Entertainment Weekly - 11.2019

The Who WHO 11.2019 → French Montana Montana 12.2019 → Lil Wayne Funeral 2019 TBD → Rihanna TBD Camila Cabello TBD

Mr. Blue Sky

JEFF LYNNE

FKA TWIGS

HAIL MARY

HEALING IS A MAJOR THEME ON

Magdalene (out Nov. 8), the long-

awaited second album from British

singer-songwriter FKA twigs. It’s a

painfully fitting subject for the

31-year-old artist, having with-

stood heartache and health

struggles over the last two years,

including a split from partner Rob-

ert Pattinson and the removal of

six fibroid tumors from her uterus.

“Going through so much just

allows me to be really open and

vulnerable when writing,” twigs

tells EW. “I really wasn’t living the

high life during this time. I was just

by myself a lot. And I was able to

tap into a lot of emotions.”

Magdalene—her first release

since the 2015 EP M3LL155X and

first official full-length since 2014’s

LP1—finds twigs working through

those emotions by intertwining

subjects like truth-telling and

companionship and flipping tradi-

tional male/female archetypes.

That sentiment is also reflected in

the album’s title, named for the bib-

lical figure Mary Magdalene and

focusing on her lesser-known role

as an herbalist. “We didn’t know

that she was a healer,” says twigs.

“When I was younger, I was just

told that she was a prostitute.”

A parallel process of discovery

unfolded in the making of Magda-

lene, which twigs refers to as a

“killing of ego,” noting that the

project wouldn’t have happened if

she had not finally let go of the

expectations to come up with a

compelling follow-up to her criti-

cally acclaimed debut. “My goal for

Magdalene was to really not have a

goal and sing it right from my

heart,” she says. “I think as soon as

I removed the pressure, it actually

began to flow out.” —Clarkisha Kent

Jeff Lynne has done more with

Electric Light Orchestra over the

past five years than he did in the

previous 30. Since reviving his

best-selling band for an exhilarat-

ing one-off 2014 concert in

London, the singer-guitarist-

producer has released the rock-

ers’ first original material in four

years (Alone in the Universe), gone

on two tours, and performed “Evil

Woman” at the Grammys with Ed

Sheeran (hey, why not?). Next up:

another album, From Out of

Nowhere (out Nov. 1).

On the new record, Lynne and

company reflect on old flames,

future adventures, and the amaz-

ing journey they’ve gone on since

their surprise Hyde Park come-

back show. On “All of My Love,” the

frontman muses about missed

opportunities over ’80s yacht-rock

grooves, while four-on-the-floor

stomper “Time of Our Life” has

him humbly revisiting ELO’s 2017

set at Wembley Stadium (“Went

down to Londontown, to play our

music at the football ground/

I can’t believe this is going down”).

Overall, Nowhere is filled with the

types of bright melodies and

orchestral arrangements that first

turned the group into a household

name—nowhere more so than on

“One More Time,” where Lynne

sings, “We’ve gotta give it every-

thing we’ve got, just one more

time.” Hopefully, it’s not actually

ELO’s swan song. —Alex Suskind

TAYLOR: BRYCE THOMPSON; LYNNE: JOSEPH CULTICE; TWIGS: ALASDAIR MCLELLAN