After mysteriously appearing on the music scene last year, Jillian Banks has released her debut album, Goddess.
Banks’ music appeared on Soundcloud early last year, and was followed by the EP Fall Over, which first introduced the music world to Banks’ unique combination of R&B and electronica. Goddess, which was released on September 9, continues this sound, though also explores other facets of Banks’ musical personality.
Goddess takes influences from not only R&B and electronica—sounds that are obvious in Banks’ first EP—but from pop and alternative as well, making the genre of music almost impossible to pin down. Nonetheless, the album is still cohesive.
Banks has a strong voice that takes center stage on almost every track on the album, usually in the form of vocal looping and harmonies reminiscent of Ellie Goulding. However, it is especially realized on the few acoustic, stripped-down songs on the album. Songs like “You Should Know Where I’m Coming From,” “Someone New” and “Under the Table” place Banks’ strong voice next to either a piano or an acoustic guitar, allowing her voice and lyrics to shine. These songs also reveal a part of her musical repertoire that was previously unseen on her first EP.
Her songs focus mainly on themes of love and relationships, but the intense personal nature of them gives her authenticity that other musicians might not be able to accomplish. This is not to say that the songs are one note, though. She touches on different parts of love and relationships from the physical passion of “F*ck Em Only We Know” to the beginnings of a relationship in “Warm Water,” and moving on in “Someone New.” Banks shows versatility in songs like “Brain,” telling the story of a young boy trying to fit in, saying “Oh so cool you think you seem/blending with the scene,” but also “I can see you struggling/Boy, don’t hurt your brain.” This song is the closest Banks gets to social criticism, commenting on the struggles of trying to find one’s place in society, especially for a younger generation.
As an album, the tone of Goddess is very dark overall, but the songs with heavier pop influences like “Beggin’ for Thread” and “Stick” serve to lighten the tone of the album. “Beggin’ for Thread” is also one of the most lyrically complicated songs on the album. Banks is a powerful and poetic lyricist who can only go up from here. Goddess skillfully weaves vocals and rhythms to create a sound that, while carrying similarities to some of her contemporaries, is still uniquely hers. There is maturity in the 26-year-old’s music that many singers and writers have not quite accomplished that will serve her throughout the rest of her career.
Banks will be performing at the Fox Theatre in Boulder on October 10.
