(Young/Atlantic)
The left-field singer makes a bid for the mainstream with hook-centric pop that centres on self-knowledge not trauma
Back in the day, mixtapes – on actual cassettes – were given away to friends, lovers and bandmates. They were vectors of shared passion, party playlists or just a way of introducing yourself. Caprisongs, British R&B singer FKA twigs’s third album-length project overall, is a self-declared mixtape, not merely in the hip-hop sense of a record put out for free, but in the old-fashioned one. It starts with the plasticky clunk of a tape being inserted into a deck. Tellingly, it feels addressed to twigs herself as much as anyone else, although this is a record that very much reintroduces her, and to a wider audience.
Through 17 tracks, this formerly niche artiste makes a bid for the mainstream, in the company of featured guests (eight in total) and producers (22 all told), friends (many) and a perfumer called Christi who is also an astrology buff. One significant presence is the electronic musician Arca, who worked on twigs’s LP1 (2014), among other releases. But all sorts of helpmeets had a hand in this effort: Welsh producer Koreless, Kanye alumnus Mike Dean, in-demand creative Sega Bodega and Nick Cave associate Warren Ellis. (Twigs and El Guincho co-executive produce.)