Bleep

After knocking around for a few years now the Nigeria-born, Birmingham-raised singer Jacob Banks finally delivers his debut LP. Village is an album of contemporary soul tunes that is set up to get the most out of Banks’ hugely powerful voice. Stylistically the record takes in a variety of genres - reggae on ‘Mexico’, Bon Iver-esque acoustic balladry on ‘Caroline’, trap-pop on ‘Chainsmoking’ and so on. Whether he is singing softly or with all his might, Banks carries Village up front through a combination of charisma and strength.