CAPRISONGS, the new mixtape from FKA twigs, can most easily be described by playing off the track title “meta angel,” as it is a truly angelic work — one that aims to lift both listener and artist into a great, blinding realm of light where mistakes, doubts and unfulfilled desires are swallowed in the shine.

“Meta angel” serves as a perfect microcosm for CAPRISONGS. Like the tape as a whole, it is incredibly dynamic, featuring a variety of differing instrumental and vocal styles. Harsh drums, playful wispings, gentle piano arrangements, thumping bass and semi-pained callings blend as FKA twigs reaches for “some kind of meta angel” to help guide her out of a deep emotional pit. The mixtape’s recurring themes of self-healing and falling back in love with life rise from it all.

For FKA twigs, that meta angel she calls out to may be her own work. In this tweet, she states how “it felt so daunting knowing that I had to heal in front of the world,” but that releasing the project has made her feel better in the end. She has dealt with an abusive relationship, mental health struggles, financial setbacks and so much more, but her work helps save her. When she calls on her meta angel to mute the “Voices in my head tellin’ me that I won’t make it far,” she looks within. She mutes via the pursuit of art and meaningfully reflects through it.

But this angel doesn’t have to be one thing. It doesn’t have to be found in one place, one person, one medium — that saving grace can be found all over. In another tweet from her CAPRISONGS thread, FKA twigs referred to the tape as an embodiment of togetherness. For some, this mixtape and “meta angel” itself may be their meta angel: these songs are meant to care for the listener as much as they care for the artist. They are meant to celebrate all of our lives and all the tears and smiles that come with it, connecting heart to heart to heart in a great, worldwide tangle of strings. 

There will be many nights spent with this song, this mixtape, this reflection. “Meta angel,” to put it shortly, sounds really damn good. Beautiful, extravagant, stunning — all these adjectives work as well, but perhaps the best descriptor is “healing.” In this, there is light, buried yet seeping through in a conversation among friends, in a warm humming, in a desire to rise from the deep. Along with other notable releases from The Weeknd and Earl Sweatshirt, FKA twigs has helped shape an incredible musical landscape for early 2021.