III is the third studio album by American singer and songwriterBanks. It was released on July 12, 2019, by Harvest Records. It was preceded by the release of three singles, "Gimme", "Look What You're Doing to Me", and "Contaminated". The album peaked at number 21 on the Billboard 200.
Background
Banks revealed the album name along with its release month in an interview with Billboard, published on May 24, 2019. 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. The album cover was revealed on May 30, 2019. She released the track listing on Twitter on June 11. Banks began The III Tour in support of the album in September 2019.
Singles
"Gimme" was released as the album's lead single on April 29, 2019, and debuted on Zane Lowe's Beats 1radio show. The song was written by Banks and Josiah Sherman and produced by BJ Burton, Hudson Mohawke and Kito. "Look What You're Doing to Me" was released as the album's second single on June 11, 2019, along with a lyric video, and features American pop project Francis and the Lights. "Contaminated" was released as the album's third single on July 10, 2019. Banks released a sample of the track as well as the release date on July 9, 2019.
Critical reception
III received 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 76, based on 11 reviews. Narzra Ahmed of Clash stated "III is definitely a progression for her as an artist. The more upbeat tracks are interspersed among softer, more delicate, heartfelt ones that represent the duality of her personality and also increase its replay value". Rhys Harding of The Line of Best Fit commented, "Overall, Banks has taken a step forward in her development as an artist, and you can hear this increase in maturity across each album. At times, her evolution is not as convincing as other artists on her level, though the quality of the songwriting here generally makes up for that". From NME, Nick Levine concluded that "III is probably a couple of tracks too long, but Banks has created another supremely intriguing musical world filled with ear-snagging lyrics and quirky production flourishes: the lone dog-bark sound effect before the final chorus of 'Gimme' is a classic Banks touch. It's difficult to avoid the conclusion: 'that bitch' is a pretty apt description for her after all". Will Hermes of Rolling Stone wrote, "Banks clearly encouraged them to swing for the fences: The distressed sonics get as extreme as Low got on last year's Double Negative, albeit in much different context. It's thrilling, gutting stuff". Roisin O'Connor from The Independent viewed III as "Banks's most cohesive album to date because she's no longer restricting herself to exploring one feeling at a time".
