Music Review: FKA twigs returns with heartbreaking and beautiful sophomore album, “MAGDALENE”
FKA twigs, “MAGDALENE” (Young Turks)
FKA twigs’ latest album, “MAGDALENE,” is not about the ups and downs of love. No, the 9-track set finds twigs solidly in the down-and-out throes of heartache. And the pain is beautiful.
The album was written and produced by twigs, with contributions from Skrillex, Benny Blanco, Jack Antonoff and more. Fans who’ve waited long for twigs’ follow-up to her 2014 debut, “LP1,” will be happy to find that artistically, the singer just might be at her best. She is certainly more vocally and emotionally vulnerable than ever before.
That’s especially true on beautifully gut-wrenching tracks like “mirrored heart,” with its clash of metal and delicate keys. “Did you want me all?/ No, not for life/ Did you truly see me?/No not this time,” she sings.
She turns the hurt outward on the headnod-worthy “fallen alien,” co-produced by electronic music artist Nicolas Jaar. And twigs’ voice rings out like a morning prayer on the enchanting “thousand eyes.”
Named for the oft-misunderstood biblical figure Mary Magdalene, twigs weaves her album with mentions of the ancient woman. “I’m fever for the fire/True as Mary Magdalene/Creature of desire/Come just a little bit closer to me/Step just a little bit closer to me/I can lift you higher,” she sings on “mary magdalene.”
Through her lyrics and sounds, twigs summons the spiritual and the sensual, and the result of her dabbling is sometimes cryptic, but always intriguing. Most importantly, it sounds amazing.