“There’s a power that I’m carrying that I haven't felt before,” Banks told British Vogue last October of her new album, Off with Her Head. The 33-year-old Los Angelean promised the NME that the new music would be “brave”. As a fan of confessional, female electro-pop, I was excited at the thought that she’d finally be dialling things up because – since the release of her 2014 debut, Goddess – I’ve been hunting in vain for a song that really locked emotional gears beneath the Teflon coating of moody, sexy-synth generalities. But while the black chiffon wafting is all very sultry and atmospheric, it fails to ignite the static sparks I'd hoped for.
The album’s title nods to the psychology graduate’s determination to bypass her head and write straight from her body, heart and soul. It's a good idea, but the overarching effect is that she sounds oddly detached. Take the opening track, “Guillotine”, over which she breathes menacingly about putting tape on somebody’s mouth (her own?). She conjures the threat effectively but takes it nowhere.
