FKA twigs - LP1
Critic Score
Based on 46 reviews
2014 Ratings: #10 / 1042
Year End Rank: #3
User Score
2014 Rank: #21
Liked by 605 people
Sign In to rate and review

CRITIC REVIEWS

100
The Independent

While sultry, drug-addled R&B is an increasingly crowded genre, Twigs takes a hammer to the kind that The Weeknd made famous and plays in the rubble.

100
Entertainment Weekly

She exerts enough of a magnetic pull to lure listeners into some challenging territory: LP1 is sparing with its hooks, favoring texture over melody.

100
AllMusic

FKA Twigs' music was already so fully realized that LP 1 can't really be called Barnett coming into her own; rather, her music has been tended to since the "Water Me" days, and now it's flourishing.

100
Pretty Much Amazing

Twigs’ superb vocal melodies anchor LP1’s flights of experimentation. Were they to be stripped from the album’s bizarre flourishes and dropped into a commercial R&B context, they would stun nonetheless.

100
The 405

More than anything this feels universally appealing. You don't have to be a strict devotee of the R&B underground genre to realise that this is a great album. The sound is her own, and she's capable of making an album work as an album rather than just a collection of songs

92
Paste

With both immediate appeal and density that demands long-term digestion, it’s one of those rare debuts that manifests a fully-grown, deeply engaging sound.

91
A.V. Club

Few debuts possess such control and ambition all in one; LP1 is the rare album that manages to sound both lived in and completely futuristic.

90
Drowned in Sound

Confidently frail and hesitant, LP1 is a refreshing reaction to, and a calm assault upon, the unfathomably fast-paced total noise of the current age.

90
Exclaim!

LP1 is a fantastic debut from an artist who is quickly becoming the curator of her own mental museum.

90
The Line of Best Fit

It’s not a record that’ll smack you in the face with bolsh and pace, and so in the inevitable repeated listens, as you listen harder, you’ll find yourself scurrying through various interpretations of the lyrics

90
Prefix

The truth is ... that we wouldn’t be having this conversation if her image and message weren’t just an engrossing addition to the captivating, envelope-pushing, and wholly original piece of art she has made with LP1.

90
Crack Magazine

A true original, LP1 sees FKA twigs breaking from the doctrine of the mainstream to hone a style that could reach canonical status.

90
HipHopDX

The mysterious Tahliah Barnett has created a devastatingly beautiful and industrial debut, and hopefully we’ll have her for many filtered out synths and dive bombed metronomes to come. 

90
FasterLouder

Every note sung on LP1 is delivered with meaning, the clinical production never contaminating the sincerity on offer.

90
SPIN

The album doesn't so much broaden Twigs' scope as reinforce it. Over 10 songs and 42 minutes, Twigs seems unconcerned with minting easy hooks or delivering discrete moments; instead, she sustains vibe.

90
Loud and Quiet

‘LP1’ is an exceptional debut. Spellbinding and artful from the off, she manages to tap into something in her mid-twenties that not many people manage in a lifetime.

88
Pitchfork

Quiet as it may be, this is a huge album, a monumental debut. On a formal level, it takes the kinds of risks that few pop artists, and few "experimental" artists, for that matter, are willing to take these days.

85
Under the Radar

This might be FKA twigs' first full-length, but it demands attention. She's bringing influences from every corner of the musical globe and turning them into something cohesive and wonderful.

83
Northern Transmissions

Certainly FKA Twigs has her own unique brand of R&B, which touches on experimental pop with some ethereal Kate bush vibes thrown in too. Talking about young love and insecurities, she does so in a fresh, exciting way.

83
Consequence of Sound

LP1 isn’t anything revolutionary; it’s a frankly expressed project focused on the dualism between love and lust, reality and fantasy.

80
Mojo

Even at its most vulnerable ... LP1 is a hugely self-possessed debut, the work of an artist whose vision – not only her visual sense – is strong.

80
The Irish Times

LP1 is stylish and substantial, thanks to Barnett's striking voice and beats that sound as if they're transmitting from another planet.

80
Uncut
A riveting listen.
80
The Needle Drop

FKA Twigs' debut album showcases the UK-based singer's most coherent songs yet; creatively mashing together contemporary R&B with art pop and experimental hip hop-style production.

80
The Observer

Barnett's music is the latest chapter in the ongoing transatlantic vogue for barely-there R&B, and this album joins her two previously released EPs in providing the subgenre with new heights.

80
FLOOD Magazine

All this sonic delirium shockingly coalesces into genuinely captivating hooks and stunningly sensual atmospherics.

80
The Sydney Morning Herald

She gets her kicks plenty across LP1 - lines like “I could kiss you for hours” and “only thing left to do is each other” made refrains - but rarely does it seem cool.

80
The Arts Desk
The control and detail create something that is paradoxically intimate but alien.
80
Q Magazine
Variously recalling the indie R&B of The xx, the nervy trip-hop of mid-'90s Bristol.
80
Clash

Fragile, heavenly and utterly compelling; this debut paves the way for boundaries-pushing pop. This is music that shatters you with a single tap.

80
musicOMH

Over the course of the 10 tracks here FKA twigs often leaves you enraptured, however, what’s arguably even more promising is the sense that this fascinating artist can go in any sort of direction from here and achieve even greater heights.

80
PopMatters

The record’s successes, its thrills and intimations of where FKA twigs could go with more time and cash on hand, more than make up for its weak spots. She’s not quite there yet, but it seems FKA twigs might actually be the next generation pop star we’ve been promised for so long.

80
NME

This pervading sense of control and commitment to her art proves that Twigs is set on building the sound of the future all by herself.

80
No Ripcord

There is no single powerful element that obscures the other through LP1, however, and Bartlett’s previous EP proves this is still very much her singular vision. 

80
FACT Magazine

LP1 is far from perfect, but its consistency of tone, its thematic rigour and its commitment to developing a musical grammar all of its own serve to override these momentary weaknesses.

80
DIY

‘LP1’ is a brave first step that she had to take. It’s not perfect, but anything this expressive and personally vital rarely is.

80
Resident Advisor

In the end, LP1 is probably the most singular pop album of the year. It's testament to how emotionally affecting one person's realised vision can be.

80
The Skinny

It reads like a whispered confessional; a generous and sure-footed adventure whose studio smarts (snappy beats, exquisitely detailed backing) provide foundation for a unique and thrilling new voice.

80
Time Out London

Her brilliant debut album is a collection of forward-thinking electro-R&B tracks packed with unexpected sonic details

80
Slant Magazine

LP1 is more than just a confident debut album. It's primordial in a way that Björk herself has often attempted but frequently short-circuited letting her cognizance get in the way.

80
The Guardian

When the tunes match the invention of the production, LP1 is genuinely brilliant.

70
Spectrum Culture

These songs are undoubtedly sexy and sexual, but some shuddering darkness seems attached to each track.

70
Rolling Stone

Twigs' deconstructed shards of U.K. grime and garage land heavier, while elegiac vocals soften the songs without blunting their edge.

60
NOW Magazine
It's a rigorous production that could benefit from some humanizing imperfections. After a while, the microscopic detail underscoring each turn of phrase, delivered with such delicate poise and precise drama, is suffocating.
60
Mixmag

There are some excellent tracks here – ‘Lights On’, ‘Two Weeks’, ‘Pendulum’ – and her talent is obvious, but the men at the production desk could perhaps have been braver.

60
Tiny Mix Tapes

LP1 is a solid, fully confident pop album built from the same blocks that formed her previous release, which nevertheless forgoes the bewilderingly alien quality of her best work.

barcooper
90

So kind by twigs to travel into the future and bring us some rnb from 2050!!
Another fantastic album by the queen herself. I've been really getting into FKA twigs recently even more then I did in the past, After I heard her latest mixtape, And I wanted to dive deeper into her discography. So I returned again to MAGDALENE which I've already heard in the past and it really grew on me, However I wanted to review this album as well and then I will rereview MAGDALENE very soon.

I Will say right ... read more

DonCorleone
100

Experimental masterclass πŸ’…

Missing_Lyriks
94

I was in an insatiable music mood - not even Marvin Gaye was working - and this was the only thing that appeased my appetite. Twigs is a master of blending two typically contrasting sounds into something desirable and absolutely stunning.

‘Two Weeks’ is probably one of the best songs I’ve ever listened to in the entire span of my 16 years of life.

100

Music that transcends its own space and time. It was ahead of its time in 2014, and still is now. Very few albums can make you feel the way this one does.

Jtin
83

Sick

bjorklotus
84

fka twigs is a master genre blender

this album breaks all traditional standards for rnb, one day we will look upon it as far ahead of its time

Purchasing LP1 from Amazon helps support Album of the Year. Or consider a donation?
Become a Donor
Donor badge, no ads + more benefits.
Advertisement

Track List

1Preface
1:46
86
2Lights On
4:24
91
3Two Weeks
4:07
95
4Hours
4:35
86
5Pendulum
4:58
91
6Video Girl
3:47
90
7Numbers
3:43
86
8Closer
3:45
86
9Give Up
4:17
89
10Kicks
5:24
89
Total Length: 40 minutes
Sign in to comment
1mo
1mo
2mo
7mo
9mo


Added on: June 9, 2014