Kimbra was originally discovered by her soon-to-be manager, Mark Richardson at the age of 17. Shortly after being discovered by Mark, she moved to Melbourne, Australia to follow her path in the music industry, signing with Forum 5. Kimbra started recording and writing the album in 2008. The album's lead single Settle Down was the earliest song she had written, being when she was sixteen years old. Kimbra recorded the album at her home and other various studios throughout Australia. The songs on the record follow a theme of love, loss, romance and want.

Musically, Kimbra was heavily influenced by Björk, The Mars Volta, Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright and others during the creation of Vows. She wanted the album to have an overall jazzy feel, thus trying make a record that pushes boundaries but still be considered "pop music". She found Nina Simone as a huge inspiration for the track Plain Gold Ring. Kimbra has said many times that she chose the singles for this album by visualizing music videos for each of the songs and chose the top six ideas. The genres of the album consist of indie pop, soul, jazz, and art pop. Kimbra has stated the following quote as a summary of the album's concept and overall feel: "Vows say a lot about who you are, and even more when we choose to break them."

Vows received generally favorable reviews, obtaining a normalised score of 72 out of 100 from Metacritic, based on reviews from 16 selected mainstream critics.^[8] Lydia Jenkin, of The New Zealand Herald's Time Out magazine, gave Vows 4/5 stars, praising Kimbra's "exciting vocal experiments on this colourful debut with impressive range".^[14] Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone gave a positive review of the album, comparing the material to that of Björk.^[17]

• "Settle Down" was released as the album's lead single on 10 June 2010 and was re-released on 1 November 2011. The song peaked at number 37 on the New Zealand Singles Chart.
• "Cameo Lover" was released as the album's second single on 29 March 2011.
• "Good Intent" was released as the album's third single on 15 August 2011. The song peaked at number 98 on the Australian Singles Chart.
• "Warrior" was released as the album's fourth single on 4 May 2012.^[19] The song appears on the Australian Tour Edition/New Zealand Deluxe Edition and the standard North American and European editions of Vows. The song peaked at number 22 on the New Zealand Singles Chart.
• "Two Way Street" was released as the album's fifth single on 17 May 2012.
• "Come into My Head" was released as the album's sixth and final single, with a music video released on 20 September 2012.^[20] This song was also featured in the ending credits of the 2013 movie The Heat.

The album artwork including body art and illustrations were created by Rhys Mitchell and Raphael Rizzo. It consisted of Kimbra's body painted white with black body art on, and standing in front of a white background.

Notes

• ^{^[a]} signifies an additional producer
• "Home" features excerpts from the Apes & Androids recording, "Locked in a Car".

If New Zealand deluxe edition tracks are tracks 12-17:

• Kimbra – lead vocals (all tracks), production (tracks 2–4, 8-10), mixing (tracks 3, 4, 7–9), engineering (tracks 14, 15)
• François Tétaz – production, mixing (tracks 1, 3–6, 11)
• Michael Tayler – mixing (tracks 2, 7-10), production (tracks 8, 9)
• Colin Leonard – mastering (tracks 12–17)
• Phil Tan – mixing (tracks 12, 13, 15, 16)
• Daniela Rivera – additional engineering (tracks 12, 13, 15, 16)
• Greg Kurstin – production, engineering (track 14, 15)
• M-Phazes – production (tracks 2, 7), additional production (track 1)
• Mark Foster – vocals, production, mixing (track 17)
• Jimi Maroudas – engineering (tracks 2, 10)
• Keefus Green – production (tracks 12, 16)
• Michael Harris – engineering (tracks 12, 16)
• Jesse Shatkin – engineering (track 14, 15)
• Isom Innis – production, mixing (track 17)
• Ryan Ritchie – additional programming (track 2)
• Mike Elizondo – production (track 13)
• Brent Arrowood – engineering (track 13)
• Adam Hawkins – engineering (track 13)
• Chris Sporleder – assistant engineering (track 13)
• A-Trak – production (track 17)