Remi Wolf – "Twiggy"

The music industry has a funny habit of sanding artists down until everyone starts looking like everyone else. Then there's Remi Wolf.

She's spent the better part of the last decade making music that feels allergic to straight lines. Funk, pop, soul, indie, electronic... whatever. She grabs whatever colors she needs, throws them into a blender, and the result always sounds unmistakably like Remi.

After two years away, “Twiggy” doesn't arrive like a dramatic reinvention. It arrives like running into an old friend who's exactly the same and noticeably different at the same time.

The playfulness never left. Neither did the left turns, the hyper-specific details or the lyrics that make you stop and ask, “Wait... did she really just say that?” She absolutely did. But beneath all the wonderfully odd little observations is a songwriter who's pulling the curtain back further than before.

One of my favorite things Remi said about the song is that she wrote it about “people I've been with that lack both butts and emotional availability. And how I like that. Or maybe it's just about the messiness of addiction? Idk, you decide :).” That sentence manages to be hilarious, brutally honest and completely unhelpful all at once. It's also very, very Remi.

But another thing she said gets much closer to what has actually changed:

"I felt this permission to be honest and be my raw self. Because of that, the writing process didn't change, but the writing changed."

That's exactly what “Twiggy” sounds like. The writing may have changed, but Remi's fingerprints are still all over it.

The elasticity that's made Remi one of pop's most recognizable voices is everywhere. The rhythm shifts beneath you, little production details dart in and out of the mix, and every chorus lands bigger than the one before. As the lyrics get heavier, the music sets off a chain reaction, each new element adding to the bounce.

And when you're done listening, stick around for the video. Then scroll straight to the comments. Within minutes, fans had already started pointing out what sounds suspiciously like another new song teased at the end. Whether that's intentional or not, the reaction says plenty about the feeling around this release. Nobody's just excited about “Twiggy.” The possibility that there's more coming has everyone leaning a little closer.

For all the ways an artist can announce a return, Remi Wolf chooses the most convincing one: remind everyone exactly why they missed you in the first place.

- YouTubeyoutu.be