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U.K. singer Jacob Banks took a long, slow road to his debut studio album Village, first releasing his genre-bending take on blues-indebted R&B on a 2013 EP and trickling out tracks and brief collections from there. While colorful and shifting styles have always been a part of Banks' music, Village offers the highest-definition presentation of his many approaches, as he plays with sonic switch-ups and wandering moods across the 15 spacious tracks. The album starts with the bombastic single "Chainsmoking," where Banks' baritone guides the aching song through a mesh of rocked-out blues and dubstep bass. This pastiche approach comes up a lot on Village, with several songs flitting between different musical modes and sometimes turning on a dime. "Love Ain't Enough" is perhaps the most intense example of this nervous genre switching, as Banks begins the tune as a bass-heavy blues-pop lament and ends it as a full-on ragga drum'n'bass, complete with breakbeat samples and dubbed-out deejay toasting. Moments of neo-soul, tropical pop, and dubstep show up from moment to moment and "Keeps Me Going" ties pop production to Nigerian rhythms, as Banks reflects on his early life there. When he stays on one page long enough, the results can be powerful. The dark and dramatic ballad "Unknown (To You)" would sound at home in a post-break-up montage of any big-romantic comedy, boiling heartbreak down into something accessible and immediate. The more subdued "Slow Up" reads like a letter from Banks to his younger self, hoping to impart everything he's learned over a beautifully atmospheric track. For all its strengths, Village is inconsistent and the songs often seem to be aiming for sentiments they don't quite reach. Overloaded with ideas, several songs on the second half could have been left off the album and resulted in a bolder whole. Though Banks never drowns under his own ambition on Village, the album struggles with focus. Inspired songs compete with lesser tracks in almost equal numbers, giving the album more of a mixtape feel than the statement it could have made with more fastidious editing.
© Fred Thomas /TiVo
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Stint, Producer - Ajay Bhattacharyya, ComposerLyricist - Jacob Banks, MainArtist, ComposerLyricist - JP Saxe, ComposerLyricist
℗ 2017 Interscope Records
Charles Harmon, ComposerLyricist - Jazmine Sullivan, ComposerLyricist - Erik Madrid, Mixer, StudioPersonnel - Dayo Olatunji, ComposerLyricist - Jacob Banks, MainArtist - Ras Kassa Alexander, ComposerLyricist - Benedetto Rotondi, ComposerLyricist - PRGRSHN, Producer - Jacob Akinoso, ComposerLyricist
℗ 2018 Interscope Records
Utters, Producer, Mixer, StudioPersonnel - Dan Radclyffe, ComposerLyricist - Jacob Banks, MainArtist - Martin Luke Brown, ComposerLyricist - Jacob Akinoso, ComposerLyricist
℗ 2018 Interscope Records
Jimmy Douglass, Mixer, StudioPersonnel - Maureen McDonald, ComposerLyricist - Jeff Gitelman, Producer, ComposerLyricist - Stint, Producer - Ajay Bhattacharyya, ComposerLyricist - Jacob Banks, MainArtist, ComposerLyricist
℗ 2018 Interscope Records
Anthony Dolhai, Mixer, StudioPersonnel - Stint, Producer - Jacob Banks, MainArtist - Ryan Vojtesak, ComposerLyricist - Bibi Bourelly, FeaturedArtist, ComposerLyricist - Jacob Akinoso, ComposerLyricist - Charlie Handsome, Producer
℗ 2018 Interscope Records
MANNY MARROQUIN, Mixer, StudioPersonnel - J. Ho, ComposerLyricist - Malay, Producer - Jacob Banks, MainArtist, ComposerLyricist - Kameron Alexander, ComposerLyricist
℗ 2018 Interscope Records
Nana, FeaturedArtist - Jacob Banks, MainArtist - Mark Trussell, Producer, Mixer, StudioPersonnel, ComposerLyricist - Jacob Akinoso, ComposerLyricist
℗ 2018 Interscope Records
Jimmy Douglass, Mixer, StudioPersonnel - SOS, Producer - Jacob Banks, MainArtist - Olaniyi Michael Akinkunmi, ComposerLyricist - Jacob Akinoso, ComposerLyricist - Moses Ayo Sammuels, ComposerLyricist
℗ 2018 Interscope Records
Laleh Pourkarim, ComposerLyricist - Pierre-Luc Rioux, ComposerLyricist - Seinabo Sey, MainArtist - Delbert Bowers, Mixer, StudioPersonnel - Yonatan Ayal, ComposerLyricist - Jacob Banks, Producer, MainArtist, ComposerLyricist - xSDTRK, Producer - JP Saxe, ComposerLyricist
℗ 2018 Interscope Records
Paul Epworth, Producer, Mixer, StudioPersonnel, ComposerLyricist - Jacob Banks, MainArtist - Jacob Akinoso, ComposerLyricist - Riley MacIntyre, Mixer, StudioPersonnel
℗ 2018 Interscope Records
Jimmy Douglass, Mixer, StudioPersonnel - Jacob Banks, MainArtist - Matthew Hales, Producer, ComposerLyricist - Jacob Akinoso, ComposerLyricist - Sam Breathwick, ComposerLyricist
℗ 2018 Interscope Records
Jimmy Douglass, Mixer, StudioPersonnel - Ed Thomas, Producer, ComposerLyricist - Jacob Banks, MainArtist - Jacob Akinoso, ComposerLyricist
℗ 2018 Interscope Records
Tom Elmhirst, Mixer, StudioPersonnel - John Newman, ComposerLyricist - Robin Hannibal, Producer - Zane Lowe, ComposerLyricist - Jacob Banks, MainArtist, ComposerLyricist
℗ 2017 Interscope Records
Sillkey, Producer, Mixer, StudioPersonnel, ComposerLyricist - Jacob Banks, MainArtist - Jacob Akinoso, ComposerLyricist
℗ 2018 Interscope Records
Album review
U.K. singer Jacob Banks took a long, slow road to his debut studio album Village, first releasing his genre-bending take on blues-indebted R&B on a 2013 EP and trickling out tracks and brief collections from there. While colorful and shifting styles have always been a part of Banks' music, Village offers the highest-definition presentation of his many approaches, as he plays with sonic switch-ups and wandering moods across the 15 spacious tracks. The album starts with the bombastic single "Chainsmoking," where Banks' baritone guides the aching song through a mesh of rocked-out blues and dubstep bass. This pastiche approach comes up a lot on Village, with several songs flitting between different musical modes and sometimes turning on a dime. "Love Ain't Enough" is perhaps the most intense example of this nervous genre switching, as Banks begins the tune as a bass-heavy blues-pop lament and ends it as a full-on ragga drum'n'bass, complete with breakbeat samples and dubbed-out deejay toasting. Moments of neo-soul, tropical pop, and dubstep show up from moment to moment and "Keeps Me Going" ties pop production to Nigerian rhythms, as Banks reflects on his early life there. When he stays on one page long enough, the results can be powerful. The dark and dramatic ballad "Unknown (To You)" would sound at home in a post-break-up montage of any big-romantic comedy, boiling heartbreak down into something accessible and immediate. The more subdued "Slow Up" reads like a letter from Banks to his younger self, hoping to impart everything he's learned over a beautifully atmospheric track. For all its strengths, Village is inconsistent and the songs often seem to be aiming for sentiments they don't quite reach. Overloaded with ideas, several songs on the second half could have been left off the album and resulted in a bolder whole. Though Banks never drowns under his own ambition on Village, the album struggles with focus. Inspired songs compete with lesser tracks in almost equal numbers, giving the album more of a mixtape feel than the statement it could have made with more fastidious editing.
© Fred Thomas /TiVo
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 14 track(s)
- Total length: 00:50:53
- Main artists: Jacob Banks
- Composer: Various Composers
- Label: UMGRI Interscope
- Genre: Soul/Funk/R&B R&B
© 2018 Interscope Records ℗ 2018 Interscope Records
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