Description
SLEEVE: NM MEDIA: NM YEAR: 2014 ORIGIN: UK/US EXTRAS: Has 7", Gatefold
Tahliah Barnett opens up her sound by working with a host of producers: along with previous collaborator Arca, indie darlings Paul Epworth and Dev Hynes contribute their sound-shaping skills, along with Emile Haynie, whose contributions to Eminem's Recovery earned him a Grammy.
They help give LP1 a lusher sound that's more accessible, and more overtly R&B, than FKA Twigs' earlier work but maintains its ethereal sensuality. Here and elsewhere on LP1, Tahliah Barnett excels at broadening her emotional palette as well as her musical one. She glides from the album's lows to its highs, juxtaposing pitch-black tracks like "Numbers," where chopped-up breaths, beats, and horror movie strings channel panic, loss, and anger, with radiant ones like "Closer," the poppiest FKA Twigs song yet (and one that Barnett produced herself).
Elsewhere, the spacious, moody "Kicks" and "Lights On" evoke the EPs without rehashing them, emphasizing the album's seamless transition to a grander scope.