.png){kind=small}
This song just makes you smile. As I’m speedily heading towards the arc of my life where younger people give me words of encouragement upon hearing my age like I’ve got some kind of degenerative illness, it's songs like Childlike Things that are most timely.
It's reminiscent of those films where you can't help but feel that everyone involved had a lot of fun bringing the idea to fruition. For really though, this song could've been right at home on the first Pokémon movie, sat comfy next to Vitamin C’s Vacation. Sonically and narratively, the song does a great job of embracing that fleeting feeling many of us have been ignoring amid the paper-chasing, self-love-first thirst traps and the gluttony of capitalism – its childlike curiosity and unbridled joy!
A few hours before writing this, I was having a conversation with a primary school teacher about how tweaked out kids were and how there's a lot to learn from them, this is not a new stance, Jesus Christ mentioned this countless times and it appears as though FKA Twigs was inspired by her guest in much the same way.
With a vibrant performance in her British accent, the context of the song allows her voice to transcend the mundane and sound quite fantastical. The song’s hook lingers on a mission statement: ‘Where the wild things are I will be/Lost in a world of childlike things and tragedies/Dreams breaking their hearts/Can cross seven seas/Lost in a world of childlike things and fantasies’, which possibly references Maurice Sendak’s book Where the Wild Things Are to illustrate just how Twigs sees her life and this further informs her conscious decision to take a child approach to enjoy it to the fullest. This mirrors the book’s plot with the story of Max, a boisterous and sensitive boy who feels largely invisible and therefore voyages to where a place beyond societal conventions, this adaptation however, is soundtracked by a piano-driven dance track that’s fun with a corn-syrup sticky hook.
In an approach that incorporates literature and playfulness mirroring Björk in many ways, the song has many dissonant parts that coalesce in a divisive presentation most notably with North West’s guest verse being almost entirely in Japanese and praising the Son of God; the more jaded of us would call this the enterprising exploits of Kris Jenner to get her nepo-grandaughter a viral smash, but I genuinely love it. I’m a sucker for the Gospel being preached on wax as it's quite a radical anthesis to the capitalist marketability of the music industry.
The energy and chemistry on the track are contagious. It also rejects another industry trend–the intended perfection of AI which is so far removed from humanity that this song is endearing in its perfect imperfection. It’s interesting hearing the gradual development in North finding her musical voice, I wonder if her old man was barring like this at her age.
Check out the track, and the full album, EUSEXIA, right here at CGuk via the link below.