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CRITIC REVIEWS
100
What’s most extraordinary here is her singing voice, from a cloudbusting falsetto on Mirrored Heart to fevered shouting on the appropriately titled Fallen Alien and an eerie whisper on Daybed. There’s something new and exciting around every hairpin bend. Magdalene allows her to stand alone as an exceptional artist.
100
It’s a record that makes you fall in love with music again, a record you feel privileged to experience and a record that imparts fundamental human truths.
100
MAGDALENE is as holistically complete as any pop record released this decade ... an exceptional and empowering account of an artist in full control of their sound.
100
By processing the physical and emotional pain she's experienced, FKA twigs’ new album MAGDALENE operates as a purging of all her heartbreak.
100
Magdalene is an album that, like FKA twigs herself, defies both genre and classification.
100
Magdalene goes beyond earthy boundaries and transcends to a celestial realm of greatness, guided by the “fallen alien” – FKA twigs.
100
Tahliah Barnett's been to tabloid hell and back and experienced gruelling ill-health, all of which is explored on her huge, panoramic second album.
100
It is erotic and neurotic, confounding and revelatory, summoning the spirits of such iconoclastic talents as David Bowie, Kate Bush and Björk while affirming its own unique personality.
94
With limitlessly innovative songwriting and production, the cinema of twigs’ music has never been more affecting. MAGDALENE is not just on the vanguard of pop, it’s in a breathtaking class of its own.
90
To put Magdalene in context, it’s clear that FKA Twigs has created her best album so far. It combines the addicting complexity of M3LL155X’s production aesthetics with the more elaborate and thoughtful songwriting of LP1.
90
MAGDALENE dances along without ever dipping into easy catharsis, consumed with pain but unwavering in its determination to fight through it.
90
Like the dancer she is, Barnett pushes through pain in pursuit of beauty and truth, and the leaps she makes are breathtaking.
90
Directly contrasting the cohesion of her previous releases, the veritable tapestry of sounds woven into MAGDALENE is among the album’s most rewarding assets.
90
Magdalene makes an unpredictable turn wherein FKA twigs traverses an introverted dimension of her vision through a minimalist perspective and a sense of controlled extravagance.
90
MAGDALENE is the album that twigs was destined to create. That such a blessing came out of so much trauma is a tragedy, but what a privilege it is to witness such a miraculous period of growth.
90
The album is a knotty meditation on the process of separating self-perception from public perception, and of twigs’s reclamation of her body and work as hers and hers alone.
90
In portrait mode, Magdalene tears down the metaphorical walls — aurally, visually, physically — to build back up a wholly realized self.
90
It is an unsparing, anguished release in which we see an artist laid bare and tapping into a more natural and resonant version of her sound and self. It is the fullest and most developed work from FKA Twigs to date.
87
MAGDALENE is the sound of an artist gluing together the million tiny shards in which she found herself after an explosive breakup.
85
Never rushed yet often urgent, MAGDALENE is a work of great tension and balance. It never falls into complacency, and it’s never indulgent.
80
With this gorgeous, gripping, thought-provoking album, she continues her enigmatic, glass ceiling-smashing trajectory thanks to some spectacular vocal performances and updating the sonic templates left to her by her forebears.
80
The inner battles of Magdalene will stay with you long after they finish.
80
UK pop futurist conjures struggle while curating a killer creative team.
80
Sometimes, there is the feeling that less could have been more, but when everything aligns, there are true moments of wonder to be found.
80
MAGDALENE might not be perfect, but it reverberates with the sound of someone shutting the door on a difficult chapter in their life.
80
The follow-up to 2014’s LP1, made in the wake of heartbreak, is twigs at her sorrowful, scrappy best.
80
The sound of someone delicately yet decisively knitting themselves back together...
75
While concise in length, MAGDALENE paces FKA twigs through the unguarding of her traumas, ceremoniously giving way for her next act.
70
For all its impassioned vocal performances and effective updates on the forms of Kate Bush and Björk, Magdalene isn't quite greater than the sum of its parts.
60
Sometimes the results are stunning ... Sometimes, however, the songs are weirdly stifling.
Fka Twigs didn’t just make an album, she crafted an experience of pure artistry.
The juxtaposition that is meticulously woven throughout is absolutely incredible. To sum things up, Twigs is essentially utilizing Mary Magdalene, a biblical figure, as a personal allegory. Both females never truly had full control of their own narrative due to patriarchy. Mary Magdalene is infamous for being wrongly labeled as a prostitute and a sinful woman throughout history, while Twigs on the other ... read more
after numerous listens, i can clearly say that this is the best heartbreak / breakup album since Björk's Vulnicura and it also happens to be my AOTY.
🌹: thousand eyes, home with you, sad day, holy terrain, mary magdalene, fallen alien, mirrored heart, daybed, cellophane
🥀: n/a
Before listening to “MAGDELENE”, I went through each of FKA Twigs’ projects to have a general background of her sound and style. To say the least, I don’t really like “LP1” as much as it’s given credit for, and her first two EPs seem meandering, basic, and annoying. The only intriguing project of hers prior to this is “M3LL155X”, for its harsh production choices and bold musical structures. So, going into this record, let’s say I had ... read more
I remember when I first heard this album. I was in my college library, and I had a bunch of assignments due in a few hours. While I worked, I put on an album while I worked, and I saw that this album was popular.
I don’t remember what I was working on. I only remember sitting alone in the college library being absolutely floored by what I was hearing.
I don’t know what Twigs was going through during this album. All I know is that Shawn Cee said it had something to do with trauma, ... read more
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Track List
| 1 | thousand eyes 5:00 | 90 |
| 2 | home with you 3:44 | 94 |
| 3 | sad day 4:15 | 92 |
| 4 | holy terrain 4:03 feat. Future | 83 |
| 5 | mary magdalene 5:21 | 94 |
| 6 | fallen alien 3:58 | 93 |
| 7 | mirrored heart 4:32 | 92 |
| 8 | daybed 4:31 | 85 |
| 9 | cellophane 3:24 | 96 |
Total Length: 38 minutes
Year End Lists
| #1 | / | Crack Magazine |
| #1 | / | Gaffa (Sweden) |
| #1 | / | Loud and Quiet |
| #1 | / | MondoSonoro |
| #1 | / | No Ripcord |
| #1 | / | NOW Magazine |
| #1 | / | PopMatters |
| #1 | / | The A.V. Club |
| #1 | / | TIME |
| #1 | / | USA Today |
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By landlalt
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Added on: April 22, 2019