In some ways the new album is an extrapolation of “Closer,” from FKA twigs’s 2014 album “LP1,” and of her 2016 single, “Good to Love” — both hymnlike tunes with lyrics alluding to faith. Melody is paramount on “Magdalene”; many of the new songs have extended, dramatic vocal lines that float free of an obvious beat.

“Thousand Eyes,” which opens the album, hints at medieval music; “Day Bed,” hovering in an analog haze produced by Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never), has the tremulous suspense of Kate Bush. “Sad Day” does have rhythm in its crisp vocal lines, but FKA twigs and the track’s co-producers — including Benny Blanco, Nicolas Jaar and Skrillex — wait a full minute before introducing (with a blast) the drums.

Although “Magdalene” isn’t quite as vertiginous as “LP1” was, there’s still scarce solid ground in an FKA twigs song. Sounds materialize to destabilize the pulse, upend the harmony or just add disruptive noise; gaping silences open up, suddenly isolating her voice in midair. There’s something like a typical trap beat in “Holy Terrain,” probably because FKA twigs is singing about trying to get her man out of trap’s macho milieu, to escape being “bound by his boys and his chains.” Yet that beat falls away during verses; meanwhile, there’s a hook of sampled Bulgarian voices and a guest appearance from Future, sounding even spacier and more disconsolate than usual.

“Cellophane” is a plaint to a straying lover: “Why don’t I do it for you/Why won’t you do it for me/When all I do is for you.” A slow march, it could have been some other singer’s grand buildup of a tear-jerker. Instead, FKA twigs delivers it over austere, Satie-like piano chords, unpredictable gusts of electronics and whispered beatboxing, making her need more intimate. Drama does erupt fitfully in “Mirrored Heart,” as she sings bitterly about unreciprocated love, but then it vanishes, leaving her quietly bereft at the end.