FKA Twigs is back after a temporary hiatus, with a new emotional music video and track entitled “Cellophane,” released on April 24 off Young Turks records. This news was revealed a couple of weeks before the famed experimental R&B singer announced a tour, which is set to kick off in May, which includes appearances at numerous music festivals including Afropunk, Afropunk Atlanta and the New York City Red Bull Music Festival.
The track was written and produced by FKA Twigs with support from Jeff Kleinman and Michael Uzowuru, who co-penned and co-produced the song with her. “Cellophane” begins with a somber piano, complimented by FKA Twigs beautiful, yet haunting vocals humming across the track, which begin to reach a peak toward the song’s climax.
In addition to the track’s stunning vocals and instrumentals, the video hosts stunning CGI and dream like visuals which compliment the entire track’s art. Andrew Thomas Huang, a long time Björk collaborator, directed this latest music video, bringing the same dream-like style of many of Björk’s videos into this new song.
“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,” FKA Twigs said in statement according to Pitchfork. “Thank you @andrewthomashuang, for elevating my vision beyond words. you are a visionary. @Kelyvon thank you for being with me every step of the way on my precious pole yellow brick road. working with you both on this is a dream come true.”
FKA Twigs has been slow to release new music over the past few years, only appearing in a few single features since 2017, with her last solo single release being “Good to Love,” in 2016. Last year she made two appearances as a feature artist, one for Anderson .Paak’s “”Til it’s Over,” and the other on the A$AP Rocky track “Fukk You,” off his latest release Testing.
This new track is expected to be on her upcoming sophomore album, which is yet to be named. Although she released an EP entitled M3LL155X in 2015, she has not released an album since 2014’s LP1.
Last year FKA Twigs revealed that this musical hiatus was likely caused by her health complications, which she described as “excruciating tumors” in social media post. The tumors were described as large, and took a lot out of her ability to perform.
“The tumors were pretty huge, the size of 2 cooking apples, 3 kiwis and a couple of [strawberries]. A fruit bowl of pain everyday,” she wrote on Instagram. “The nurse said that the weight and size was like being 6 months pregnant.”
As a former back up dancer for stars such as Beyonce, FKA Twigs’ performances are very physical and require a large amount of energy. Although she received surgery for the tumors in 2017, she required extra time to recover mentally.
“I tried to be brave but it was excruciating at times and to be honest I started to doubt if my body would ever feel the same again,” she explained further. “I had surgery in December and I was so scared, despite lots of love from friends and family I felt really alone and my confidence as a woman was knocked.”
Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat
Leave a Comment