Eusexua by FKA twigs | Album Review

twigs’ first offering since 2022

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What if Alien and Melancholia had a baby? The product would likely be somewhere along the lines of the aesthetic that FKA Twigs has built cultivating her latest release, Eusexua, a nimble, acrobatic, and contortionist soundtrack that, as usual, lingers on deep space synths, EDM, and rave sentiments better than almost any other mainstream artist out.

The video of the lead single and titular track introduce the oddity of the album. Transitioning from certifiably mundane — being late to an unimportant office job — to true absurdity creates one of the most staunch oppositional forces I’ve ever seen in a music video. The binary explored here is omnipotent: the catchy, swift, upbeat first half of the video is contrasted sorely by the grayscale workspace surrounding the erratically reacting bodies.

The exposing of flesh signals not only a change of cloth but of body as well. The cloth was restricting, depressing, representative of restrictiveness and as they are stripped away, the languid mounds of flesh that flash across the screen do so in tandem alongside the cherubic echoes of “Eusexua” as bodies literally rise from dirt, Twigs seemingly guiding them by voice alone. They dance, and drip, and contort to the will of Twigs, the alien goddess of this particular scene as noted by her eccentric, evolving headpiece first donned as a stuffy wig.

Choreography gives way to exploration and freedom and as such, sets the stage for Eusexua as a motif for pure sexual, emotional, and personal nirvana, absent of the staunch ideals of the society she has broken free from though not without help. This kicked off with a phone call from an unknown source — this freedom is supernatural by nature, and as such, allows for its product to unfold and rescind as needed.

Further putting pleasure on a pedestal, “Girl Feels Good,” captures the lightning of “Who Runs The World,” and “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World,” by illuminating the importance the feminine image as a means of satisfaction and fulfillment. Much like Janelle Monae’s sonic universe, the woman is the prominent hierarchal figure here, building an utopia unseen in male-dominant literature.

Raw and unfiltered sex, combined with the metallic, prosthetic, and electronic nature of “Drums of Death,” feel heart-attack inducing and give off a steam and cyberpunk vibe. It literally feels like this was delivered from 30 years in the future. The only thing we’re missing is a way to implant it directly in our brains (though that may be coming sooner rather than later). Though, as addicting of a thrill the first few tracks are, they are eventually betrayed by introspection and regret.

The switch is sudden, but earned. The exasperation is built up on “Room of Fools.” The “it feels nice,” of the chorus feels like it has this lingering, unsaid “but” waiting in its wake. The high-pitched delivery again equates itself to its sexual precedent, almost as if Twigs is trying to convince herself of the phrase as she awaits an inevitable disappointment or bliss.

The next track, “Sticky,” deals with the tongue in cheek innuendo with a twang of regret as that previously mentioned shedding of a rigid cocoon melds into insecurity. A shame comes with wanting to embrace this newfound sexual freedom as it leads to “sticky situations,” and with it, an emotional vulnerability. This is the truly shameful part, not the sex, but the vulnerability that comes with it.

I enjoy this sudden switch from rave queen to damned, cursed Twigs. But it’s so temporary. Existentialism lends itself to escapism, such is the double-edged sword or sexual liberation. “And what have I got to do? / And what have I got to learn?” Twigs ponders before abandoning the theory entirely and returning to a forced sunshine perspective.

“Childlike Things,” is so absurd but it works so well. It feels like a kawaii anime intro and for some reason North West is on it? Regardless, this little interlude allows Twigs to segue from introspection and depression back into a more upbeat vibe in a truly childlike way. Extreme sensory overload and a cognitive dissonance to everything that came before it.

But it’s worth noting that there is still a sense of emotional intelligence in there somewhere. “Extra tonic give a glass of gin just to put it in / Drink it up feeling dead alive like a nine-to-five,” Twigs manages to blurt out in a series of fast-paced rambling, calling back to the monotony of the beginning of the “Eusexua” video.

It feels like “24hr Dog” doesn’t add much to the conversation until the last minute or so as she travels to the outer nebula of her range and extrapolates on one of my favorite saying from an old teacher, “all men are dogs.” But this time, Twigs is the dog, and while truly androgynous, the dogged sexuality she speaks of feels almost exclusively patriarchal by nature so it’s interesting to see this role reversal.

When I thought I had heard it all, “Wanderlust” steals the scene in a similar fashion to the haunting The Weeknd track of the same name. This track feels outside the frame and reference of the canon of Eusexua as Twigs seems to embody their actual self, reflecting on the length and content of the album and the movie she starred in. Here is where the actual, true to the artist, introspection takes place. It is much more personal, it feels that way with the grand vocal scale she climbs. There’s this hint of gratefulness that exudes from the held out note of the chorus — it is truly beautiful.

Eusexua is a journey. A journey through all the phases it took a tortured soul to bear acceptance of a sexual and emotional freedom that feels so opposed by society that it feels torturous. The strumming synths and every erratic thrum and beat and lyric displacement is met with purpose creating this electronic world of careful intricacy. Each and every lyric exudes a creamy substance and I don’t know if that’s supposed to happen but it’s an incredible experience all the way around. It’s early in the year but man is this already one of my favorites of 2025.

Rating: 8.4/10
Favorite Tracks: Eusexua, Striptease, Wanderlust