You might not know who Jillian Banks is, but plenty of your favourite artists do. The 28-year-old singer-songwriter, fresh off her second tour opening for The Weeknd, counts Lorde and Ellie Goulding as some of her most popular and vocal fans.
It’s not hard to see why. Banks’ previous album Goddess, despite being a little pretentious, was a dark confection of electronica beats and breathy FKA Twigs-style vocals. It showed promise that Banks more than follows up on in her second album The Altar.
Most of the songs on The Altar walk a steady line between empowerment and self-deprecation, and Banks pulls it off beautifully. Careful to avoid the pretensions of her ice-cold Goddess persona, we get to see a more vulnerable side of the singer and the album is richer for it.
“Fuck With Myself” is one of the songs that best exemplifies this contrast. Produced by Al Shux, most famous for the Jay-Z and Alicia Keys collaboration “Empire State of Mind,” the song is a sardonic account of a lover realizing that she’s much better than her current partner. Built on a sparse beat, and featuring an echoing staccato delivery, it provides an otherwise serious album with some levity.
The album is at its best when Banks is able to overcome, or even harmonize with some of the more oppressive production elements.
“Lovesick,” another album highlight, is a dreamy R&B track where Banks’ vocals melt seamlessly into the waves of sound behind it. The effect is intoxicating. The song captures the feeling of hypnotic desire central to its lyrics and is a bit of a breather when compared to some of the harsher entries like “27 Hours” and “Judas,” which grow stagnant about a minute into the song.
The Altar’s best track “Haunt” samples animal sounds and trap beats, while Banks howls and wails about the shadow an ex-lover has cast over her life, making it both one of the album’s most artificial and primal offerings. The congruence between the vocal delivery and production on these two tracks show what Banks can do at her best, and I wish the album had followed their example more closely.
Unfortunately, the production is also The Altar’s greatest weakness, especially on tracks like “27 Hours” where it threatens to swallow Banks voice whole. While Banks’ may not possess the range and power of singers like Beyoncé or Florence Welch of Florence + The Machine, her voice on “Mother Earth,” which features little of the heavy production on other tracks, is refreshing and shows a vulnerability and emotional side which would benefit the album if it were handled a bit better.
The Altar is a major step up for Banks, and improves on what was good on her debut album, even if it seems to be a bit much at times. It may not be the best album of the year, but it is an important step forward for a soon-to-be-major artist, and worth checking out for that alone.
