Decades before New Orleans-based rootsy soul duo Tank and the Bangas won their first Grammy, the group, composed of vocalist Tarriona “Tank” Ball and multi-instrumentalist-slash-musical director Norman Spence, based their sound on what came natural to them: spoken-word poetry.

So two years after the win, the pair returned to the art form ahead of releasing their fifth studio album, The Last Balloon, concluding their Balloon album trilogy and following their 2024 album, The Heart, the Mind, the Soul. Succeeding the emotive and free-flowing essence of The Heart, The Last Balloon serves as a continuation of the band’s uplifting and life-of-the-party spirit, while there are spots that highlight relationship conflict and self-reflection. As a return to oral tradition, Tank and the Bangas kick-started their album rollout by re-establishing their Poetry on the Porch series in a secret garden in New Orleans last month.

“I'm not able to go to the poetry clubs like I used to, so I like to bring the poetry to me and handpick very special people to get up there and perform,” Tank tells BET. “To be next to the people while they do their thing, it's otherworldly. If my spirit says pick up that person, I'll pick them up. [There’s] no list.”

Tank and the Bangas leaned on spirit to guide their new LP, which is executive-produced by musician and songwriter Austin Brown, with contributions from Iman Omari and Tommy Parker. Like The Heart, The Last Balloon boasts a packed list of features, including fellow New Orleans natives Dawn Richard, Ledisi, and Lucky Daye. Opening the sumptuous and joyful 13-track album is an interpolation of Take 6's classic “Come Unto Me,” which elevates the listening experience into a baptismal calm.

“I was like, Oh my goodness. To make this an intro and to put a hip-hop beat over it would be so special,” Tank recalls.

“They used to play the [Take 6] tape in the car all the time. I loved it since I was little and I never forgot it,” adds Norman. So for that to resurface, I was like, Damn, are we opening up the album with this? Oh, Lord, thank you.”

While homaging a ‘90s gospel anthem, Tank and the Bangas set an exulting tone for the fans with the conclusion of their Balloon series, which listeners have followed since their 2019 album, Green Balloon. On an album interlude, Tank and Norman share a playful banter about The Last Balloon, officially marking the chapter’s end. Fans shouldn’t be offended by the decision; the album opens up a world of irresistible progressive soul, bonhomie party anthems, and messages of resilience as Tank and the Bangas have solidified a singular path in music.

“With our fans, it just lets them know that it's a closing to that chapter,” Tank says. “If you're a real fan, then you've been there since Think Tank. If you're an even realer fan, you've been since RandoME.  But a lot of people discovered a little later on and they've been on this Balloon journey with us. So we wanted to end that for them.”

The only crossroads in the journey that The Last Balloon exhibits are in the testimonial mid-tempo ballad “Is It Over?”, where Tank finds herself at a turning point in a relationship. The chorus’ internal struggle on whether to “stay or leave” seems to indirectly reference news of New Orleans one day being uninhabitable due to rising water levels.

“When I was writing it, I just walked into the studio and Austin had this playing and the words just came out. So, that's when you're really more portal than person,” Tanks says. 

“I have a beautiful relationship. I ain't trying to end it at all,” she adds. But I did definitely compare [the hurricane to] the end of a relationship, ‘cause I've been in one of those as well. So, you’re either staying or leaving, and we feel the same way about New Orleans when a storm is coming. There really is no in between.”

The song’s vulnerability was welcomed by Tank and the Bangas, feeling at home in the lightness of Brown’s window-filled studio. “It inspired music. It inspired a conversation,” Tank says. “I just knew that when we [were] working on the next one, he was going to be a good fit because Austin is very connected. He's very cool. He lets me be myself. He has a good ear. Now he's like a cousin.”

With the soul duo now in the process of building a new studio, Tank and the Bangas listened closely to hitmakers of the past and present to shape The Last Balloon, namely superproducer Timbaland and British nu-soul band Jungle.

“[Jungle] had this one joint and [Tank] was like, ‘I want the song to feel like this,’” Norman explains. “But we couldn't jack their shit. We would never. So we just kept the vibe of the drums and threw some verb on the guitar and made it minor instead of major.”

Tank also honed in on trap and rock, admittedly channeling Alabama Shakes frontwoman Brittany Howard on the sensual rawness of “Honeycomb.” Tank shares that she envisioned album collaborator Lucky Daye on the track, which features Akeem Ali, though the two-time Grammy winner ultimately chose the lively single “Move.”

“I didn't expect him to pick ‘Move.’ I actually gave him ‘Honeycomb,’ but he was moved by ‘Move,’” Tank recalls of Daye. “I loved all my verses on ‘Move,’ so I didn't want to move any of them out the way, so we arranged it around to keep him in mind but also not take off [anything] that I had previously already fell in love with.”

The remaining features on The Last Balloon were thought out in advance, but solo tracks show Tank at her most honest, like “No Invite,” where the singer brashly calls out award shows that don’t welcome her or Norman. As a reminder to self and fans, the band demonstrates unshaken courage on “Don’t Count Yourself Out” alongside Richard. “It's just so perfect, especially with all the ups and downs Dawn has been through,” Tank says. “[She’s] still such a special artist in this game, and we're always going to show love to a fellow New Orleanian.”

Capturing the feeling of NOLA comes to the surface on The Last Balloon and in conversation with Tank and the Bangas, who proudly represent the city and their evolution through song.

“I swear everywhere we go, we've been to some beautiful places around the world. Anywhere I go, I be like, ‘Damn, this is fire. I'm ready to go home,’” says Norman, a Baltimore native who’s lived in NOLA for 18 years. “It’s welcoming. It's warm. I grew up in a cold place. This is not a cold place. They love everybody. They get mad if you don't hug them when you're walking in the room.”

“If something happened, heaven forbid, to knock us off the planet again, it's going to either be rebuild or relocate to a place like California, because I like the weather and it makes me want to work,” Tank shares. “But I've been all over the world, but I don't feel home until I'm home.”