FKA Twig’s long awaited follow-up to her debut critically acclaimed ‘LP1’ is an odyssey in the pain of love and loss. The albums opening line, If I walk out the door, it starts our last goodbye, sets the listener up for what the journey that is about to unfold. The reason Magdalene is so easy to refer to as a chronicle is also one of the reasons the album excels- it is a clear narrative that is cohesive throughout the entire process. At no stage does the album stray from a minimalistic yet deep approach to production and lyricism, all the songs sound like they are from the same body of work. Cohesiveness has always been a strength of Twigs’ bodies of work, but unlike her eclectic trip-hop projects past gone, Magdalene has more traditional forms of cohesive production and songwriting. I wouldn’t go as far to call this a Pop album, perhaps a Pop album influenced heavily by R&B and Alternative themes.

Thousand Eyes sets the tone of the album perfectly, for better and worse. Drenched in Kate Bush inspiration, the vocal processing of Thousand Eyes is beautiful, repeated passages slowly building and falling into drenched reverb. The problem with the track, along with many of Magdalene’s offerings, is that the song fails to truly reach a point. Across over five minutes, Twigs fails to reach a pinnacle or reason for the song. It simply continues drifting into its own minimalism until it transitions into track two.

Home With You was my most anticipated song from the album, having heard it in her live show. The problem with debuting music live is any changes made to it will receive criticism from a select few fans- myself included. Lyrically, Home With You is a standout on the album, and only rivalled by one of the later songs. Going into my first listen, I expected the beautiful ballad I had heard on stage, verses mixed with elements of Hip-Hop/Rap elements.