylum", commenting that it "fuses some daring songwriting with some remarkably repetitive themes and beats".

Charts
The album debuted at #4 on the album chart behind No Little Thing, Emily Henning and Dante, with sales of 80,108. However the following week, with the release of Against The Wall the album rose to #1 with sales of 102,293, beating new releases from Savana. The following week, it dropped to #2, swapping places with Savana and sold a further 80,023. After only 11 weeks on the charts, and with only 1 single having been released from the album, it had sold over half a million records. Upon the news of Iris second single, the album re-entered in it's 14th week.

Overall Sales: 717,092