Before you get too deep into the astrological interpretation of the music of FKA Twigs, and there is really enough material for that, you have to listen very carefully for a very short time. Because otherwise you might miss this woman’s fine sense of humor. At the beginning of “Meta Angel” the singer lists the stars and signs of her birth chart: “Saggi’ Moon, Pisce’ Veen”, moon sign Sagittarius, Venus in Pisces. Then she pauses for a few seconds, sniffs air and emits such a pleasurable “Capri Sun” that the sun sign Capricorn or the popular drinking cone could be meant.
Tahliah Barnett, better known as FKA Twigs, remains a master of nuances and ambiguities on her third long-player “Caprisongs”. This is particularly evident in the theme of spirituality, which runs as a leitmotif through the 17 songs of this self-proclaimed mixtape. Birth charts and star constellations have long been popular again, especially in (queer) feminist circles, a mixture of self-empowerment tool and playful art form. Slurp, ahh, Capri sun. Serious and tongue in cheek. At the same time, the spirituality inherent in “Caprisongs” falls into a larger narrative of reclaiming a cultural practice once violently taken from Barnett’s Caribbean ancestors by Christian colonizers.
The cassette slides into the drawer, the flap closes, the play button clicks into place. “Hey, I made you a mixtape”, breathes the artist to seductively stretched chopped and screwed sounds, “because when I feel you, I feel me. And when I feel me, it feels good.” If you haven’t rolled through the last two years with body and soul armor made of steel, you’re already completely blown away after 24 seconds. Damn it, it’s January 2022, who still feels anything here?
Freer, lighter and closer to yourself
It clicks again, the belt accelerates. “Reallywannakissme,” blurted out FKA Twigs. She waited too long, now it has to be quick. Do you know this feeling? The next track “Honda” stumbles in two-syllable flow over a deeply stacked beat. It rattles and knocks. Here someone shakes himself free. In “Meta Angel” passion almost brings the voice changer software to its knees: “I got a love for desire. I got a pain for desire.” Oh yes. And then comes Tears in the Club.
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FKA Twigs previously released the collaboration with The Weeknd as a single, and now it becomes the key track on “Caprisongs”. A few synth piano tones echo in the expectant room, then the beat descends on the dance floor: “I wanna get you out of my hips, my thighs, my hair, my eyes, my late night cries.” The club, at this time of the pandemic more ideal place than real, becomes a reservoir of longings.
With the very next swipe, the cleansing ritual turns into empowering self-love: “I wanna take my clothes off, wanna touch my hips, my thighs, my hair, not yours, all mine”. The tender measurement of your own body. Not yours, all mine. A brief moment that doesn’t block any feeling, that allows everything, lets everything out. tears, lust and fears. This is body music, after all. FKA Twigs never sounded freer, lighter and closer to itself. And no closer to the really big pop hit.
“Caprisongs” is a skinning. FKA Twigs discards all ballast. And the listeners with her. The intricate superstructure. The strange ideas. The painful pandemic years. Gone are the baroque costumes in which the artist could hardly move during the live performances of her previous album “Magdalene”. Now ease reigns.
It’s about self-esteem and self-confidence
On social media, FKA Twigs shared little “anti videos,” snippets of music videos just a few seconds long. Perfect stagings of authenticity for today’s Reels and TikToks: a dance on the street here, a make-up trick there. Of course, the mixtape itself also fits into this performance, which is repeatedly interrupted by the clicking of the recorder buttons, winding noises and spoken interludes.
These in-between pieces are about self-esteem and self-confidence. “This is the year of greatness, growth and being free,” it says at one point. And even if that sometimes sounds a lot like pastel Instagram therapy picture tiles, you can’t help but manifest really well when listening.
Accordingly, the message at the end of “Oh my Love” is aimed equally at FKA Twigs and their listeners: “Love yourself, know your worth, fuck crying over these stupid boys.” The stupid boys, that makes sense, could of course be Barnetts be ex-relations. Robert Pattinson, whose fans she racially abused, and Shia LaBeouf, whom she reported for assault. Lots of coverage, lots of stories degrading Barnett to an accessory, an accessory, or a victim.
FKA Twigs reclaims its own history
With “Caprisongs” FKA Twigs gets back their own story. Here a person appears who has found himself and a firm footing. And which is precisely why it allows for diversity and complexity, and can cultivate different traditions and styles. FKA Twigs ventures far into pop, the beats stretch into trap and grime realms. “Pamplemousse” is high-score pop brand Charli XCX, on “Papi Bones” dancehall fanfares from the noughties roar, “Jealousy” sways through Afrobeats and “Honda” lets a sacred choir crash into the rhymes of Gambian-British rapper Pa Salieu .
“Caprisongs” also shows us that: self-discovery is not for loners. Man is not an island and in the community you come to yourself. FKA Twigs has never worked with so many artists before. Alongside Pa Salieu and The Weeknd there are features or co-writing credits from Shygirl, Rema and Jorja Smith, and Arca also makes an appearance at the controls.
At the end of the 48 minutes you can feel how much FKA Twigs needed this record. And not just her. Unlike Adele’s recent “30”, “Caprisongs” is not only a personal therapy album for the artist, but also a therapeutic album for her listeners. That shows what can move when you start moving.
In order to be able to guess what this free, self-contained and outwardly radiant FKA Twigs will be capable of, you have to take another close look. On the cover of “Caprisongs,” Barnett pulls her bottom lip down with a sharp fingernail, revealing a word written in fine letters on her lower row of teeth: “goat.” It could be called “Goat” or, slurp, ahh, “Greatest Of All Time.
