Hey, I made you a mixtape. Because when I feel you I feel me. And when I feel me, it feels good.
This is how FKA twigs opens her new mixtape, CAPRISONGS, as if she herself burned it on a CD just for you. In a way, she did: the British multi-hyphenate offers the community found in this 17-track project – by way of candid talks that twigs recorded between her and friends – to listeners. “If you are lonely or feel isolated or void of encouragement by your immediate circle you can borrow my friends on the mixtape,” twigs (real name Tahliah Debrett Barnett) tweeted on CAPRISONGS’ release day, Jan. 14, as the world faces yet another COVID surge amid the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.
There really are many other voices to uplift twigs’ on this mixtape – and not just counting the considerable number of features on CAPRISONGS (which include The Weeknd, Daniel Caesar, Jorja Smith and Shygirl). Visit any song at random and you’ll catch these snippets of conversation as if they’re flowing out from the living room, beckoning you to come out of your bedroom.
One in particular especially stands out:
“Each year I’m like, ah, I’m gonna own my sh-t, and then each year I’m still so shy and so quiet,” twigs confesses to a friend in track No. 3, “meta angel.”
The friend quiets these doubts: “The universe is so powerful. You’re gonna be more free and you’re gonna laugh more and you’re gonna have more fun.”
This exchange is reflective of the optimistic shift in twigs’ new music. In case you’re not familiar with her, you probably are with her most viral hit, “cellophane,” in which twigs sings over and over, “Don’t I do it for you?” to her former lover. Twigs translates unrequited love into an auditory experience that’s so raw, it’s almost too painful to listen to. The rest of the album which “cellophane” can be found on, 2019’s Magdalene, is filled with similarly heart-wrenching ballads.
That’s not the case with CAPRISONGS. While it’s not a post-breakup revenge album filled with overly saccharine songs, the jump from one mood to the next shows twigs’ playfulness in the studio as her inner child heals. For instance, twigs is soulful on one song (“ride the dragon”), then seamlessly transitions into a fun, sexy dance track on “no tears in the club.” Sonically, CAPRISONGS also pulls from multiple genres like R&B, Afrobeats and various styles of futuristic pop. The project can’t be pinpointed down to one label: everything blends together into one transcendental – but overall uplifting – experience, no matter what mood twigs is channeling.
You really can tell twigs has “fallen back in love with music” and is “trying new things,” which she declared in her Twitter analysis of the mixtape. She even “dare[d]” to label CAPRISONGS as “joyful.” This is something she’s “never been able to do before” in her music. “Those of you who have listened to magdalene know,” she cheekily added.
You want to share this joy with friends, just like twigs did while creating the mixtape. Unlike Magdalene – a different kind of masterpiece that needs to be appreciated in the solitude of your bedroom while reliving your past heartbreaks – you can dance to CAPRISONGS with loved ones while simultaneously acknowledging that your solo journey into the new year will be one of growth and happiness.
Twigs seems to say just that with this tweet: “caprisongs is my journey back to myself through my amazing collaborators and friends.”