Banoffee: Teartracks | 4ZZZ Brisbane 102.1FM

- Banoffee’s style has always expertly toed a line between accessible pop tunes with universally relatable lyrics and her gritty, excessively compressed electronica aesthetics. The Melbourne-born producer, singer and songwriter’s unique, in-your-face vocals and layered synth beats have earned her a dedicated fanbase since the release of her debut album, Look At Us Now Dad, even capturing the attention of Taylor Swift, leading to her joining Charlie XCX as a supporting act in her Reputation tour.

Teartracks brings everything from her previous releases and doubles down, creating an intense, visceral, yet somehow still good-humoured album filled with songs about ultra-specific anxieties delivered with a punch. Banoffee, real name Martha Brown, decided to step away from the silver-linings of her previous album -throwing discussions of a brighter future after heartbreak and trauma away- in favour of focussing solely on the here-and-now; the breakup itself. While Look At Us Now Dad was contemplative and optimistic, Teartracks is a single moment in time.

With that moment comes reflections of all too relatable anxieties of a breakup. The third single leading up to the album’s release deals with the selfish and disappointing thought of, ‘oh, I’ll never get to have sex like this again.’ Aptly titled Never Get to Fuck Any1, the entire track deals with this simple thought that this intimate thing between them is over, and they’ll never get it back. But it’s about more than just sex, the chorus repeating, “I’ll never get to tell anyone/ The things I know that I can tell you”.

The track listing follows a narrative-like structure, opening with the sweet and adoring Tapioca Cheeks, which has a far dreamier aesthetic, sharing more similarities to her previous production style. The cracks in the relationship are already starting to show with her cleverly sardonic lyrics, stating, “I hate it when you lie / Just to feel strong / Oh it’s so boring.” Despite this sentiment, over lilting and bright synths Banoffee repeats “Everything you say / Makes me love you more.” However, the album quickly divulges its far more bitter nature with her realisation that her relationship isn’t fulfilling in Enough, to the direct aftermath and then the eventual freedom of the final track, Tears.

As the first album released independently by Banoffee, it feels so fitting that she takes such a deeply personal and unique approach to her song-writing. Quirky, bitter and strangely uplifting, Teartracks has the simplicity of a pop song to scream along to when you just need to cry, and the personality and soul that Banoffee fans have come to expect.

- Alison Paris.