{"id":43843,"date":"2014-09-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-09T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/london-ep\/"},"modified":"2014-09-09T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-09-09T00:00:00","slug":"london-ep","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/london-ep\/","title":{"rendered":"London (EP)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In anticipation of Los Angeles singer-songwriter Banks releasing her debut full-length on September 5th<\/sup> (and because I\u2019ve been obsessively playing the sultry, sassy \u201cBeggin\u2019 For Thread,\u201d a single from that disc \u2013 more on that when the album drops!), I had to check out her arrival onto the music scene with her 2013 EP, London. <\/i>Self-taught and self-release before her music found a following on Soundcloud, Banks (aka Jillian Banks) has been riding the wave of early acclaim, fueled by her coolly intimate songs. In the span of four songs and seventeen minutes on London,<\/i> I was blown away by the stark beauty of her vocals and the cracked-poetry lyrics of these eerie, expansive soundscapes.<\/p>\n

Opener \u201cWaiting Game\u201d is deeply intricate, floating on Banks\u2019 ethereal vocals as it slowly morphs from piano ballad to a restless throb of instrumentation: buzzy synths, groaning melodies and hints of gasps in the background. This track crackles and almost boils over with energy, passion moving up against caution, as Banks asks, \u201cWhat if I never see you because we\u2019re both on a stage \/ Don\u2019t tell me to listen to your song because it isn\u2019t the same \/ I don\u2019t wanna say your love is a waiting game.\u201d Banks offers her heart up to us on this song but it\u2019s in stutter and gasps; somehow, it\u2019s both haunting and inviting. <\/p>\n

That imploring to feel along with her is no clearer than on \u201cThis Is What It Feels Like.\u201d Produced by actual Londoners Lil Silva and Jamie Woon, the track wraps Banks\u2019 swooning vocals in eerie groans of bass and dreamlike synths. The lyrics are barbed yet vulnerable, describing what it\u2019s like to get close to someone only to have them pull away. While Banks\u2019 sound has been described as R&B, I find them to have a pop quality as well \u2013 but a catchy, accessible pop song that\u2019s been blown out, shifted and seen from a different perspective, morphed into something grittier and more difficult. <\/p>\n

Next up, the sweetly tentative \u201cBedroom Wall\u201d is the least consequential here but it\u2019s well-formed nonetheless. Banks can craft an elegant, fracture love song like the best of them. At times she almost reminds me of my perennial favorite songstress Dessa, both in the cadence of their vocals and the incisively insightful poetry of their lyrics. This is no more evident than on closing track \u201cChange,\u201d another striking standout of this release. <\/p>\n

Her lyrics are sharp as daggers as she details a love gone cold. But the expected bite isn\u2019t there; instead, her voice is slow and sensual, seeping like venom in its recrimination as she sings: \u201cBecause you like to tell me \/ How you hate all the ways I\u2019m not enough for you \/ Then you\u2019d say, \u2018Baby don\u2019t go, I\u2019ll make you wait \/ I promise I\u2019ll be better, all these things they\u2019ll change\u2019.\u201d And somehow, the repetition of the chorus makes it become half-promise and half-distortion, encapsulating perfectly that tug between needing to let go and how hard it is to disentangle. <\/p>\n

London <\/i>is a breakout EP from a soon to be incendiary artist. Banks\u2019 voice is strong in its vulnerability and delicate sensuality. Here is hoping that her impending full-length, Goddess, <\/i>builds on the sound that burgeons, blossoms, and burns here on London.\u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":32096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9480],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-43843","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-banks","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43843"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}