III

Aaron Forbes

Buddy Ross

Sohn

Hudson Mohawke

Kito

Tim Anderson

Jesse Ward

Francis and the Lights

Paul Epworth

Psymun

## Singles

1. Gimme2. Look What You're Doing to Me

3. Contaminated

***III*** is the third studio album by American singer and songwriter Banks. It was released worldwide on July 12th, 2019.

## Background

Banks revealed the album name along with its release month in an interview with Billboard, published on May 24, 2019, the album cover was revealed on May 30, and the tracklist was released on Twitter on June 11.

On the songwriting process of the album, Banks said in an interview for TIDAL: “I always want to push my songwriting forward. But I think that [it’s] the death of creativity when you say that you want to do a certain thing; it feels like you’re already limiting yourself when you want to have a certain goal in mind with something. Whereas if you just allow yourself to create and see what happens, it just goes where it needs to go.”

All my music is just really a mirror of what I’m going through, and, of course, I’m going through different things than I was when I wrote my last two albums. I think there’s a bit of playfulness on this album that I haven’t experimented with before and I felt really free and really inspired in general.

I was going through a major growth spurt, just as a woman emotionally, over the last few years. You know, really diving deep to confront certain things. New songs, new subject matter, new everything. But same human.

About the production, Banks says: "When I make music, I don’t have this vision board of how I want things to turn out. Because then it feels like you’re putting it in a box. It’s a really fluid process and I just make it.

I’ll go in the studio and I won’t know what I’m going to make that day. I’ll think that I’m going to make some sort of ballad, but then I end up making a song like *Gimme*. Or I think that I’m going to make a song like *Gimme* and I end up writing about something that happened during a breakup three years ago that I still needed to process.

It’s not like a thought-out thing; it all happens in the room. My niece, Georgia, says ‘I love you’ — she’s four — on one of the songs. And there’s another song that has some other voices from little kids.

I’ve never done that before, but I really wanted this hopeful, naive romanticism to be on. Because I feel like this album is about going from being a romantic who’s a bit naive and hopeful to being a wise woman. But in between you go through pain and you learn people can lie and you learn those hard lessons that are quite painful."

Banks also talked in interview about the tone of her voice in the album or if she used programs to manipulate her voice. "There are certain songs where I just wanted to have some grit and distortion on them. Because it just felt like it needed it in that certain song.

What was fun about this album is that I felt like I tapped into a few different characters with my voice that I’ve always had. But I really let myself play around with that. There’s a different part of my throat that I sing from in some of these songs that it almost sounds like I’m using an effect on my voice, but I’m not."

## Theme

*III* is about “going from being a romantic who’s a bit naive and hopeful to being a wise woman, but in between you go through pain and you learn people can lie and you learn those hard lessons that are quite painful.” – said Banks on her TIDAL interview.

## Critical Reception

The album received mostly positive reviews, with an average score of 76, based on 11 reviews on Metacritic, with the best score being 100 and the worst being 40.

Damien Morris from The Observer (UK) called *III* "her best album yet". "It’s a snow-globe of tainted love that makes the apocalyptic outside world seems near- manageable by comparison, a public service for that alone" – said Will Hermes from Rolling Stone in his 4/5 star review. Neil Z. Yeung from AllMusic sated: "Her most accomplished statement to date, a collection brimming with emotion, attitude, and unexpected delights." Aside from the praise Banks received only 2 mixed reviews from The Guardian and DIY Magazine.

## Charts

Banks has entered some important charts with the album, including:

* 25 on Australian Albums (ARIA)
* 7 on Canadian Albums (Billboard)
* 60 on German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)
* 62 on Scottish Albums (OCC)
* 57 on UK Albums (OCC)
* 21 on US Billboard 200

**OBS:** The list shows the peak positions of the album on the charts.

## Trivia

* The album was almost titled Eros, but Banks chose the name III to convey the "beginning, middle, and end" of a part of her life.

## References

<references>

1. ↑ http://read.tidal.com/article/banks-iii
2. ↑ http://read.tidal.com/article/banks-iii
3. ↑ https://www.metacritic.com/music/iii/banks/critic-reviews
4. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/jul/14/banks-iii-review
5. ↑ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/review-banks-doubles-down-on-her-emo-goth-pop-with-iii-857851/
6. ↑ https://www.allmusic.com/album/iii-mw0003289658
7. ↑ https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/8512881/banks-iii-new-album-interview