Tank and The Bangas, Ariel J., Zeus

Tank and The Bangas For Tank and the Bangas, music is a vessel for unbridled joy and transcendent connection—forces as integral to their essence as their wildly original sound. On their new album The Last Balloon, the New Orleans-bred outfit channel those impulses into something celebratory yet profoundly human, exploring themes of frustration, resilience, and self-realization with equal parts raw emotionality and playful exuberance. A shapeshifting collective helmed by lead singer Tarriona “Tank” Ball and multi-instrumentalist Norman Spence II, the globally beloved group completed the LP after winning a GRAMMY for 2024’s spoken-word powerhouse The Heart, The Mind, The Soul, moving from incendiary poetry to a euphoric collision of soul and hip-hop and forward-thinking R&B. As the final installment in a trilogy of albums that began with 2019’s Green Balloon (a critical triumph that earned them a GRAMMY nomination for Best New Artist), The Last Balloon ultimately solidifies Tank and the Bangas’ legacy as one of modern music’s most steadfast voices of sublime exhilaration. Executive-produced by their frequent collaborator Austin Brown (Jamila Woods, Masego), The Last Balloon offers up a suite of songs designed to thrive in Tank and the Bangas’ rapturous live set, where unified movement becomes crucial to the show itself. “We’re known for a very interactive experience, so I wanted to get the fans more involved and have even more fun with the crowd,” says Ball. “There’s lots of gang vocals, handclaps, all these intentional moments to let everyone know, ‘This is my part, but your part’s coming up next—so get ready.’” A highly collaborative band whose past work has featured luminaries like Big Freedia, Questlove, and Jill Scott, Tank and the Bangas created The Last Balloon with the help of Iman Omari (a multifaceted musician who’s worked with Kendrick Lamar and Mac Miller), pianist/producer Tane Runo (Brittany Howard, JID), esteemed soul singers Ledisi and Jelly Joseph, and many more. The result: a party-ready extravaganza that provides both ecstatic catharsis and communal elevation. Mainly recorded at The Complex Studios (an iconic L.A. spot once home to Earth, Wind & Fire), The Last Balloon unfolds in a loosely woven storyline charting a journey from self-doubt and erasure to empowered self-reclamation. On “Ain’t That Deep,” Tank and the Bangas deliver a defiant refusal to let negativity penetrate their world, setting Ball’s larger-than-life vocals against a potent backdrop of hypnotic beats and velvety horns. Sprung from a punchy piano riff spontaneously composed by Spence, “No Invite” arrives as a fantastically explosive takedown of industry gatekeeping and shameless clout-chasing. “There’s a lot of parties and award ceremonies we don’t get invited to, even though we do a lot for our community and should really be welcomed into those spaces,” explains Ball, who conceptualized “No Invite” as a rock-trap track. Next, on “Move,” two-time GRAMMY-winning R&B phenomenon Lucky Daye joins in for a pleading but powerful anthem lit up in lush grooves and jangly guitar tones. “I wrote that song about wanting my partner at the time to move to New Orleans to be closer to me, but you could interpret it as motivation to get moving in general,” says Ball. “I’ve been around people who let Monday go into Friday real quick, so ‘Move’ could be a way of telling yourself, ‘Let me get up, get my body moving, start making things happen for myself before it’s too late.’” While much of The Last Balloon embodies an electrifying vitality, the album closes out with the spellbinding surrender of “Nighttime”—a slow-burning fever dream where bittersweet reality blurs with the unfettered possibility of imagination. “There’s maybe seven or eight layers of harmonies on that song but there’s still a beautiful simplicity to it,” Spence notes. “It’s one of my favorite songs on the album, because there’s so much space in there.” Elsewhere on the LP, Tank and the Bangas bring their prismatic musicality to tracks like “Honeycomb” (a sensually charged stunner featuring Mississippi-born singer/songwriter Akeem Ali) and “Is It Over?” (an impassioned piece of soul-pop centered on a gorgeously smooth vocal performance from Ball). “It’s a song about getting to a point in a relationship where you don’t know if you should stay or leave, but I put it in the context of people in New Orleans deciding to stay in their homes during a hurricane,” says Ball. “It’s that feeling of knowing something’s coming, something’s in the air, but instead of escaping you make that choice to just hunker down and ride it out.” The conceptual successor to 2022’s Red Balloon (a GRAMMY nominee for Best Progressive R&B Album), The Last Balloon came to life through the deliberately improvisational process Tank and the Bangas have embraced since first connecting through the New Orleans poetry community in the early 2010s. Though their reach has expanded far beyond those beginnings (thanks in part to their viral breakthrough as winners of NPR’s 2017 Tiny Desk Contest), taking home the Best Spoken Word Poetry Album GRAMMY for The Heart, The Mind, The Soul proved to be a glorious full-circle moment. “Poetry has been such an instrumental part of our career, so it felt right that our first award was in that category,” says Ball. “We were so happy to get that nod from our peers, but at the end of the day what matters most is the love we feel from our fans.” To that end, Tank and the Bangas created The Last Balloon with a palpable sense of responsibility to their audience. “We hear from people who travel from city to city to come see us, who tell us that our music helped them get through hard times in their lives,” says Spence. “We all understand that music has real healing properties, so we make sure to put everything out with care in the hopes that it’ll impact everyone in a positive way.” As Ball reveals, The Last Balloon signals both the end of an era and the dawning of a bold new phase for the band. “I called the album The Last Balloon because I didn’t want anyone asking us, ‘When’s Purple Balloon coming?’” she says. “It’s the end of the balloons; we’re moving into a new space now.” And as they step into their next chapter, Tank and the Bangas continue to tap into a creative energy that’s only grown more vibrant over time. “Lately it’s almost like the ideas coming out of thin air, and I’m just excited to keep making more music,” says Spence. “We’re working with new people and cultivating new sounds, and it feels like we’re more open than we’ve ever been,” adds Ball. “What we’ve learned over the years is that even though people can’t always categorize our sound, they’re always able to describe how the music makes them feel. So we’re gonna keep on changing and evolving, but we’re always gonna give you that same feeling of joy. That’s a DNA marker for sure.” Ariel J.