Goddess | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | September 5, 2014 | |||
Studio |
| |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 59:37 | |||
Label | Harvest | |||
Producer | ||||
Banks chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from Goddess | ||||
|
Goddess is the debut studio album by American singer and songwriter Banks, released on September 5, 2014, by Harvest Records. The album includes songs from her previous extended plays Fall Over and London. The album spawned four singles: "Warm Water", "Brain", "Drowning", and "Beggin for Thread". A companion remix album, Goddess Remixes, was released digitally on March 23, 2015. [3]
In February 2014, Banks mentioned that her then-untitled debut studio album was nearing completion; she commented, "I feel like I still have a few more things to let out so that I'll feel really comfortable and happy with my first album being released." [4] In April, Banks announced that the album would be titled Goddess, and confirmed that it would be released on September 9, 2014 in the United States. [5]
"Warm Water" was released as the lead single from Goddess on May 27, 2013. [6] "Brain" was released as the second single from the album on January 29, 2014. [7] The album's third single, "Drowning", was released on June 9, 2014, [8] peaking at number 48 on the US Rock Digital Songs chart. [9] On July 22, 2014, "Beggin for Thread" was released as the fourth and final single from the album. [10] The song reached number 11 on the US Alternative Songs chart, [11] reached number 64 in Germany, [12] and number 80 in Australia. [13]
"Change" and "Alibi" were released as promotional singles from the album in the United Kingdom on February 9 and September 8, 2014, respectively. [14] [15] "Waiting Game" reached number 16 on the Alternative Digital Songs chart and number 31 on the Pop Digital Songs chart in the United States, [16] while peaking at number 99 on the UK Singles Chart. [17]
Before announcing Goddess, Banks toured with Canadian singer The Weeknd in 2013, for whom she was the opening act. In May 2014, it was announced that she would embark on her first headlining concert tour, which visited North America during May and June. [18]
Date | City | Country | Venue |
---|---|---|---|
North America | |||
May 24, 2014 | Vancouver | Canada | Venue |
May 26, 2014 | Portland | United States | Doug Fir Lounge |
May 28, 2014 | San Francisco | The Independent | |
June 4, 2014 [lower-alpha 10] | New York City | Irving Plaza | |
June 6, 2014 | Washington, D.C. | U Street Music Hall | |
June 7, 2014 | Philadelphia | Underground Arts at the Wolf Building | |
June 10, 2014 | Toronto | Canada | The Hoxton |
June 12, 2014 | Manchester | United States | This Tent @ Bonnaroo |
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AnyDecentMusic? | 6.8/10 [19] |
Metacritic | 74/100 [20] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [21] |
Entertainment Weekly | B+ [22] |
The Guardian | [23] |
Mojo | [24] |
NME | 7/10 [2] |
The Observer | [25] |
Pitchfork | 5.0/10 [26] |
Q | [27] |
Rolling Stone | [28] |
Uncut | 7/10 [29] |
Goddess received generally 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 74, based on 22 reviews. [20] Miles Raymer of Entertainment Weekly commended Banks for her "sonic ambition and willingness to risk alienating a pop audience with Goddess' gloomy, tweaky beats". [22] Tshepo Mokoena of The Guardian noted that Banks "lays her emotions bare, at times almost embarrassingly so, sounding raw and vengeful when she belts—and a bit like Fiona Apple in the chirr of her upper vocal register", concluding that although the songs "Someone New" and "Under the Table" "sink into nondescript ballad territory", Goddess is otherwise an "accomplished debut". [23] Felicity Martin of Clash expressed that Banks' "Aaliyah-like vocals pour from Goddess, while a gang of bleeding-edge underground producers ... concoct soulful beats to cushion them", adding that "her confessional appeal is not lost ... as ballads such as 'Under The Table' hark back to her humble piano-and-voice origins." [30]
El Hunt of DIY called the album a "bewitching, and surprisingly diverse debut" and stated that "it looks like Jillian Banks more than lives up to the hype." [31] Will Hermes of Rolling Stone found that the album "confirms a beguiling, diaristic voice that echoes avant-pop forebears (Aaliyah, Fiona Apple, Kate Bush) and a taste for gloomy, synth-centric productions." [28] Slant Magazine 's Sal Cinquemani viewed Banks' "attempts at balladry" as "generally forgettable", but opined that she "excels ... at fusing her pop sensibility with imposing synth pads and hip-hop beats". [32] The Observer 's Kitty Empire described the album as "slow-burning, fidgety, attractively troubled" and wrote that it "offer[s] up a more conventional take on [minimal R&B] than Banks's British counterpart, FKA Twigs." [25] Despite praising songs such as "Brain" and "Beggin for Thread", Rhian Daly of NME felt that the album is "good, but not up to the standard its title suggests." [2] In a mixed review, Andrew Ryce of Pitchfork commented that "there are moments where [Banks] sounds unpretentious and charming", while dismissing her aesthetic as "all trendy misery assisted by equally fashionable producers, without any substance to hold it all up." He continued, "Banks could certainly go places—but Goddess doesn't, and instead seems content to wallow in the same depressive rut for an exhausting 59 minutes." [26]
Slant Magazine placed Goddess at number eight on its list of "The 25 Best Albums of 2014", with Annie Galvin commenting, "The alt-pop landscape in 2014 was crowded with sultry female singers backed by über-hip electronic beatscapes, yet Jillian Banks managed to rise above the fray with her debut." [33] Rolling Stone named it the 17th best R&B album of 2014, and the magazine's Cady Drell wrote, "More than just an Internet sensation with on-the-nose Nineties R&B throwback hooks, L.A. native Jillian Banks can go from gloomy trance cuts one minute to lyrically explicit soul jams the next—all with an impressively modern gothic touch." [34] It was also listed as the 24th best album of the year by The Guardian. [35]
PopMatters ranked the album number 28 on its year-end list and concluded, "[Banks] is no Beyoncé, but her failures are her strength and our gain, and her scars give Goddess a beauty and a feminist wisdom that the platinum features of Beyoncé will never have." [36] Jessica Goodman and Ryan Kristobak of HuffPost included the album on their list of "The 23 Best Albums of 2014", stating, "While exhilarating in bits, as a full listen, [the album is] a little hard to stomach. However, in the comedown, 'Brain' demonstrates what happens when Banks is at her spiciest, and 'You Should Know Where I'm Coming From' removes the ooze for a clear look at just how capable her voice is on its own, giving us hope for a more explorative follow-up." [37]
Goddess debuted at number 12 on the US Billboard 200, selling 25,000 copies in its first week. [38] By September 2016, it had sold 120,000 copies in the United States. [39] The album debuted at number 20 on the UK Albums Chart with first-week sales of 3,977 copies. [40]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Alibi" | Sohn | 3:48 | |
2. | "Goddess" |
| Lil Silva | 4:02 |
3. | "Waiting Game" |
| Sohn | 3:27 |
4. | "Brain" |
| Shlohmo | 4:42 |
5. | "This Is What It Feels Like" |
|
| 5:02 |
6. | "You Should Know Where I'm Coming From" |
| 3:55 | |
7. | "Stick" |
| Lil Silva | 5:13 |
8. | "Fuck Em Only We Know" |
| Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs | 4:36 |
9. | "Drowning" |
| 4:09 | |
10. | "Beggin for Thread" |
|
| 4:09 |
11. | "Change" |
| Anderson | 4:16 |
12. | "Someone New" |
| Anderson | 4:41 |
13. | "Warm Water" |
| Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs | 3:28 |
14. | "Under the Table" |
| Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs | 4:09 |
Total length: | 59:37 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
15. | "And I Drove You Crazy" |
| Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs | 4:31 |
16. | "Fall Over" |
| Rogg | 3:29 |
17. | "Before I Ever Met You" |
| Rogg | 4:27 |
18. | "Bedroom Wall" |
| Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs | 4:17 |
Total length: | 76:21 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
19. | "Beggin for Thread" (Bag Raiders Remix) |
|
| 3:47 |
Total length: | 80:08 |
Credits adapted from the liner notes of the deluxe edition of Goddess. [43]
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
United States (RIAA) [63] | Gold | 500,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |
Region | Date | Format | Edition | Label | Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Australia | September 5, 2014 |
| Harvest | [64] [65] [66] [67] | |
Germany | Universal | [68] [69] [70] [71] | |||
LP | Standard | [72] | |||
Ireland |
|
| Virgin EMI | [73] [74] [75] [76] | |
France | September 8, 2014 | CD | Standard | Capitol | [77] |
Digital download |
| [78] [79] | |||
United Kingdom |
| Virgin EMI | [80] [81] [82] [83] | ||
LP | Standard | [84] | |||
United States | September 9, 2014 |
| Harvest | [85] [86] | |
Digital download |
| [41] [87] | |||
CD | Deluxe (Target exclusive) | [88] | |||
France | October 13, 2014 | LP | Standard | Capitol | [89] |
Japan | February 4, 2015 | CD | Japan standard | Universal | [42] |
The Virgin Suicides is a score composed by French electronic music duo Air for the 1999 film of the same name by Sofia Coppola. It was released on 23 February 2000 by Virgin Records. The album was nominated for Best Soundtrack at the 2001 Brit Awards. The French edition of Rolling Stone magazine placed The Virgin Suicides at number 49 on their list of the 100 essential French rock albums. In 2014, NME placed the album at number 11 on their "61 of the Greatest Film Soundtracks Ever" list. In 2019, Pitchfork placed the album at number four on their "Top 50 Best Movie Scores of All Time" list.
Forget the World is the debut studio album by Dutch music producer and DJ Afrojack. It was released on 16 May 2014. Afrojack said of the album title, "It's basically a message not just to my fans, but also to myself, to always remember to keep following your heart, keep following your path, and never try to let the things around you get you down."
It's Blitz! is the third studio album by American indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, released on March 6, 2009, by Interscope Records. It was originally set for release on April 13, 2009. However, after being leaked to the Internet on February 22, the release date was pushed forward to March 9 for the digital version and March 31 for the physical version.
Happiness is the debut studio album by English musical duo Hurts. It was released on 27 August 2010 by RCA Records. It was preceded by the release of the singles "Better Than Love" on 23 May 2010 and "Wonderful Life" on 22 August 2010. Collaborators include Jonas Quant and production team The Nexus, as well as a duet with Australian singer Kylie Minogue on the song "Devotion". To promote the release of the album, the track "Happiness" was made available as a free download via Amazon.co.uk on 1 August 2010.
Remixes 2: 81–11 is a remix compilation album by English electronic music band Depeche Mode, released on 6 June 2011 by Mute Records. The album is the band's second remix collection, following Remixes 81–04 (2004). It spans the band's entire career up that point and includes new arrangements by former Depeche Mode members Vince Clarke and Alan Wilder. The compilation concludes the band's recording contract with EMI.
The Soul Sessions Vol. 2 is the sixth studio album by English singer and songwriter Joss Stone, released on 20 July 2012 by S-Curve Records and her own label, Stone'd Records. A follow-up to Stone's debut studio album, The Soul Sessions (2003), the album consists of 11 cover versions of soul songs from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, in addition to a cover of Broken Bells' 2009 song "The High Road".
Mosquito is the fourth studio album by American indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, released on April 12, 2013, by Interscope Records. The lead single "Sacrilege" was released on February 26, 2013. "Despair" was released as the second single on July 19, 2013.
Settle is the debut studio album by English electronic music duo Disclosure, released on June 3, 2013, by PMR Records and Island Records. Accompanied by the success of its lead single, "Latch", featuring Sam Smith, the album features collaborations with AlunaGeorge, Ed Macfarlane of Friendly Fires, Sasha Keable, Eliza Doolittle, Jamie Woon, Jessie Ware, and London Grammar. A deluxe edition of the album contains four bonus tracks, including Disclosure's remix of Ware's song "Running".
The Bones of What You Believe is the debut studio album by Scottish synth-pop band Chvrches, released on 20 September 2013 by Virgin Records and Goodbye Records. Recorded between 2011 and 2013 in Glasgow, the album was written, composed, and produced by the band as a collaborative effort. It was made available as both a 12-track standard edition and an 18-track special version, the latter including two extra songs, two remixes and two live videos. The album was debuted with a launch party broadcast live on music streaming platform Boiler Room.
If You Wait is the debut studio album by English indie pop band London Grammar, released on 6 September 2013 by Metal & Dust Recordings and Ministry of Sound. Seven singles were released from the album: "Metal & Dust", "Wasting My Young Years", "Strong", "Nightcall", "Hey Now", "Sights" and "If You Wait". The album debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart with first-week sales of 33,130 copies.
Jillian Rose Banks, known mononymously as Banks, is an American singer and songwriter. Following the release of two extended plays—Fall Over and London—in 2013, she signed with Harvest Records to release her debut studio album, Goddess (2014). It was met with positive critical reception and peaked at number 12 on the Billboard 200, while its single, "Beggin for Thread" received platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Her second and third studio albums, The Altar (2016) and III were met with similar success, peaking at numbers 17 and 21 respectively on the chart; the latter saw her furthest critical acclaim.
Sheezus is the third studio album by English singer Lily Allen, released on 2 May 2014 by Parlophone. The album is Allen's first work since her musical hiatus in 2009, after the release of her second studio album, It's Not Me, It's You (2009). In June 2012, Allen announced that she would be returning to music, revealing that she had been recording a new album and that she would be returning to the use of her professional name.
No Mythologies to Follow is the debut studio album by Danish singer and songwriter MØ. It was released on 7 March 2014 by Sony Music by Chess Club Records and RCA Victor. The album received positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 76, based on 19 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". No Mythologies to Follow debuted at number 58 on the UK Albums Chart, selling 1,438 copies in its first week. A Tenth Anniversary edition was released on March 15, 2024. This edition includes three unreleased tracks from the original album sessions. The first of those tracks "Fake Chanel" was released as a single on January 26, 2024.
LP1 is the debut studio album by English singer-songwriter FKA Twigs, released on 6 August 2014 by Young Turks. Production for the album is handled by FKA Twigs herself, alongside Emile Haynie, Arca, Cy An, Devonté Hynes, Clams Casino, Paul Epworth, Sampha and Tic.
Nostalgia is the sixth solo studio album by Scottish singer-songwriter Annie Lennox. It was released on 30 September 2014 by Island Records. It was Lennox's first album in four years, and her third album of covers. The album consists entirely of cover versions, mainly of compositions from the Great American Songbook originally written in the 1930s; two compositions initially date from the 1950s. The material was researched and learned by Lennox as she studied archival footage uploaded to YouTube.
Sucker is the second studio album by English singer Charli XCX, released on 15 December 2014 by Asylum and Atlantic Records. The album was met with positive reviews from critics, praising its throwback style, and ended up being included on many year-end lists for best albums of 2014. Sucker spawned the singles "Boom Clap", "Break the Rules", "Doing It" and "Famous".
Motion is the fourth studio album by Scottish DJ and record producer Calvin Harris, released on 31 October 2014 by Fly Eye and Columbia Records. The album includes collaborations with Ellie Goulding, Gwen Stefani, John Newman, Tinashe, Big Sean, Alesso, R3hab, Ummet Ozcan, Firebeatz, Hurts, Haim and All About She.
"Beggin for Thread" is a song recorded by American singer and songwriter Banks for her debut studio album, Goddess (2014). It was released as the album's fourth single on July 22, 2014, by Harvest Records. The song was written by Banks, Jesse Rogg, and Tim Anderson, and produced by the latter two.
How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful is the third studio album by the English indie rock band Florence and the Machine, released on 29 May 2015 by Island Records. After her year-long break from music, the lead vocalist, Florence Welch, returned to configure the album, recording material that dealt with personal conflicts and struggles. In comparison to the band's two previous studio albums, it is much more refined and stripped-down instrumentally, and incorporates a mixture of musical influences such as folk, blues and gospel.
In Colour is the debut studio album by English producer Jamie xx, released on 29 May 2015 by Young Turks. The album was composed during a five-year period while a member of the indie pop band the xx, starting with his production on xx in 2009. After starting his solo career with the remix album We're New Here (2011) and singles like "All Under One Roof Raving" (2014), he was intent on making the album something of a departure from his previous work and genre. The album features guest vocals from fellow the xx members Romy and Oliver Sim, as well as from Young Thug and Popcaan. The album produced five singles: "Girl" and "Sleep Sound" as a double-single on 5 May 2014, "Loud Places" on 27 March 2015, "Gosh" on 4 May, and "I Know There's Gonna Be " on 22 May.