London-based singer FKA twigs is a transfixing artist, and one of most fascinating specimens under the microscope of hype in 2014.

Tahliah Barnett has commanded the world under her spell with the bewitching EP1 and EP2, and now, with the release of her highly-anticipated debut record, the enigmatic 26-year-old has tightened her vice-grip on the interest surrounding her curious, alien-like presence.

A large part of the intrigue of twigs’ mystique has been her striking image. Visuals are an inseparable component of FKA twigs as a whole, and it’s an element Barnett treats just as meticulously careful as its aural accompaniment. From the eery S&M-themed videos for ‘How’s That’ and ‘Papi Pacify’ to the comfort zone-prodding stare of her doe-eyed, baby-doll face in ‘Water Me’– all songs pointedly left off LP1 to make way for a clean slate of new works –twigs’evocative exterior serves as the perfect luring trap for her music.

Then, of course, comes the sound itself: a futuristic, forward-thinking take on R&B that erodes all the mapped-out boundaries of pop.

A self-trained producer in her own right and also collaborating with the likes of Dev Hynes, Clams Casino and Paul Epworth across the album, twigs waves her perfectionist hand over what goes on beneath her weightless vocals, creating intricate arrangements of mechanic, sterile electronic production programmed with the deftest of touches.

Simultaneously spacious and stuffy, the glitching off-kilter beats operate with a machine-like precision, with various rickety drum clicks and ticks of piercing synths triggered in between with a subtle dexterity.

But of course the key to these hyper-sensory soundscapes is Barnetts voice: a breathtaking, breathless falsetto that gets spliced and manipulated to create dizzying harmonised layers of high-pitched coos or distorted anti-Auto Tune bellows.

There’s palpable tension and suspense throughout LP1, and its brilliance comes both in the heated buildups and when it gives way for moments of enthralling R&B climax.

The radiant ‘Pendulum’ treads on light drum creaks and then, dictated by twigs’ soaring lullaby, swings into a sweeping chorus that oozes with honey-sweet longing. Then there’s the faultless construction of lead single ‘Two Weeks’: a titular, grand-scale track that grows in momentum throughout its entirety, engined with a sinister, pulsating drive that arrives at several different points of sheer, ecstatic catharsis.

Sex is a potent and almost ever-present element of Barnett’s songwriting, exploring the intersecting themes of love, lust, and sexuality in a way that’s spine-tinglingly possessing, not to mention completely temperamental.

At times she adopts the role of an innocent romantic, breathlessly repeating “I could kiss you forever” on ‘Hours’, and then “I want to be closer to you” in the angelic hymn ‘Closer’. But then she swaps submission for blood-thirsty dominance, and on ‘Two Weeks’ menacingly orders her subject, “Motherfucker, get your mouth open, you know you’re mine”.

Barnett’s total authority over her sexual agency is a refreshing, much-needed narrative of female empowerment that pop music notoriously lacks. If anything, though, the sexual electricity surging through the album also just makes for a collection of endlessly-rewarding R&B anthems.

LP1 is a scintillating, beautiful debut that sees FKA twigs fully realising her unique vision. In the buildup to the record’s release we saw the cinematic clip for ‘Two Weeks’ which featured twigs sitting atop a throne in an other-worldly realm, and now with LP1 finally unleashed, the image has become not too far off from reality.

LP1 is out now via Remote Control/ Young Turks.

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.
to Rolling Stone magazine
to Rolling Stone magazine