LP1 FKA twigs Artist

{|FKA Twigs|}' early EPs were such jewel-like statements of purpose, delivering songs full of sensuality and heartache so economically, that an album almost seemed superfluous. None of these songs appear on the simply titled {|LP 1|}, a bold move tha... Read more

{|FKA Twigs|}' early EPs were such jewel-like statements of purpose, delivering songs full of sensuality and heartache so economically, that an album almost seemed superfluous. None of these songs appear on the simply titled {|LP 1|}, a bold move that extends to the rest of the album. On her first full-length, {|Tahliah Barnett|} opens up her sound by working with a host of producers: along with previous collaborator {|Arca|}, {|Paul Epworth|} and {|Dev Hynes|} contribute their sound-shaping skills, along with {|Emile Haynie|}, whose work on {|Eminem|}'s {|Recovery|} earned him a Grammy. These collaborators help {|FKA Twigs |} give {|LP 1|} a lusher sound that's more accessible, and more overtly R&B than her earlier work, but maintains its ethereal sensuality. It's an approach that shines on the lead single Two Weeks: the flipside of songs like Papi Pacify and Water Me, pain suffused and sometimes eclipsed desire, it finds {|FKA Twigs|} powerfully in control of her sexuality, rooting out doubt and infidelity over the verses' underwater beats and soaring on the ecstatic choruses. The album's other singles are just as charged. The {|Epworth|}-produced Pendulum amplifies {|FKA Twigs|}' bittersweet side beautifully, and when she sings I dance feelings like they're spoken, it's as intimate as the more overtly autobiographical and anguished Video Girl, a callback to her time dancing in clips for songs by {|Ed Sheeran|} and {|Jessie J|}. Here and throughout {|LP 1|}, she excels at broadening her emotional palette as well as her musical one. She glides from the album's lows to its highs, juxtaposing pitch-black tracks like Numbers, where chopped-up breaths, beats, and horror movie strings channel panic, loss, and anger, with radiant ones like Closer, the poppiest {|FKA Twigs|} song yet (and one that {|Barnett|} produced herself). Elsewhere, the spacious, moody Kicks and Lights On recalls her EPs without rehashing them, reinforcing how seamlessly she made the leap to a grander scope. {|FKA Twigs|}' music was already so fully realized that {|LP 1|} can't really be called the album where she came into her own. Rather, her music has been tended to since the Water Me days, and now it's flourishing. ~ Heather Phares Less