Following “Burial,” the creative forces behind Mother Mary have now unleashed an even more provocatively-titled song from the soundtrack: “My Mouth Is Lonely For You.” And, for those well-versed in the oeuvre of FKA Twigs, it’s the kind of phrase that is decidedly on-brand for her (with even a title as simple [but to-the-point-in-its-sexual-nature] “Hard” from Eusexua Afterglow speaking to that).
In addition to co-writing the lyrics, Twigs also co-produced the song with Koreless (a staple on the production of Eusexua), Xquisite Korpse, Jeff Bhasker and Tobias Jesso Jr. It was also said team (with the addition of John Michael Rouchell) that co-wrote such lyrics as, “Bad conversations, cigarettes/Words you told me, empty threats/Chewing gum, I’m so empty/You’re the one for me, you see/But it’s been a while.” Indeed, that’s the kind of opening verse that also smacks of Charli XCX, who instead co-wrote “Burial” (with George Daniel, Jack Antonoff and Hathaway herself). Mainly because of all that talk about cigarettes, chewing gum and being “so empty.”
The Charli-circa-Brat-era energy doesn’t stop there, with the second verse continuing, “Chapstick and chapped lips, downtown lofts/Red rouge [a bit redundant to say what amounts to ‘red red,’ but oh well] lip makeup, sick enough/Honey, please, I’m so empty/You’re the one for me, you see/But it’s been a while.” This repeated mention of how “it’s been a while” likely referencing the fact that 1) it’s been a while since “Mother Mary” has seen this object of affection she keeps addressing (presumably Sam Anselm [Michaela Coel], who says of “Mother Mary,” “I haven’t seen her in over ten years”) and 2) maybe it’s been so much of a while that, were she to actually see this person again, the fantasy might no longer live up to the reality.
Even so, it doesn’t stop “Mother Mary” from cooing, as if she’s putting a spell (and there is definitely some witchcraft happening in this movie) on her listener with her dulcet, siren-esque tone, “My mouth is lonely for you/My mouth is lonely for you/You/My mouth/My mouth is lonely for you.” A phrase, needless to say, that’s highly suggestive. A suggestiveness only heightened by Hathaway’s oozing-with-sensuality tone, as if emulating the likes of Andrea True on “More, More, More” or Donna Summer on “I Feel Love.”
Around the two-minute-twenty-second mark, the song begins to rely solely on Hathaway’s repetition of the word “you,” said in the kind of distorted, “glitched-out” manner that Charli XCX would also approve of. And after what amounts to that little “interlude” within the song, Hathaway returns to her original—and core—sentiment: my mouth is lonely for you.
It’s the kind of statement that would, of course, get any guy who called a phone sex operator or enlisted the services of a cam girl all hot and bothered (a.k.a. make him splooge). But, in truth, the declaration ultimately seems more romantic than it does sexual. An expression of yearning and searching…for the only other mouth that has ever fit so perfectly with yours. Like a missing puzzle piece, as it were.
Considering that Mother Mary is described as being about a “psychosexual affair,” the longing conveyed in this particular song is in line with such a narrative motif. Yet, judging from what viewers have seen so far of the dynamic between Mother Mary and her former costumer designer (to whom she must reach out to again to design a dress for her upcoming tour), it doesn’t necessarily seem as if either of their mouths have been lonely for one another—at least not in “that way.” But rather, in the way of “chatting shit” to someone and telling them everything. Arguably the most sensual purpose for a mouth—if you’re a sapiosexual.
