FKA Twigs

CAPRISONGS (Glow In The Dark Vinyl)

Labels / Brands:
Atlantic
Genre:
Soul / R&B
Style:
Contemporary R&B

In Stock

Specification
Description
Track-list

Condition	Sealed
Manufacturer	Czech Republic
Format	LP, Glow In The Dark Vinyl, Mixtape, Limited Edition
Date of release	2022
Barcode	075678635724

Caprisongs is a playful and adventurous flex, with guest features from the likes of Jorja Smith and Shygirl and executive production from El Guincho; twigs has framed it as a “journey back to myself through my amazing collaborators and friends.” The project’s title is not a riff on the kids’ juice pouches, but on being a “Capricorn sun”—a driven, in-control type of bitch. The songs are errant, shapeshifting compositions that move quickly, flirting with choral music and Afrobeats, schoolyard chants and squeak rapping. If you’re anticipating any straightforward hits with Dua Lipa, don’t: “Why Don’t You Love Me,” the much-awaited collaboration the duo recorded in 2020, is not on the tracklist. But the mixtape does feature life-or-death dramatics from a stan impatient for its release: “OK twigs,” they snap, “I’m tired of listening to it on YouTube.”

"You are experiencing the most powerful transit right now," an astrologer tells FKA twigs near the end of Caprisongs, a mixtape named for her sun sign and the time of year when it was released. It's understandable that Tahliah Barnett would want to try new approaches. Her second album, 2019's Magdalene, was so cathartic that it felt like the closing of a chapter in her life and music. On Caprisongs, she sounds much more spontaneous and fun -- qualities that Magdalene, for all its brilliance, had in short supply. Barnett takes full advantage of the freedom of the mixtape format, packing it full of songs, interludes, and cameos. Chief among them is the Weeknd, whose appearance on the supple R&B-leaning single "Tears in the Club" is as big a cosign as she could wish for. Not that she needs it -- when she sings "I wanna get you out of my hips," she dominates the track. She's just as in control of her desires on "Papi Bones," a dancehall-tinged collab with Shygirl, and "Honda," a kinetic track featuring Pa Salieu that incorporates rap in a way that harks back to LP1. Though Caprisongs nods to more mainstream sounds than her previous work, Barnett can still make any trend or genre her own. When she brings her music's hyperpop leanings to the fore with "Pamplemousse"'s nimble beats and vocals or adopts weightless R&B on the Daniel Caesar duet "Careless," it feels more like she's connecting to the outside world than bandwagon-jumping. Barnett does this with particular grace on "Darjeeling," which finds her sharing verses with Jorja Smith and Unknown T and interpolating Olive's trip-hop smash "You're Not Alone." It wouldn't be an FKA twigs release without some beautifully bittersweet ballads, but while "Meta Angel" and "Lightbeamers" both deliver on that front, they also sound like cocoons from which she's ready to emerge. The way Barnett shares tracks and experiences on Caprisongs makes it a more diffuse listening experience than her past releases, but it also brings a galvanizing openness to her music -- and suggests pain doesn't have to be her only muse.

Heather Phares. Allmusic.com