all wrapped in cellophane, the feelings that we had
April 25, 2019 4:46 PM   Subscribe

Yesterday, FKA twigs released the gorgeous video for Cellophane, her first single since 2016. [Epilepsy/migraine trigger warning for flashing lights] Twigs says "when I wrote cellophane over a year ago a visual narrative came to me immediately, I knew I had to learn how to pole-dance to bring it to life, and so that’s what I did."

The video is directed by Andrew Thomas Huang.

From Sasha Geffen's review at Vulture:
If she sounded aloof on previous records, she sheds that protective layer here. Her voice cracks and groans and breaks, as if it’s dragging more weight than it can bear. She has made a convincing alien in the past and played a titanic goddess and a blow-up doll in her hypnotic videos, but with “Cellophane,” she treads into more dangerous territory: performing as an unvarnished human.

This is Twigs at her slowest, most serene, and most painful. Suddenly, the focus of her music is not the polish but the cracks. A piano rumbles in, followed by a second piano fed through effects that seem to delete half its tonal qualities. The instrumentation erodes and, as she sings, so does Twigs’s voice. She’s in control, hitting the high notes at the top of her soprano, then there’s a rush of noise and her voice follows the piano: shattered, disappearing, halfway gone.
posted by yasaman (9 comments total) 23 users marked this as a favorite
 
An addendum: I recommend you listen to this one with headphones!
posted by yasaman at 4:47 PM on April 25, 2019 [1 favorite]


As a not-very-flexible person, I am in awe of the way she can bend her back.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:55 PM on April 25, 2019 [2 favorites]


Been a fan of hers since the moment I heard 'Water Me'.
posted by robotmachine at 6:55 PM on April 25, 2019 [1 favorite]


I quite like the live version of Hide.
posted by JamesBay at 9:04 PM on April 25, 2019 [2 favorites]


You're the top!
posted by BWA at 6:03 AM on April 26, 2019


Great video, and I quite enjoyed the song. A friend from high school has taken up polesport, and her social media posts/videos have really changed the way I think about it. The strength and grace and determination required for pole dancing is awe-inspiring.
Having read the title before the post, only a very small part of me was disappointed the link wasn't about Roy Oribson wrapped in clingfilm.
posted by carsonb at 6:41 AM on April 26, 2019


It always starts the same way, @carsonb.
posted by robotmachine at 8:29 AM on April 26, 2019


@JamesBay - Such yes to that version of Hide. It stays with me for weeks after each listen.
posted by Constant Reader at 12:16 PM on April 26, 2019 [1 favorite]


Nice! I've been a fan of FKA twigs for a bit, and had no idea this came out.

Oh, I remember the days about a decade ago when I could move with about 1/10th her flexibility and agility. Those were good days.
posted by apjanke at 12:49 AM on May 13, 2019


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