You may have heard Billboard refer to her as the “magnetic writer with songs to obsess over.” Maybe you’ve heard her song “Waiting Game” in Victoria Secret’s 2013 holiday commercial. Perhaps her name has crossed your iTunes or Spotify list of “New Artists for 2014.” Since Goddess, BANKS has finally returned with her newest album. On September 30, The Altar dropped, revealing the artist’s empowered, yet vulnerable, self.
The first track, “Gemini Feed,” kicks off the album with self-assured beat and word, introducing us to the line from which the title is drawn. “And to think you would get me to the altar/ Like I’d follow you around like a dog that needs water.” Directly referencing her ex, BANKS shares the emotionally manipulative reality of her closeness with another. In an interview with Refinery29, she admits feeling as though her song resembles that of a diary entry, recounting one very intense relationship. “But admit it, you just wanted me smaller/ If you would’ve let me grow, you could’ve kept my love,” she concludes matter-of-factly.
Perhaps the most notable song, “Fuck With Myself” has received much attention. One of two explicit tracks on the album, the song has prompted many to ask the artist about its underlying meaning. Without holding back, she whispers over the beat, “so I fuck with myself more than anybody else.” BANKS’ lyricism demonstrates assertiveness, but also begs us to question the semantics. On multiple accounts, the artist has affirmed that there is no one meaning to her choice of words: "It could be like, 'I mess with myself more than anybody else.' It could be kind of like, 'I'm feeling myself.' It means a lot of different things that I think a lot of people can relate to." Her accompanying music video establishes the same effect—power, complexity, and capacity for interpretation.
“Mother Earth” takes a turn towards vulnerability, slowing down the pace, abating her otherwise strong voice and adorning it with delicate instrumentation. Similarly, “Weaker Girl” alludes to a once vulnerable, naïve, and ‘weak’ BANKS; however, the track does not maintain the helplessness of her past. The chorus “I’ma need a bad motherfucker like me” perhaps brings us back full circle to “Fuck With Myself.”
The Altar features a wide-array of collaborations, including Tim Anderson, SOHN, DJ Dahi, and Jenna Andrews, each powered by the artist’s innate buildup of emotion: “Once I was ready to write again, it really just poured out of me. It was just like my body needed it so bad,” she confesses. I think I was probably chomping at the bit to put everything that I had gone through on paper. I went through depression while I was creating, and it came out in my music in the best way—not in a sad way, but all of this deep-seated stuff that was weighing on my mind.” Whatever the ‘stuff,’ BANKS was able to channel it into her work and fuel a great fire of artistry. The Altar is proof of a promising project, and it is only a matter of time until the excitement of this album is transmitted into the anticipation of the next.
