Released November 8, 2019
9.5 / 10
Favorites
thousand eyes, home with you, sad day, mary magdalene, fallen alien, mirrored heart, cellophane
Least favorites
holy terrain (feat. Future)
At the vanguard of pop's tentacular sprawl into a variety of niches that have fostered and catered to smaller communities as reactions to popular music, FKA twigs has never been as determined and vulnerable, only a couple of months after the release of her sophomore album "MAGDALENE". The soprano artist has carved out a lane of her own, and this time around, is unabashedly breaking away from the alternative R'n'B sticker people have tried to paste on her through various EPs, "LP1" and the more recent "M3LL155X" (2015). Meticulous, precise and remarkably vigilant, the production on "MAGDALENE" is incredibly rich and vibrant. twigs showcases a tremendous flair and perfectionism that only time and perseverance can do justice to, explaining in part the rather long period of time since "LP1" came out to overwhelming critical acclaim (2014). Patience pays off for multi-talented Tahliah Barnett: "MAGDALENE" is mournful, "MAGDALENE" is obscure, "MAGDALENE" is healing, "MAGDALENE" is splendid. twigs and her battalion of co-producers - Benny Blanco, Jack Antonoff, Nicolas Jaar, Noah Goldstein and Skrillex, among others - worked towards creating tracks designed first and foremost for performance. "MAGDALENE" is theatrical, a by-product of twigs' appetence to create cavernous sounds, relishing in the up and downs, the tension between silence and noise, and an uncanny attention to pause and breathing. Album opener, thousand eyes almost ceremonially starts with acapella layers of twigs' vocals shortly followed by a solemn gong-like sound and muted synths. The mix is pristine and eerie at the same time, with subtle hints of industrial sounds creeping in the arrangement. A multitude of glitch-like effects throw off the angelic atmosphere, watery synth and alien noise dripping all over the second verse. The song builds up, reaches its climax and disintegrates shortly after, leaving only the drip and soothing harp behind. twigs' voice is warped as if some signal has broken - as if she has acted on her threat to walk out the door, losing her means of communication with her interlocutor. A radiant example of production's role in "MAGDALENE", a thousand eyes is a particularly evocative track, despite its sparse lyrical content. It manages to convey the drama and gravity behind a simple act that would leave her exposed for all to see and comment ("If I walk out the door, it starts our last goodbye / If you don't pull me back, it wakes a thousand eyes"); a potential allusion to her highly publicized past relationship with Robert Pattinson and the sometime cruel disposition of tabloids and the movie star's fans. "MAGDALENE" is both tender and rough, and by virtue of its brilliant production, harmoniously so. sad day, not unlike most tracks on the album, combines orchestral elements and synths for maximal impact. The instrumentals kick off tense and boiling, hinting at a growing impatience or the incoming of an external force. Percussions take center stage when the chorus ends and take on a life of their own, dancing in twigs' trail. They retire once they've let out what they needed to relieve only to go back to the boiling state the track opened with, this time more forceful and impatient. The bridge sees the communion of twigs and her instrumentals, vocals sliding in and around the melody and ticking bassline punctuated by thespian "Ah"s. Yet another track that feels poignant despite hardly any explicit storyline - not to say that lyrics aren't an integral ingredient with lines like "The city howls with a cry to seduce you and claim you / So it's time / And it's a sad day for sure". "MAGDALENE" lies on a dark undercurrent of resentment that feeds many of the graver emotions it carries. The home with you odyssey is the first track to bleed menace and anger. The first verse rings like a looming threat, with robotic vocals floating in an eerie haze. The pre-chorus kicks in, gaining in vigor, swelling in reproach, with a charge against the lack of representation and inspiration - "I've never seen a hero like me in a sci-fi / So I wonder if your needs are even meant for me" - alongside the palpable frustration of lines like "the more you have, the more the people want from you". The chorus turns the melody on its head, transitioning from almost spoken-word to wishful chant - making the verses starkly more abrupt. Sounding like a transcription of twigs' stream of consciousness, alternating between accusation and empathy, home with you exhibits the complexity of her inner emotional turmoil. Unveiling another facet of twigs' psyche, the climax of "MAGDALENE" and incidentally the most resentful track on the album is fallen alien. An ominous grumbling noise sounds the alarm on what's to come, enriched by a chime, swords clashing and strange alien noises that complete the macabre auditory scene. In fallen alien twigs tells a story of betrayal, so acute as to make her feel powerless - "I'm a fallen alien / I never thought you would be the one to tie me down / But you did". Even in this posture she finds strength and her rage grows as the song progresses, echoing the early background vocals "I feel", later turning into "I feel the light" and then finally "I feel the lightning blast". Production is a magnificent tour de force as it bursts throughout. She is vengeful and willing to expose her former lover once she realizes who he really is - and does so with some of the clearest and most dazzling lyrics on "MAGDALENE" ("In the blazing sun I saw you / In the shadows hiding from yourself / When the lights are on I know you / See you're grey from all the lies you tell"). She navigates the light/dark metaphor with impressive dexterity, avoiding the common pitfall of relying on the trope only for brief evocative impact, and leveraging its mythology to set her grievances ablaze. By releasing all this pent up frustration - something she does more explicitly in daybed - "MAGDALENE" is also rejuvenating. When talking about the inspirations behind the album, FKA twigs deplores the fact that women's narratives systematically got erased or transfigured into components of their masculine counterparts' in most of our patriarchal societies. The figure of Mary Magdalene stood out to her as one such story: Mary M. was said to be a herbalist and healer, likely to have been in Jesus' close entourage yet she has been portrayed mostly as a destitute prostitute by the clergy. Through the lens of Mary Madgalene, twigs examines her own sexuality and feminine healing powers in the wake of the removal of uteral fibroid tumors from which she recovered as she was working on "MAGDALENE". The centerpiece of the album, mary magdalene, serves as a receptacle of a woman's acknowledgement of her self-worth and merit. It opens with a strikingly beautiful myriad of harp and glistening notes, followed by the vocoded acapella commanding "A woman's worth / A woman's prerogative / A woman's time to embrace / She must put herself first", sounding like an affirmation meant to be repeated over and over. twigs promises to be "true as Mary Magdalene, creature of desire" restoring a righteousness that has been denied Mary M. while recognizing and embracing her sexuality. The instrumental before the last chorus deserves a mention, for its ingenuity, blaring knife edges, glitches, muffled cries and a thumping bassline. FKA twigs is unapologetically vulnerable for she realizes she needs to be so in order to heal. Even as she mourns the separation from her former lover on mirrored heart she knows their relationship wasn't meant to be. She's aware he won't vacate her mind for the longest time and is reminded of him with every passing couple. The track has a remarkable sluggishness and showcases a rare vocal rawness. We get to hear cracks in her voice, her tone scrapes like sandpaper. It is the first of the three final tracks in which twigs' voice is given authority over the other musical elements, a sign that against all odds, twigs is able to harness her pain and control it as a creative force and not an instrument of destruction. As resourceful as twigs proves to be, her efforts to dazzle fall short on holy terrain, a wobbly track combining grand metaphors and the most casual informality (the juxtaposition of "Not get bound by his boys" and "stand up in my holy terrain" is slightly puzzling). The song features nice detailing and an intricate play of moments of silence and bulging instrumentals but gets mostly lost in its trap undertones. The choice to have Future as her only ever explicit feature on any of her major work also feels like a statement of sorts, although I'm not sure what that statement is. Still, the track doesn't blemish the album beyond repair. On "MAGDALENE", twigs really delves into insecurities and pain she could have chosen to ignore or keep to herself, subliming them into a masterpiece that should stand the test of time.
Favorite lyrics
"Didn't I do it for you? Why don’t I do it for you? Why won't you do it for me When all I do is for you?"
Cellophane
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