EP Review: BANNERS - 'I wish I was flawless, I'm not'
Focusing on the feelings of not being good enough in a relationship, and the conflicting emotions we experience throughout our lives, BANNERS’ ‘I Wish I Was Flawless, I’m Not’ captures the experience of being a human being perfectly.
January 13th sees Michael Nelson, better known as the award-winning artist BANNERS, releasing his new EP ‘I Wish I Was Flawless, I’m Not’. BANNERS has an incredible 1.5 billion streams to his name already and may perhaps be most recognisable for the hit ‘Someone To You’. 2023 promises many great things from BANNERS if ‘I Wish I Was Flawless, I’m Not’ is anything to go by, and it’s exciting to see what the future holds in store for him.
BANNERS opens his EP with the track ‘Perfectly Broken’ which captures the desperate wishes we often find ourselves making in our lives to be a better person, along with the sense of being our own worst enemy and thinking that we are undeserving of the good times or things we have in our lives. The track essentially rejects the idea that being ‘broken’ is something bad, and instead focuses on the strength and love you often find in these ‘damaged’ people.
The fourth track of the EP very much feels like a love-letter to that person in your life that somehow always makes you feel better, even when you yourself feel like nothing could possibly change the way you were feeling in that moment. The themes of love and adoration in this track do not necessarily have to refer to a lover, it could quite easily be applied to friends or family members who make you feel the same way as what BANNERS is describing in this track and this is what makes ‘Easy’ such a relatable track for his listeners.
The fifth song is called ‘Happier,’ and it is an emotionally vulnerable track that vocalises the insecurities and fears we often find ourselves experiencing in relationships. ‘Happier’ asks the question of whether the partner in this scenario would be happier in a relationship with someone else and asks them to be true to themselves when thinking about the answer to this question rather than giving you the answer they think you want to hear. ‘Happier’ feels like a track that is exploring the idea that sometimes the kindest thing we can do for a person we care about deeply, is to make the difficult decision in ending the relationship that they may have become unhappy in.
‘I Wish I Was Flawless, I’m Not’ reflects on the experiences of being human and the insecurities and fears that come with being a human being and celebrates how these things make you the person that you are. BANNERS takes this moment to remind his listeners that it’s okay to be ‘broken’ and that you are not alone in this, everyone experiences these kinds of feelings in their lives no matter how hard they try to hide it.
