III by BANKS

III is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter BANKS. It was released on July 12, 2019, by Harvest Records. The album was noted for mixing vulnerable songwriting with experimental and genre-blending production, still based on the familiar alternative rnb terrain of the singer's earlier output but featuring a more aggressive approach, with the use of heavily distorted vocals and strong bass. It was preceded by the release of three singles, "Gimme", "Look What You're Doing To Me", and "Contaminated". BANKS describes the album as her transformation from a naive, hopeful romantic into a wise woman. It experiments with alt-pop, electropop, art pop and future bass. BANKS shared the following statement on the release day via her social media: "III is officially out everywhere and I am so happy to be able to share it with you. Making it was a process I will forever feel grateful for. High highs, low lows, messy in-betweens, slap you in the face lessons mixed with the mirror images of lessons I thought I had already learned. This record gives you a window into the me-est parts of me. Please dive deep into these songs. Sit with them. I want you to sing, dance, laugh, feel sexy, feel cocky, feel seen, feel heard, feel angry, feel right, feel wrong, and feel understood by them. I sequenced the album the way I like listening to it so I would recommend listening to it all the way through top to bottom on your first go. Tell me which ones you connect to most. Tell me your favorite lyrics. Your favorite sounds. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share this with the world. I love you and I can’t wait to see you on tour soon. We can sing together." III received mostly positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 76, based on 11 reviews. Roisin O'Connor of The Independent described the album as " most cohesive album to date because she's no longer restricting herself to exploring one feeling at a time". It peaked at no. 3 on the US Top Alternative Albums on the week ending July, 20, 2019. Harvest Records; ℗ 2019 Capitol Records, LLC