Banks – Drowning
Uh, I think that’s *soap*, dear…
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[5.00]
Megan Harrington: I’m theoretically really interested in Banks — who doesn’t like steamy vocals and trip hop? — but when I press play on “Drowning,” my attention steadily wanes. She’s serviceable, but that title’s a bold statement when what she describes is more like floating. “Wasn’t I the one who made you soup and tied your shoes when you were hurting?” she asks. Her pain is temporary, the memory is already faded but for that remaining sting.
[5]
Hazel Robinson: This year I have mostly been listening to on-trend, urban-influenced ladytronica. What is Banks, like, post-dubstep spook grrl? Honestly I don’t give a fuck. I’ve got a trendy haircut and everything, I’m committing to this because if the sound of 2014 is going to be steely, tremulous snarls of languorous goddesses and deep, wobbly sounds like water on dark pools then I’m completely and totally cool with it. This is a gorgeous, splotchy wail of a thing, soothing and dismissive and restless and cried out — the disdain in her voice when she’s referencing (of all the romantic tropes) soup is a thing of true beauty. And I’ve always been a sucker for a watery metaphor and breathy, controlled Gothicism.
[9]
Alfred Soto: Wobbly voice, meet wobbly electronics.
[3]
Anthony Easton: This breathy, jazz-inflected sing-song kind of voice is a popular aesthetic these days. Makes people think everything you sing is deep, doesn’t it?
[2]
Will Adams: More of the lava lamp R&B that’s all the rage lately, and it’s pretty and burbling, but Banks sings with about as much menace as someone who just noticed they stepped in a puddle.
[5]
Katherine St Asaph: Unexpected synchronicities (h/t Isabel): “you would lace up my shoes / I would polish your boots,” now “the girl who made you soup and tied your shoes when you were hurting.” Banks tries to sing and cut through the fog a man’s made of her, and would’ve succeeded if her voice weren’t so nasal and clammy.
[3]
Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: “From the girl that made you soup and tied your shoes when you were hurting–“ A bitter kiss-off follows that sample lyric, but it feels like too much. In one line, Jillian Banks tells one hell of a story. There is a world that has been occupied and ruined in that line, a girl that had to juggle playing mother and confidant at the same time, a mysterious other half who is painted in a shade of grey. That lyric is the hook. Not the lagging chorus or the male cooing in the background, but a tragic tale in miniature. That tale makes “Drowning” more addictive than it actually is, and leaves you hoping that you can get another peek into these starkly illustrated situations. “Drowning” is a grandiose sulk, but Banks’ flighty moment of storytelling is bigger than the song surrounding it.
[7]
Brad Shoup: The bit of non-metaphorical detail in the pre-chorus is this tiny beam — like, what kind of soup? Was he sick? Was he just bummed? Did he pull a thumb muscle, or was his arthritis flaring up that day? What else did you do? Did you refrain from jumping ahead on Orange Is the New Black because he wanted to watch it together? I get that a whole song like that wouldn’t support the icy submergence, a kind of avenging rococo hip-hop thing. But that’s suddenly what I want.
[6]
Reader average: [6] (2 votes)