Branching out in her own direction

MAGDALENE

FKA Twigs Young Turks

With only her second album, FKA Twigs is turning out to be one of the singular artists of our times. Magdalene is a magnificently twisted sci-fi torch album, an enthralling account of love, loss, heartbreak and recovery. It is erotic and neurotic, confounding and revelatory, summoning the spirits of such iconoclastic talents as David Bowie, Kate Bush and Björk while affirming its own unique personality.

British singer-songwriter Tahliah Barnett had a career as a dancer (working with Kylie Minogue, Ed Sheeran and Jessie J) before branching into music. Her stage name combines a school nickname with the acronym for “formerly known as”. Using outlandish make-up and high-fashion stylings on self-made videos that display her physical prowess, Twigs has proved well suited to this age of multimedia pop branding without ever releasing much music. This is her first album since her debut, LP1 – an arresting blend of harsh electronica and ethereal melodies – was nominated for a Mercury Prize in 2014.

At 31, though, there is added depth and command to the way Twigs marshals conflicting elements on the follow-up. Her style is sometimes characterised as future R&B, but is not really dance pop at all. Songs stop and start, shift and flow, incorporating elements of piano balladry, goth, industrial, ambient, trip hop, electropop, jazz, choral and classical music. Twigs’s high, fluid soprano strikes a note of melodic sweetness that is at odds with the distorting brutality of the underlying synths. From the choral opening track, Thousand Eyes, to the desperately vulnerable ballad Cellophane, these are songs about love in a hostile environment.

For three years, Twigs was in a relationship with British actor Robert Pattinson (the pin-up star of the Twilight series) during which she had to endure being pursued by paparazzi and vicious internet trolling. Around the time the couple separated in 2017, Twigs became bedridden after surgery to remove fibroid tumours.

Here, these two experiences entwine in a fascination with the Gospel figure of Mary Magdalene, a biblical archetype for a woman’s capacity for suffering, endurance and self-sacrificial devotion. Twigs offers her own twist on Christ’s devoted follower in songs that pulse with desire and abandonment.

Despite being produced with such established pop

Here, FKA Twigs summons the spirits of David Bowie and Björk

ONE-OFF FKA Twigs’s second album confirms her singular talent