FKA twigs - MAGDALENE

FKA twigs' MAGDALENE is a record about falling apart and putting yourself back together, sung in a voice that sounds fragile and fearless in the same breath.

Released in 2019, her second album arrived after a long, painful stretch in her life, and it reaches for Mary Magdalene as a guiding figure, a woman long misunderstood and reclaimed here as a symbol of wisdom and quiet power. It is a deeply personal record but never a closed one, inviting the listener right into its bruises.

The production is spare and otherworldly, folding choral harmonies, shuddering electronics and warped pop structures into something that sounds like nobody else. Thousand Eyes opens with layers of voice that feel almost liturgical, and Holy Terrain brings in Future for a slinky, unexpected collaboration. Cellophane closes the album with devastating restraint, little more than piano and a voice cracking under the strain of being seen.

Across nine songs, twigs moves between longing and tenderness without ever losing her nerve, and the silences between the notes matter as much as the sounds themselves.

On vinyl, MAGDALENE asks for your full attention and rewards every minute of it, a bold, beautifully uncomfortable work from one of the most singular artists of her generation.