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10.0
114648
10.0 |
Loud And Quiet
For want of grand statements, MAGDALENE is as holistically complete as any pop record released this decade
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10.0
114653
10.0 |
The Skinny
By processing the physical and emotional pain she's experienced, FKA twigs’ new album MAGDALENE operates as a purging of all her heartbreak
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10.0
114684
10.0 |
NME
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
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10.0
114714
10.0 |
Evening Standard
There’s something new and exciting around every hairpin bend. Magdalene allows her to stand alone as an exceptional artist
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10.0
114752
10.0 |
No Ripcord
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. Cherish FKA twigs and cherish MAGDALENE
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10.0
114800
10.0 |
musicOMH
Magdalene is an album that, like FKA twigs herself, defies both genre and classification. Yet it’s a late contender for album of the year, with songs that will live you for months to come
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9.4
114692
9.4 |
Pitchfork
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
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9.0
114776
9.0 |
Sputnik Music (staff)
Magdalene sees FKA Twigs reach a wholly satisfying pinnacle that is unlikely to be rivaled by any of her peers in 2019
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9.0
114717
9.0 |
All Music
Like the dancer she is, Barnett pushes through pain in pursuit of beauty and truth, and the leaps she makes are breathtaking
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9.0
114686
9.0 |
PopMatters
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
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9.0
114687
9.0 |
Crack
Make no mistake, MAGDALENE is first and foremost a bracing document of female pain and the sacrifice required to overcome it
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9.0
114665
9.0 |
Exclaim
In portrait mode, Magdalene tears down the metaphorical walls — aurally, visually, physically — to build back up a wholly realized self
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9.0
114673
9.0 |
Slant Magazine
A distinct feminine energy pulses through the singer-songwriter’s shimmering sophomore effort
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9.0
114604
9.0 |
Uncut
There's a defiance in each painful note. In tasting despair, Tahliah Barnett has returned 10 times stronger - in spirit and voice. Print edition only
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9.0
114639
9.0 |
The Line Of Best Fit
It is the fullest and most developed work from FKA Twigs to date
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8.7
114688
8.7 |
Paste Magazine
MAGDALENE is the sound of an artist gluing together the million tiny shards in which she found herself after an explosive breakup
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8.5
114620
8.5 |
Northern Transmissions
Never rushed yet often urgent, MAGDALENE is a work of great tension and balance. It never falls into complacency, and it’s never indulgent
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8.0
114631
8.0 |
Clash
The sound of someone delicately yet decisively knitting themselves back together
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8.0
114605
8.0 |
Q
This is a record of real substance. Print edition only
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8.0
114603
8.0 |
The Quietus
Twigs still finds ferocious power in her music, her femininity, and her sexuality. But on MAGDALENE, she tampers that ferocity with a radical sensitivity and vulnerability that indicate a broader maturation in her artistic development
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8.0
114613
8.0 |
The Arts Desk
The title song reflects today’s understanding of the much-maligned apostle as proto feminist – fully a sensual woman and powerful with it
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8.0
114689
8.0 |
The Irish Times
From germ-free adolescent to tainted love
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8.0
114676
8.0 |
The Music
Magdalene is a personal triumph over adversity
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8.0
114678
8.0 |
DIY
When everything aligns, there are true moments of wonder to be found
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8.0
114720
8.0 |
The FT
Lyrics are candid and introspective while minimalist rhythms come cloaked in layers of sound
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8.0
114721
8.0 |
The Observer
The sequencing doesn’t always feel right – lead single Cellophane, a gorgeous breakup epic, should be at the heart of the album, not tacked at the end after natural closer Daybed. Whatever the order of the songs, though, the inner battles of Magdalene will stay with you long after they finish
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8.0
114729
8.0 |
Rolling Stone
On Magdalene, her long-brewing followup, she moves to the next level, making music that resists being pinned by genre — or even as merely music, so integral is choreography, filmmaking, and photography to what she does
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8.0
114682
8.0 |
The Independent
The follow-up to 2014’s LP1, made in the wake of heartbreak, is twigs at her sorrowful, scrappy best
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8.0
114683
8.0 |
Under The Radar
MAGDALENE might not be perfect, but it reverberates with the sound of someone shutting the door on a difficult chapter in their life. The prospect of what's next for Barnett is genuinely exciting
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8.0
114823
8.0 |
Spectrum Culture
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
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7.5
114640
7.5 |
Consequence Of Sound
The performer undergoes a metamorphosis after emotional and physical trauma
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6.0
114606
6.0 |
Mojo
Twigs plants words with tenacious deliberation and care, but sometimes the result is over-studied, a gentle industrial emo. Print edition only
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6.0
114681
6.0 |
The Guardian
Tahliah Barnett moves further into abstraction on this personal, painstaking and wildly adventurous record
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