Banks is becoming an artist on her own terms. It suits her well.
Label: Virgin EMI
Released: September 30th 2016
Rating: ★★★
The success, or otherwise, of Banks’ first album is hard to judge. For all the blog posts and column inches, she should have been a pop star in waiting. It didn’t turn out that way and, in truth, it’s unlikely ‘The Altar’ will change that any time soon.
Filled with woozy undertones and prime R&B tinged low key pop, it’s about darker, deeper moods than the higher reaches of superstardom care to deal in. ‘Mind Games’, with its refrain of “Do you see me now?” isn’t a cry for attention. It’s an assertion that Banks is becoming an artist on her own terms. It suits her well. Stephen Ackroyd
