The Useless Critic 2.0

Damn, another year is coming to an end. I know I've been MIA for quite some time, but this has been quite a busy year for me, especially in the second half. Still, I obviously wouldn't miss the chance to share my annual list of my personal favorite songs of the year (in no particular order), which has pretty much become a tradition since 2012 . BANKS, "Gemini Feed" Two years after blessing us mortals with her masterpiece of a debut album, Goddess , my girl Jillian Banks is back with The Altar , otherwise known as the album that saved 2016. The brooding "Gemini Feed" features the LA chanteuse's signature biting lyrics as she dissects a relationship with an emotionally manipulative ex. "I tried a thousand times / I tried to say 'I love you,' but you didn't hear me / And you're passive-aggressive / Convinced me other people, they don't care about me," BANKS purrs over eerie synths and a hypnotic backbeat. Jillian, stop...

BANKS has shared yet another mind-blowing, incredibly sexy video—this time for "Gemini Feed," the second single from the songstress' second album The Altar , due out on September 30. This bish just keeps slaying me harder and harder! While the striking videos from her debut album, Goddess , were moody and minimalistic, her latest visuals are so experimental and really show her growth as an artist. I've been listening to "Gemini Feed" nonstop ever since it came out two weeks ago. The video, which includes a BDSM-esque theme, is quite a perfect representation of the meaning behind the song. "I tried to say 'I love you,' but you didn't hear me / And you're passive-aggressive / Convinced me other people, they don't care about me." Ugh, it's amazing how this woman manages to put what I'm feeling into words. Much like Sky Ferreira (and several other artists), BANKS has helped me through some though times. I can't w...

Ellie Goulding, "Love Me Like You Do" / "Something in the Way You Move" I must admit it took me a few listens to realize how grand and majestic "Love Me Like You Do" is. The song is so tender and ethereal, but it's also brooding and has an underlying darkness to it. Plus I think it was a perfect fit for the scene in Fifty Shades of Grey where Christian takes Anastasia on a helicopter ride overlooking Seattle's night skyline (I actually enjoyed the movie, judge me). "Something in the Way You Move"—from Goulding's latest LP Delirium —marries a shimmering synthpop backdrop with foreboding, somewhat dark lyrics, which document the singer's dooming attraction to a nameless guy who is bad for her, but she can't help it even if it's bound to end in heartbreak: "When our eyes meet, I can only see the end / But tonight I'm here, yours again." Thematically, it wouldn't sound really out of place in the Fifty Sh...

Los Angeles siren BANKS has dropped the highly artistic and incredibly sensual video for her eerie, smoldering new track "Better." It is the first single from her upcoming second album, which, according to an interview with Beats 1 's Zane Lowe earlier today, is supposed to come out "early, early next year," though further details have yet to surface. In the meantime, BANKS is currently opening for The Weeknd's Beauty Behind the Madness tour in North America. Can you imagine if these two collaborated on a song? That would seriously scream SEX. Ugh, my body is so ready for a second BANKS album! If there's a recent album that has had a profound impact on me, it's her eargasmic debut album Goddess . If you haven't checked it out yet, you're a damn fool, because it was easily one of the best albums of 2014. I might even write a retrospective review of it sometime.

Banks, Goddess LA siren Jillian Banks is much more than a product of the recent crop of minimal, futuristic "alt-R&B." Paired with her dusky vocals, Banks' entrancing debut album employs woozy beats, pulsating bass shudders, and distorted electronic effects to create a soundscape that is dark, moody, sultry, enigmatic, and brooding. The raw, confessional tales of seduction, scorned love, and heartbreak showcase Banks as both empowering ("Fucking with a goddess and you get a little colder," on the shadowy title track ) and vulnerable ("Please, give me something to convince me that I am not a monster," on album opener " Alibi "), but there's also room for playfully sinister lyricism ("My words can come out as a pistol / And I'm no good at aiming / But I can aim it at you," on the menacing "Beggin for Thread"). Top tracks: "Beggin for Thread" • " This Is What It Feels Like " • ...