BANKS - Goddess

[Kurt]

Goddess is the debut album from BANKS. According to Rough Trade, the album will be released September 8 in the UK, though I've seen sources claim May 20 and June 3 as well (perhaps for the single). Title track premieres on BBC R1 Xtra in about an hour.

[K.]

Cannot wait. However, I have to say "Waiting Game" is the only song of hers I care for. However, I like it a lot. She needs songs with hooks. Too many of the tracks I've heard are lacking both a strong melody and a beat. I can take one without the other, but without either, it's really pointless.

[Active Aggressive]

One of my coworkers has been sweating her since last year and tried (and failed) to get me into her. Then again, I resisted Lorde and Lana (both artists he championed well ahead of the times) and I gave in, so who knows. She is doing the festival circuit so I will see her this summer at either Lolla or GB. I forget which.

[Linnethia Monique]

I love her. My favorite song is Change from her London EP. The production and her vocals are just haunting.

[rosemoor]

I love her EP, can't wait for the new record.

[Live Your Life]

I like a few of her songs. Interested to hear what the full album sounds like.

[Rocky]

I like the EP, my favorites are "Waiting Game" and "This Is What It Feels Like". Can't wait to hear how the album will sound like.

[dbhmr]

Waiting Game is one of my favorite songs right now--it's beautiful. The rest of the EP didn't live up to that standard, but very interested in this debut.

[K.]

"Goddess" is good.

[Live Your Life]

"Drowning" video:

[BadRomance]

New song 'Begging for Thread', love it!

soundcloud.com/banksbanksbanks/banks-beggin-for-thread

[Fancy]

love love love beggin for thread.

[Keelzit]

Beggin For Thread is absolutely amazing! My 2nd favorite by her after This Is What It Feels Like.

[Active Aggressive]

So, I did see her at Governor's Ball. Glad I gave her a shot because she was one of my favorite acts there. I'm looking forward to the album now. Apparently, she is really shy and suffers from stage fright but she was able to overcome it.

[SHOOTER]

I think I might love her album.

[SHOOTER]

Neon Jungle (some girl group I'm unfamiliar with) recorded Waiting Game and put it on their album; Banks had no idea.



From her FB page:

People keep asking why I let Neon Jungle put my song "Waiting Game" on their album when my album has yet to come out. The answer is I was never asked. I was as shocked as you to see this song made up of my own heartbeats on their album. A song that was born from my real life, my real heartache, my real fingertips when I was at one of the most confusing times in my life.

How strange it is to see it used on someone else's album before it even comes out on mine. It makes me feel very uncomfortable. Like my own thoughts were stolen from me and sold as someone elses. I am a new artist and new to this business and I am told it is legal. But it feels really icky. I guess I can only hope Waiting Game means as much to Neon Jungle as it did to me when I wrote it....... BANKS

[Linnethia Monique]

It is a f#cked up situation considering she wrote the track.

[BadRomance]

It leaked. Haven't got the chance to listen!

[Live Your Life]

Slant gives the album 3.5/5 stars:

For an album titled Goddess, Jillian Banks's debut starts off with a surprisingly self-deprecating mea culpa: "Please give me something to convince me that I am not a monster," she sings on "Alibi." It becomes evident early on that self-aggrandizement isn't the Los Angeles singer-songwriter's aim. Instead, the album deals almost exclusively with relationships—specifically their dissolution. "Everyone knows I'm right about one thing/You and I don't work out," she sings on "Before I Ever Met You," which is what it might sound like if Fiona Apple and Massive Attack ever slinked out of their respective dark corners and decided to record a song together.

Banks's voice has one of two modes: a sultry lower register like that of Apple, and a higher-pitched delivery that recalls Nelly Furtado's more nasal timbre. But she succeeds at carving out her own niche, not just vocally, like when she scathingly belts out the pointed hook of the standout "Brain" ("I can see you struggling/Boy, don't hurt your brain/Thinking what you're gonna say"), but as an answer to the Weeknd's debaucherous brand of PBR&B. In contrast to Abel Tesfaye's chauvinism, Banks's POV is decidedly, unapologetically female: "Now you gotta deal with this glitch on your shoulder/f**kin' with a goddess and you get a little colder," she warns on the title track.

Several of Goddess's tracks are carryovers from last year's Fall Over and London EPs, which partly explains the deluxe edition's daunting 18-track, 76-minute runtime. While they add some variety to an album that veers dangerously close to homogenous, Banks's attempts at balladry, from the Justin Parker-produced "You Should Know Where I'm Coming From" to the acoustic and keyboard-based songs that close out the standard version, are generally forgettable. Where Banks excels is at fusing her pop sensibility with imposing synth pads and hip-hop beats, as she does on the album's haunting centerpiece, "Waiting Game," which is driven by both a plodding bassline and the singer's siren-like harmonies. "I know my disposition gets confusing/My disproportionate reactions fuse with my eager state," she admits on the infectious "Beggin for Thread." Not exactly Top 40 fodder, but that's exactly where Banks deserves to be.

[Live Your Life]

Entertainment Weekly gives the album a B+:

It's easy to understand why Jillian Banks is so frequently grouped with the burgeoning avant-R&B movement. Her debut album, like the pair of EPs she's released so far, is full of the murky electronics and jittery, off-kilter rhythms that define that style, and her singing does have an R&B-ish bent. Really, though, she's more of a straight-up pop artist, just with darker-than-average tastes. Goddess opens strong with ''Alibi"''(produced by Christopher Taylor, who makes fantastic future-soul music under the name Sohn). It's a narcotic slow jam with a churning bass line, fidgety programmed percussion, and manipulated vocal samples, but the part she sings — bracingly direct and just a tiny bit torchy — would work equally well paired with a bubbly EDM beat.

Banks' sonic ambition and willingness to risk alienating a pop audience with Goddess' gloomy, tweaky beats are admirable. (They also make for a great headphone experience.) But ironically, the album's most arresting moment is also its most conventional. ''You Should Know Where I'm Coming From'' has a dead-simple arrangement — just vocals, piano, strings, and drums — that's an ideal setting for her rawly emotional lyrics and strongest melody yet. The other songs may be more fashionable, but this one fits her best.

[SHOOTER]

#5 on iTunes.

[Active Aggressive]

As much as I despise not having physical copies of my music, I decided to download the deluxe from ITUNES. Between the fact that I am moving to NY in less than a week and don't need to be accumulating more CDs (especially given how I gave 95% of them to my mom for storage) and the fact that the deluxe was only $9.99 on ITUNES, I couldn't resist. Looking forward to playing this in its entirety today.

[Live Your Life]

Rolling Stone gives the album 3.5/5 stars:

"I got some dirt on my shoes," Jillian Banks sings on "Beggin for Thread," as if she just tracked it in from the graveyard across your new white rug with a c'est la vie shrug. Following several online releases, her debut LP confirms a beguiling, diaristic voice that echoes avant-pop forebears (Aaliyah, Fiona Apple, Kate Bush) and a taste for gloomy, synth-centric productions. On "Someone New," electronics stripped off, you hear a singer needing more song. But elsewhere, parsing romantic doubt over humming hardware, emotions swell like storm clouds. And when she fully brings the weather – see the f-bombing title track – it's something to behold.

[Active Aggressive]

Jhene needs to take lessons on how to be atmospheric but still engaging throughout a full length album. Shit, I got through the whole deluxe and, while I can't really name individual songs other than a couple, it's the kind of album you can just let play and relax. Solid A from me. What a great, fully realized debut.

[SHOOTER]

Down to #6 on iTunes but I heard Beggin' for Thread no less than 4x on our local Alternative station today (it was dubbed "best song of the year this week" by one of the DJs).

Also, Target will be carrying the deluxe edition of the CD with all 18 songs ($11.99 is the price online).

[SHOOTER]

Projected to debut with 25-30k.

[Queen of Insomnia.]

What's your thoughts on this?
I won't get a chance to listen to this LP till sometime next week.
This week is crazy for me thus far, and I don't want anything distracting me when I'll listen to Goddes for the very first time...
UH, SO EXCITED!!!

[evergreen]

I just discovered this gal. Needless to say, I think I'm in love.

"Drowning", "Brain" and "Beggin for Thread" are the immediate favorites.

[SHOOTER]

Needless to say, I love the album! I'm still obsessively playing it but I'll ID my favorites soon enough. I will say that I appreciate her strong sense of melody and variation in tempo and grooves, which makes her album instantly more likable and demands more of a repeat listen than some of her other "alternative R&B" counterparts; FKA Twigs and Jhené could take some notes.

Also, Pete Lyman did a hell of a job mastering the album; I get chills anticipating the rumble in Waiting Game every time.

[jma]

"This Is What It Feels Like" was a free song on iTunes this week - I got it and am really digging it