MAGDALENE is the sophomore album released by English singer FKA twigs and is, in my eyes, one of the best albums from 2019. It came out on November 8, 2019 with the music video for the lead single, “cellophane,” being nominated at the 2019 Grammy’s for Best Music Video. This album is the personification of immense heartbreak and sadness. FKA twigs explores these melancholic topics whilst creating theatrical and avant-garde performances that feature masks, pole-dancing, and sword-dancing and a wardrobe full of extravagant dresses. Due to this, MAGDALENE as a whole is more of an art form and an experience rather than just an album. Sonically, twigs blends classical, electronic, and avant-pop. The album has production credits ranging from Skrillex to Jack Antonoff to twigs herself. In the beautifully composed track about relationships, “home with you,” twigs announces, “Mary Magdalene would never let her loved ones down. I didn’t know you were lonely; if you’d have just told me, I’d be home with you.” Then, there is the upbeat and sweet song “holy terrain” which has twigs searching for a lover who is capable of following his heart and treating twigs as she deserves; Future provides a guest verse as where he states his state of vulnerability and reassures his love. The gut-wrenching “mirrored heart” is about finding a lover who is a reflection of yourself, something twigs says she does not have. The song follows as twigs wonders if her lover really ever loved her and how, despite this, she will never give up on him. This album beautifully explores and describes twigs’ experiences with depression, heartbreak, and loneliness while using an iconic biblical figure to symbolize divine femininity and the effects of having someone else write your own story, as what happened with Mary Magdalene.
☆ Rating: 10/10 ☆
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