In an interview with Rolling Stone, Tahliah Barnett revealed that she creates songs using the same method that Michelangelo supposedly used on marble: “I put in everything I can think of — everything, everything — until it’s just a massive wall, sometimes with no BPM, no structure, nothing. […] Then the next day I’ll go in and just chip away at it and keep on chipping.” Her stripped-down approach to R&B is what makes LP1 so stunning: Artists have done minimalism before, but never quite like this. She captures the breathlessness that comes from never feeling good enough, the intimacy that comes with being physically close with someone but on another plane emotionally. When you listen to FKA Twigs, you feel in touch with every single part of your body: the way a simple flick of the wrists can feel deeply sexual, the way your heartbeat matches up with the expansion and contraction of your lungs, as if it’s trying to wriggle out of its cage. The beats on LP1 are aqueous and malleable: Sometimes you completely drown in them, other times they disperse with just a gentle nudge. In my live review, I talked about how Twigs was a master of restraint: There’s a hit peeking out from underneath every one of these songs — take the Gothic arches of “Closer” or the gut-punching intensity of “Two Weeks” — but she pares it back until we can only grasp at wisps of what could be. Her talents go even deeper than that: Twigs is able to tap into the physicality of love and desire, and it’s simultaneously overwhelming and completely intoxicating. –James [LISTEN]