FKA Twigs - LP1 (Japan Edition, LP)

The singer and songwriter FKA twigs dropped what might have been 2014's most anticipated debut album with her full-length LP1. It's an album that easily lives up to the promise of initial singles 'Water Me' and 'Two Weeks' and certainly outclassed any other competition. 

Years previous to its release had seen many artists taking a left-field look at R&B, and there is a vulnerability but also a strength in FKA twigs' voice on tracks like 'Lights On' that definitely hark back to such icons as Aaliyah and Cassie. Still, comparisons like this aren't fair when it's clear there is a lot more than a take on just one genre going on here. The opening 'Preface' surrounds the listener in hymnal wisps of voices both robotic and pure, the perfect immersion point into this magical album. 'Two Weeks' is still a stand out track, pop music shot through with an elegant but visceral sensuality while 'Pendulum' is almost bare bones in terms of its sonic make up of pattering noise rising and falling. This stillness and restraint is incredibly powerful, with the tense pull of a track like 'Video Girl' only making FKA twigs more magnetic as an artist. 

Completely new voices in pop music are rare, but LP1 is one of those very special occasions when one crystallises.