FKA Twigs new R&B EP ahead of our time
By Meghan Brown, Staff Writer//
When an artist drops a single, you can immediately tell an album is soon to follow. Typically, you hope that waiting period is no more than four to six months. However, it seems lately that more and more artists like Beyoncé and Drake are starting to release albums with no warning. The latest artist to join the trend this year? Alternative R&B artist, FKA Twigs. Her latest EP “M3LL155X” (pronounced “Mellissa”) is an odd but enticing mix of seductive and sultry R&B with only five songs on it. She surprised the world with it on August 13, 2015. To show that she was doing so much more than just working on five songs while she was hiding for the past
“I want people to see inside my head rather than just looking at me.”
– FKA Twigs
few months, she also released a 16-minute music video. FKA Twigs manages to pull her audience in with a chilling and tempting technical beat in “Figure 8” and hold their attention with her captivating voice in “I’m Your Doll.” She even brings her own twist to pop with “Glass & Patron.” Originality is something this artist will never have to worry about. In this EP, she asks important questions about the politics of femininity and power even though she is often reduced to “Twilight” star Robert Pattison’s fiancée in tabloids. For those of you who do not already have FKA Twigs on your “Artist to Watch” list, here are a few things you should know about her to understand her style of music. This British dancer turned singer was born Tahliah Barnett. Growing up in Gloucestershire, England, she was known as always being eccentric. From singing jazz with 80 year olds to listening to salsa, jazz, ska, and African fusion while her classmates listened to Spice Girls and AC/DC. She trained in ballet and won most of the competitions she entered over the years before moving to London at the age of 17. She was originally known as Twigs before another artist by the same name requested that she change her name. She once said in an interview with “Dazed” that she hopes her music is empowering to its listeners. FKA Twigs shows that she is much more than a pretty face with the complicated and boundary pushing themes of her accompanied video for M3LL155X. It is a collection of videos for the first four songs on the EP. The video addresses themes like birth, power, and sexuality. As if the eccentric presentation of her themes were not enough, she also incorporates her own complicated dance routines to top it all off. It’s clear that FKA Twigs’ production and voice are like no other. With each song, she leaves you wanting more, wanting to follow her to whatever advanced society from she originated. Her mixture of different forms of entertainment and her childhood experiences has never been black and white, so why should her music? With this EP FKA Twigs truly demonstrates that she is much more than a musical artist, but a performance artist and that her style is perhaps beyond our current musical understanding.