BANKS - Off With Her Head

BANKS’ fifth album refines what the Californian singer has long proved to be good at. Much of ‘Off With Her Head’ sets her silken, lightly-distorted vocals over thumping electronic beats, though with enough texture from synths and choral harmonies to stop this signature formula getting too predictable. An early standout is the Doechii-starring and delightfully scathing ‘I Hate Your Ex-Girlfriend’, a prime example of BANKS’ knack for stubbornly earwormy alt-pop. Things then slow down towards the middle, providing the same opportunities for pause that ‘Birds By the Sea’ and ‘I Still Love You’ brought to 2022’s ‘Serpentina’. The intimate, understated ‘Stay’ opts for piano and soggy guitar to soundtrack BANKS’ pleas to a lover not to leave her, while on ‘Best Friends’ she similarly favours fingerpicked guitar and haunting strings over the drum machine, wallowing this time in the breakup of a friendship. On ‘Meddle In The Mold’, piano and strings combine with heightened, almost orchestral drama to ramp things back up to match the rest of the album’s energy, before the shimmering synth and almost spoken-word delivery of ‘River’ provide another highpoint. These electronic and acoustic elements blend cohesively together in a testament to BANKS’ practised skill, even if she hasn’t stepped too far from her established sound.