Even amid pressure of the building hype since FKA Twigs released EP1 in 2012, she has nothing to be nervous about. Her debut studio album LP1 delivers both everything we have come to expect - stunning production, outstanding vocals and more. It's a look into the fantasy world of the rather private Tahliah Barnett, aka FKA Twigs.
Twigs draws the listener into this world with the disarming ‘Preface’, a cross between a baroque hymn and a Grimes single. The tracks that follow are more familiar territory with their interplay of R 'n' B, trip-hop and electronica sounds. Thematic tensions between passivity and aggression, eroticism and violence are introduced in the mesmerising ‘Two Weeks’, while many of the songs are not what they seem on first hearing, as in ‘Numbers’ which moves smoothly from sad R 'n' B ballad to Fatal Attraction territory.
The production is often complex, but ‘Pendulum’, a eulogy to a doomed relationship, is elegantly spare. Meanwhile the sharp intellectualism of ‘Video Girl’, where the chorus is comprised of a literal chorus of bystanders asking each other: "Was she the girl that’s from the video?", makes it another standout.
Twigs rejects the label of pop star as she feels it ignores her writing and producing roles. It would be easy to fixate on her skill as a vocalist - an area in which she obviously excels, but as this album in its thematic and musical complexity makes clear, she’s much more than a pretty voice and is unlikely to be a passing fad.
