There’s no better way to experience a new FKA Twigs song than accompanied with one of her spectacularly strange visual creations. Twigs knows this, so for her third EP, M3LL155X, she’s surprised-released the whole project along with a 16-minute short film she directed. The sequencing goes like this: “Figure 8,†I’m Your Doll,†“In Time,†“Mothercreep,†and “Glass & Patron.†Most of those songs we’ve previously heard, with the videos for “Mothercreep†and “Glass & Patron†joint-released back in March (seen at the film’s end); she also performed “I’m Your Doll†at her Congregata residency.
But it’s two of those new songs that provide the film’s standout moments: “I’m Your Doll†starts off with Jesse Kanda’s abstract fingerprint all over it, but it turns frighteningly literal as Twigs transposes her head onto that of a blow-up doll, completely lifeless as a man appears to rape her to the point of deflation. The film wastes no time transitioning to the EP’s best song, “In Time,†a modern take on what could’ve been a TLC hit circa FanMail, which has both pregnant and non-pregnant Twigs once again pushing the boundaries of voyeurism. Did we mention that the film opens with a surreal cameo from the legendary muse Michèle Lamy? They say the music video’s a dead art, but no one must’ve told Twigs.