An Album Of Disarming Cyborg Pop

FKA twigs's new record mines the contrasts between the electronic and the organic

- MARK RICHARDSON

English singer Tahliah Barnett, who performs as FKA twigs, is difficult to categorize. She has collaborated with some of the biggest stars in music-the Weeknd, Dua Lipa, Future. But her own work has never been especially popular. She has had modest streaming success, but she is in her own way quite influential, a figure in the future-pop space Charli XCX brought to the broader public in 2024. She has a high profile in the media-the cover of British Vogue last year, a modeling campaign for Calvin Klein-and yet she's enigmatic, sometimes coming across as more of a visual avatar than a personality.

Ms. Barnett's records also thrive on the tension between opposites. She trained in classical arts-voice and dance-and common notions of beauty are present in her music, yet she seems equally determined to splinter her tracks into to pieces via technology. This sonic daring, abetted by her collaborations with cutting-edge producers including Arca (Kanye West, Bj".ork), Daniel Lopatin aka Oneohtrix Point Never (the Weeknd) and her most frequent collaborator, Lewis Roberts, who works as Koreless, might keep her away from the Top 40, but it makes her a perennial favorite of critics. The third FKA twigs album, "Eusexua" (Young/Atlantic), out Friday, mostly plays to her strengths.