Album Review: BANKS Self-Accepts In III
Both BANKS and Charli XCX are my “go-to’s” in music that makes me want to “rage text” every man that has crossed my life who was unjust, played to patriarchies, or disrespected date night. As women, at times, its hard to describe or even accept how integral men have been to defining our lives. It is like an unwanted truth that BANKS approaches with panache on III.
“Propaganda,” “Gimme,” “Contaminated,” and “Hawaii Maze” will have listeners dancing to an electro symphony of seduction and ferocity. BANKS has an uncanny way of making music that is dreamily elegant and sexy. Owning yourself and your heart can give you a sensual confidence, and every song, even the ones singing to her insecurities, have that capacity. When discussing the album BANKS claimed:
BANKS – Gimme (Official Video)
“This album is an ode to my journey. It documents a major growth spurt. Of self-acceptance, letting go, forgiveness, and deep love. It has been painful to realize that life is not black and white. Romanticism leads to fierce reality checks, which leads to wisdom, which leads to deeper empathy which leads to greater love. This album documents the cycle.”
The magnificent part about this statement is that this album feels flashy and gorgeously loud, but it was a lot of silence and quiet self-reflection that moved her creative process. It was as if “nothing” had said “everything” to her, and the result was a record that confronted a very serious dichotomy every “growing adult” must face: we want people to love us, but, inevitably, encounter those that hurt us. Sure, there is someone to love you, but there is also someone to hate and even sabotage you. Lyrically, BANKS dances with this point and uses her synth melodies like a frenetic dance-floor. It is as if every chord and key to her music is doing an “electro tango” to the times she betrayed herself by believing better intentions can supersede bad actions.
BANKS – Look What You’re Doing To Me (feat. Francis & The Lights) (Lyric Video)
I, myself, have kept on loving people that kept on hurting me until, one day, I chose to love myself more. BANKS takes a similar journey in III and that is why it is her most powerful album yet. From “Till Now” to “What About Love,” every track captivates by moving listeners mind through images, their body through rhythms, and hearts through motions. III is a full sensory experience through the fantasies and lows of self-love, which, to BANKS, appears like the hardest journey to take. Frankly, it is, and on July 12, you can hear how she is taking it. Buy III Here.
