I still think the songs on the eps are gorgeous and really can't comprehend how they're unlikeable—particularly "Water Me," which seems to be the one most scorned—but I'm looking forward to whatever her next move is.
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 23 July 2014 06:47 (ten years ago) link
leaked. if you need me, i'll be over here listening to this one on a loop for the next couple days.
― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 29 July 2014 01:11 (ten years ago) link
this album is a real endorphin releaser.
― Van Horn Street, Wednesday, 30 July 2014 01:19 (ten years ago) link
i love "two weeks" and i think i also love "pendulum" but at this point i'm not convinced by the rest
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Wednesday, 30 July 2014 02:29 (ten years ago) link
I'm kind of floored by this tbh
― uxorious gazumping (monotony), Wednesday, 30 July 2014 13:02 (ten years ago) link
The album is a big blur, but it's great.
― Herbie Handcock (Murgatroid), Wednesday, 30 July 2014 18:15 (ten years ago) link
This is a much more convincing artistic statement for me than the tracks I heard from the EPs without being substantially different; I don't know what is happening here that wasn't on the EPs but more of that, plz
― Star Gentle Uterus (DJP), Wednesday, 6 August 2014 01:51 (ten years ago) link
For damn sure. It's a treat and works so damn well on a summer evening.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 6 August 2014 01:55 (ten years ago) link
I've basically gone from thinking she was wildly overrated to being like...why are there not 1,000 new answers in this thread right now?
My favourite album from this year so far, I think.
― uxorious gazumping (monotony), Wednesday, 6 August 2014 03:05 (ten years ago) link
am I the only 1 who reads this as "fucka twigs" in my mind?
― DERE is no DERE DERE (Stevie D(eux)), Wednesday, 6 August 2014 21:25 (ten years ago) link
Whoah on my first listen and this is super great. Portishead springs to mind + destiny's child or something I dunno but I like this a lot. I'm sure I heard the last EP but it didn't make much impression on me.
― DISMISSED AS CHANCE (NotEnough), Wednesday, 6 August 2014 21:51 (ten years ago) link
i guess i'm waiting to download the official version but based on the two singles this will be one of my fav albums of the year for sure
― festival culture (Jordan), Wednesday, 6 August 2014 22:00 (ten years ago) link
live at maida vale - http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ed2nc8#p0249zb1
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 6 August 2014 22:03 (ten years ago) link
apologies for tedious interview that precedes it
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 6 August 2014 22:38 (ten years ago) link
set starts at 4:49
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 6 August 2014 22:39 (ten years ago) link
ugh zane lowe is the worst
― uxorious gazumping (monotony), Wednesday, 6 August 2014 23:36 (ten years ago) link
― DERE is no DERE DERE (Stevie D(eux)), Wednesday, August 6, 2014 5:25 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
no
― katherine, Thursday, 7 August 2014 00:11 (ten years ago) link
pendulum is quite good but i can't shake the feeling that i'm missing something in my core that allows me to get excited about this artist's work. as with kelela and SZA, i am impressed and enjoy the songs but i couldn't remember anything enough to hum them to save my life.
― go ahead. make vid where u rap about this new TMNT movie. (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 7 August 2014 06:22 (ten years ago) link
^^^ exactly how i felt about twigs before this album.
Kelela and twigs I think have far more focussed and refined aesthetics than SZA who I feel like is figuring herself out still - the album was sort of all over the place with a couple of gems. ("Julia", mostly).
― uxorious gazumping (monotony), Thursday, 7 August 2014 06:45 (ten years ago) link
I listened with fairly low expectations and this is really, really good, hairs-on-back-of-neck good in places.
All the "it's really about the producer" stuff upthread is revealed as cobblers by this point. With all the names knocking around - Arca, Dev Hynes, Paul Epworth, maybe Clams Casino - it's remarkably consistent in sound and aesthetic leaving you in little doubt that the person who's actually driving things is her. As opposed to other hyped new artists where the debut sounds like a bet-hedging grab-bag of different approaches.
And so many of these tracks SOUND fantastic, like pop songs stretched out until their component parts are miles apart, and then making maximum use of that space. I'm trying to work out why I find this all so affecting, she doesn't have a particularly great voice or what you'd call presence (other than in a kind of airy seductive ghost way) but her voice ties everything together perfectly, you can't imagine this working without her.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 7 August 2014 11:29 (ten years ago) link
Terrible fucking name by the way.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 7 August 2014 11:32 (ten years ago) link
I don't like the name either but I liked her explanation when I interviewed her: "I like the masculine letters. It sounds like a boy’s computer game. A sergeant has to save people. FKA twigs on a mission! FKA twigs do you read me? Copy that!" Then she started moving her arms like a game character running. She's quite odd.
― Re-Make/Re-Model, Thursday, 7 August 2014 12:54 (ten years ago) link
The record is wonderful. At first I thought it was all just a beautiful blur but then I started listening to tracks in isolation and the different strengths and idiosyncracies come out. Two Weeks is one of my songs of the year.
― Re-Make/Re-Model, Thursday, 7 August 2014 12:56 (ten years ago) link
Yeah it all seems kind of samey but then you pay attention and start to realise how much each track changes as it goes along, all these evolving shapes and sounds in the background.
Hate the first 15 seconds of Lights On though. Maybe they had the Pitchfork audience in mind and decided to include a rythmically inept guitar figure right at the beginning just to reassure them.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 7 August 2014 13:13 (ten years ago) link
i love all kinds of sounds i could never hum to save my life
― °ㅇ๐ْ ° (gr8080), Thursday, 7 August 2014 13:37 (ten years ago) link
With all the names knocking around - Arca, Dev Hynes, Paul Epworth, maybe Clams Casino - it's remarkably consistent in sound and aesthetic leaving you in little doubt that the person who's actually driving things is her.
sounds like she produced a lot of it herself as well?
― festival culture (Jordan), Thursday, 7 August 2014 13:38 (ten years ago) link
Yeah I think so.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 7 August 2014 13:51 (ten years ago) link
i love all kinds of sounds i could never hum to save my life― °ㅇ๐ْ ° (gr8080)
― go ahead. make vid where u rap about this new TMNT movie. (forksclovetofu), Friday, 8 August 2014 03:22 (ten years ago) link
loving this. earnestly looking forward to lex explaining why we're listening to the wrong thing
― Simon H., Friday, 8 August 2014 03:56 (ten years ago) link
I'm actually having quite a lot of trouble hearing this as an R&B album in any way, obviously there is loads of R&B influence in there but a lot of the time the melodies just don't feel like R&B melodies, there's this odd kind of English folkishness to some of the vocal lines. It's a weird blend but she makes it work.
― Matt DC, Friday, 8 August 2014 08:41 (ten years ago) link
I don't think it really has any pretensions of being "an R&B album", so to speak - it's much closer to Homogenic than Aaliyah.
― uxorious gazumping (monotony), Friday, 8 August 2014 12:58 (ten years ago) link
Yeah, I'd be wary of falling into the Santigold trap here
― Star Gentle Uterus (DJP), Friday, 8 August 2014 13:02 (ten years ago) link
i found myself humming the vocal melody to 'pendulum' in the shower this morning tbh
― go ahead. make vid where u rap about this new TMNT movie. (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 9 August 2014 16:18 (ten years ago) link
"When I first released music and no one knew what I looked like, I would read comments like: 'I've never heard anything like this before, it's not in a genre.' And then my picture came out six months later, now she's an R&B singer.. "
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/aug/09/fka-twigs-two-weeks-lp1
― piscesx, Saturday, 9 August 2014 17:12 (ten years ago) link
Bingo.
― Johnny Fever, Saturday, 9 August 2014 17:20 (ten years ago) link
Interesting that that quote appears in an article that also contains "Her hands wave violently around wisps of Afro that have escaped her do," and "Growing up in Gloucester as the only mixed-race girl in her Catholic school, a natural rhythm propelled her to childhood classes and through to an eventual career throwing shapes for pop stars".
― Star Gentle Uterus (DJP), Saturday, 9 August 2014 19:10 (ten years ago) link
Ugh son
― The Reverend, Saturday, 9 August 2014 19:44 (ten years ago) link
Never saw it as an R&B album, or R&B artist for that matter. Lights Out and Kicks are my highlights so far.
― Van Horn Street, Saturday, 9 August 2014 23:12 (ten years ago) link
Actually I've had Kicks on repeat for a while now.
― Van Horn Street, Saturday, 9 August 2014 23:13 (ten years ago) link
i don't think i'd call this r&b but it's not so far out of that lane... it's sorta ambient slow jammy shit. detwangified mazzy star with more weed and a bulletproof soul.
― go ahead. make vid where u rap about this new TMNT movie. (forksclovetofu), Sunday, 10 August 2014 04:07 (ten years ago) link
listened to what i could find on US spotify on the way in to work tonight: two recent singles & EP2. i'd watched the "two weeks" & "water me" videos a little while back, spun EP2 at some point earlier this year, but tbh, nothing had stuck so clearly in my mind as the associated images of twigs herself (LP1 art has to be in the running for album cover of the year).
turns out, given some time, volume & attention, that "two weeks" is magnificent. not quite catchy enough for mainstream pop (is it?), but fascinating lyrics, voice & production. played it three or four times in a row and am looking forward to rest of the album. can understand the peter gabriel comparisons in relation to "pendulum" and some of the EP stuff, obv bridge point being "don't give up", maybe the so era in general. not the sort of thing i'd probably ever hear absent the attention hereabouts, so, as usual, thx, ILX.
― Adding ease. Adding wonder. Adding (contenderizer), Sunday, 10 August 2014 04:43 (ten years ago) link
"two weeks" is magnificent. not quite catchy enough for mainstream pop (is it?)
it's currently on Radio 1's A-list
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 10 August 2014 18:55 (ten years ago) link
I can't wait to see the "Kicks" video.
― Herbie Handcock (Murgatroid), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 04:14 (ten years ago) link
just glancing through the beginning of this thread and lolled at this:
<3 twigs, but let's not lie to ourselves, Arca is the real draw.
― Star Gentle Uterus (DJP), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 13:50 (ten years ago) link
the best song on this album features production from paul epworth which is surprising considering the roster
― uxorious gazumping (monotony), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 13:57 (ten years ago) link
a natural rhythm
― StillAdvance, Tuesday, 12 August 2014 14:17 (ten years ago) link
haha, but the collision of the vocals with out there/stark/daring beats is still the thing...turns out she can make better beats for herself than Arca, so great!
btw anyone have production credits for this?
― festival culture (Jordan), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 14:21 (ten years ago) link
this is really interesting
― ruffalo soldier (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 14:25 (ten years ago) link
so this is like totally an ilx album of the year right?
― ruffalo soldier (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 14:29 (ten years ago) link
I feel like if this was the exact same album but had Karin Dreijer Andersson on the cover, it would unambiguously be ILX's album of the year
― Star Gentle Uterus (DJP), Tuesday, 12 August 2014 15:26 (ten years ago) link
this album is gonna rule
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHVxIjpycNc
― Roz, Friday, 18 October 2024 01:02 (one week ago) link
Wow! yeah I love this too!
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, 18 October 2024 02:59 (one week ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qkr3lahTs6o
don't think it was ever posted in here, but if you don't mind spoilers, she performs several songs - presumably from the album - in the video above. I'm particularly excited about the one that starts at around the 6:40 mark
― monotony, Friday, 18 October 2024 03:37 (one week ago) link
ooh thanks!
I like the song before the song better than "Eusexua"
I just learned recently that this track ("Drums of Death") samples kpop star G-Dragon's One of a Kind, which I can't believe I didn't pick up on sooner considering how much I listened to it back in 2012
― Roz, Friday, 18 October 2024 06:11 (one week ago) link