FKA twigs - CAPRISONGS Review
There’s nothing braver and more intimate than parading with an open heart: FKA Twigs show us that anything is possible with the right people and attitude.
When FKA Twigs says ‘hey I made you a mixtape’ at the beginning of ‘ride the dragon’, we take her words straight to heart, as her inviting voice echoes to the sounds of a cassette player. After the high conceptual storm of ‘MAGDALENE’, she invites us to move a little closer as she’s shedding previous albums’ extravagant skin to show new shape. It looks like human who’s been hurt and found their way back with help of friends, R&B beats and helluva strength.
‘Caprisongs’, named after her zodiac sign, are like a real-life diary filled with funky-sounding drawings, post-breakup trauma stains and a sea of stick-on stars glued by each of Twigs’ friends. Collaborations are a running theme in the 17 tracks featuring everyone, from Jorja Smith, Pa Salieu to Shygirl. FKA Twigs brought the diverse musical family together as they fooled around London streets and praised the power of self-love. The poems-like interludes-turn-affirmations make us feel like the project is addressed directly to us. Especially the dialogue intertwined in ‘meta angel’: ‘I'm telling you/ No, I wanna be more confident, I really do/ I really do (you're just like-)/ The universe, like, the universe is so powerful/You're gonna be freer, and you're gonna love more/and you're gonna have more fun (do you think so?)’. Even though it’s a search for an angel, FKA Twigs had never been closer to Earth, anxieties and hopes common people face every day. The whole mixtape feels blissful but 'meta angel’ is a true godsent and a standout. After letting herself go and cry-dancing with The Weekend to beat-leaden ‘Tears In The Club’, she still tries to reach out for feelings in rappy in a Britney Spears manner, ‘oh my love’. FKA Twigs might’ve gone a bit deep on the mixtape, navigating the way back to herself but she’s for sure having a lot of fun. ‘Caprisongs’ will host any emerging feeling. There’s an ode to the self and litany against loneliness as well as to ‘pamplemousse’ (French for grapefruit) where she’s cute-cool spitting playful bars or a first-time Shygirl x Twig earworm collab ‘papi bones’. At the centre of all that joy lives empowerment especially apparent in ‘which way’ where the singer’s drawing on her past and desire to be defined by what she does not who she’s with. It’s the energy that she also channels in ‘careless’ feat. Daniel Caesar, where she decides to finally find freedom with another person, inviting them to be at their most comfortable when around. ‘Mind of Men’ verses resurrect the spirit of ‘Magdalene’ who’s now trying to make amends and guiding through vulnerability but on her own terms.
On ‘darjeeling’ Twigs, with Jorja Smith and Unknown T, travels back in time to the pre-big city smalltown girls’ dreams, just discovered London and curvy life-road through teenage years to the soul-pleasing backdrop. FKA Twigs circles right back to the present on produced by Arca ‘thank you song’, an honest to the every-single just-healed bone ballad. Ultimately, it’s a love letter, ‘Love in motion, my heart's open /Thank you, thank you, I'm okay’, expressing gratitude to the new flame. Though we need to look behind the fire of affection to appreciate FKA Twigs’ soon-be mountain moving bravery when she confesses, ‘I wanted to die, I'm just being honest/No longer afraid to say it out loud’. With the realization seems to come peace and a promise of real-good times.
The avant-pop sensation decided to come down to Earth to fight celestial creatures of trauma. And there’s so much thrill to it. Even though, we miss Twigs the high concept drama and dreams, it’s nice to enjoy simple thrills too. Anyway, 2022 is FKA Twigs’ new rising. Sun’s in Twigs.