On “Fuck With Myself”, the lead single from Californian singer-songwriter BANKS’ (Jillian Rose Banks) critically acclaimed sophomore album The Altar (2016), the dark R&B/pop singer made the most out of a lyric that doubled for self-destruction and self-love. On her recently released standalone track "Underdog”, she leaves her solipsism behind for a subtle empowerment anthem (‘Baby you could make it as the underdog’), addressed at a lover who happens to be lacking in confidence – in the form of a sultry intimate embrace: ‘Come in my bed, come back to heaven/ Back in my bed, come back to heaven’.
The production, courtesy of regular collaborator Al Shux, is as minimalist and pristine as her previous body of work. Her signature brooding style is nevertheless absent, with an upbeat, urgent and self-assured (and sexual) confidence in its place: ‘Why don't you step to me?/ You know I like it in the bath when it's bubbly/ And-a-when-a-come-a-to-ya-kisses I like gluttony’. Banks literally snarls and exhales audibly at certain points of the song, cleverly punctuating her familiar falsetto singing style while mirroring the track’s stabbing synths. As she revealed in a Beats 1 interview with Zane Lowe, this is her at her most ferocious (yet).
