It’s strange to think that almost a year has passed since FKA twigs released her second full length record, MAGDALENE. Acclaimed by critics and adored by stans, it was a masterful unpacking of the pain of your body betraying you and relationships falling to pieces. (She spoke about it, in depth, in her i-D cover interview last year.) MAGDALENE also affirmed something we all knew deep down already: twigs is one of music’s greatest and most innovative contemporary artists. It was the product of four years of writing — and yet she’s managed to create a follow-up to it in just six months. Yep, FKA twigs’ third album is on the way.
The announcement was made during a conversation hosted by the GRAMMY Museum, titled Programs at Home. During the 30-minute conversation with Scott Goldman, the GRAMMY Museum’s Artistic Director, twigs unpacked the creation of MAGDALENE, her career to date, and what comes next. The new album, created entirely remotely during lockdown, was only 1/3 written before the world went to shit. “I just said ‘You know what, I’m going to make an album’, and I just went and did it,” she said.
Twigs gave us no allusions as to how the record might sound, or what it’s about — only that it was mainly produced by El Guincho, and that she “did the whole thing with pretty much all of the collaborators over FaceTime”. That she’s working with El Guincho is exciting in itself: a fellow Young Turks signee, he produced Rosalia’s game changing and Grammy-winning El Mal Querer in its entirety.
The record, as of right now, doesn’t have a release date. Perhaps it’ll be a surprise drop in the next few months, or she’ll hold it close to her chest for now; ensuring that when it does reach the world it’s as perfect as it can be. After all, the half-decade that separated LP1 from MAGDALENE is proof that great things can come from toiling at them for a while. Or maybe, twigs’ genius is so irrefutable that this record written in half a year will move us just as much as the bodies of work that preceded it did. Either way, we can’t wait.