Though FKA twigs’ sound is flexible, and especially on her newest EP M3LL155X, undergoes enough rhythmic transformation within each song to never allow listeners too much comfort, it still maintains an exceedingly distinctive quality. There’s no mistaking one of her tracks.Thus, hearing her cover Sia’s 1000 Forms of Fear song, “Elastic Heart,” is fascinating — as it’s not just the application of a new voice to a previously released song — but an entire reimagining.
Twigs performed the cover on BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge. Interestingly, the strength of Sia’s version becomes the slight weakness of this version, and vice versa. It’s hard to top Sia’s vocal performance on “Elastic Heart,” and twigs’ soft voice is comparatively less moving — until it gets so soft as to be affectingly, achingly intimate around 4:35. Meanwhile, twigs’ trademark stripped-down usage of percussive clicks provides a new clarity to the track, avoiding Sia’s tendency to get weighed down by sentimental instrumentation. Ultimately, regardless of the minor pros and cons of each version, both are, when it comes down to it, completely worth listening to again and again. Watch:
Via Pitchfork.