Eusexua is a practice; eusexua is a state of being; eusexua is the pinnacle of human experience.
Over four months before the Jan. 24 release of her third studio album “EUSEXUA,” British singer FKA twigs left us with these three mantras at the end of her music video for the album’s title track.
Eusexua is a word coined by the 37-year-old avant-garde artist, whose real name is Tahliah Debrett Barnett, in her attempt to describe a state of pure euphoria.
“It’s like when you’ve been kissing a lover for hours and turn into an amoeba with that person,” Twigs said in an interview with British Vogue. “You’re not human anymore — you’re just a feeling. Or that moment before an orgasm: pure nothingness but also pure focus.”
With “EUSEXUA,” Twigs turned this euphoria into an all-encompassing atmosphere, thick with passion and moments of pure bliss.
The album’s title track begins the record with a slow, creeping buildup. Muffled drums and synths grow and swell as the song ramps up, mimicking those precious few moments of walking into a club and feeling the atmosphere wrap around you.
Twigs’ soft vocals define the record’s theme in the opener’s first moments: “Words cannot describe, baby/This feeling deep inside.” “EUSEXUA” is not an album seeking to inform; it is an album seeking to be felt, to be walked within.
“Twigs is not one to be held down in “EUSEXUA.” Just as “Drums of Death” shifted between ethereal ballad and industrial glitching in the manner of seconds, each song on the project feels like it’s bursting at the seams, begging to redefine itself as every second goes by.”
The two following tracks — perhaps the closest to Twigs’ previous mixtape “CAPRISONGS” out of the 11 offerings — push that feeling even further. The night is young, and Twigs wants to live within those moments.
On “Girl Feels Good,” Twigs is pulled in by the freedom the club offers her. As the entrancing synths build, she feels pretty — a feeling she declares, “makes the world go ‘round.”
“Perfect Stranger” propounds that same freedom the club offers, only now in the bedroom. Alongside a plucking bass, Twigs finds joy in the anonymity of a hookup. Her stranger has no background, no previous bearing on her life, and that’s what makes him perfect.
As the track explodes into its final club anthem form in its outro, Twigs yearns to stay in place with her perfect stranger and live within the dangerous passion.
After “Perfect Stranger,” Twigs sets her sights on the bohemian and puts her foot on the gas pedal.
“Drums of Death” is almost combative at first listen. Originally debuted as the first half of the “Eusexua” music video in September 2024, the industrial, glitch-filled collaboration with producer Koreless is easily one of the album’s strongest moments. It sees Twigs at her rawest and most carnal as she growls, “Devour the entire world/ Fuck it, make it yours.”
Over its three-minute runtime, “Drums of Death” builds to an ethereal crescendo of passion for a lover, only to be immediately juxtaposed by Twigs’ glitchy vocals cutting through the final moments of the song: “Crash the system, diva doll/Serve cunt, serve violence.”
Twigs is not one to be held down in “EUSEXUA.” Just as “Drums of Death” shifted between ethereal ballad and industrial glitching in the manner of seconds, each song on the project feels like it’s bursting at the seams, begging to redefine itself as every second goes by.
“Room of Fools” drowns the listener in a waterfall of synths. It lives up to its namesake, pulsating in a way only a dark club room could replicate. Then, in its last moments, that cascading synth disappears, and we are left with a swaying, airy vocals that drift through to the end of the song.
“Sticky” does the opposite. Twigs’ soft vocals creep across the track, building to her final cry: “I want to be loved/I’m tired of messing up my life with…” Rather than giving up that final cathartic moment, Twigs cuts off “Overcomplicated moments” and punches the listener with a barrage of gritty synths that growl and fall over themselves.
If “Room of Fools” and “Sticky” were fighting to stay contained, “Keep it, Hold it” is recalcitrance incarnate.
The 4:32 minute track is Twigs at her most avant-garde on “EUSEXUA.” From her initial whispers over airy piano notes to her choral “Just keep it walking; keep it walking; hold it close,” Twigs builds to an eventual culmination halfway through the track, bursting out into a Björk-esque cry of over dance-infected drums.
After this burst, through, Twigs returns back to her marching chorus, once again chanting: “Just keep it softly; keep it softly; hold it close,” only to return to her inner Björk with an eerie repetition of “close” and “softly” manifesting from all directions.
Twigs’ most controversial track on “EUSEXUA,” “Childlike Things,” is a deviation from the other 10 offerings on the project. The song is by far the brightest on the album, jumping out in its first seconds with Twigs playfully chanting “Dun dun dun,” over catchy drums and jumpy piano chords.
The song is certainly a love-it or hate-it endeavor. It’s abrasive; it feels out of place, but once it’s in your head, it won’t be leaving for a while.
The controversy enters with the introduction of North West’s verse. West — a child of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian — raps in Japanese, translating to “Jesus is king/Praise the lord/Jesus is the one and only true God.”
While the song is certainly in pursuit of living in a childlike manner, declaring “Where the wild things are, I will be,” inviting North West to sing hymnic Japanese slightly sours an otherwise undeniably catchy track — as much as it does stand out from the other 10.
“Striptease,” on the other hand, is arguably one of Twigs’ best tracks to date and by far the best on an already stellar album.
Although not released as a single, “Striptease” was one of the first snippets of “EUSEXUA” shared with the public, appearing in Twigs’ promotional video for Calvin Klein’s SS23 campaign.
It’s fitting that “Striptease” was one of the first pieces of “EUSEXUA” Twigs offered. It isn’t just part of “EUSEXUA,” it is pure eusexua. As the longest song on the project, “Striptease” earns its length by culminating all of the best parts of “EUSEXUA” into one 4:43 minute climax.
From the metronomic alarm pulsating in the background to her cries of, “I’ve got a birthmark on my mind/I think you’ll like it,” and, “Opening me feels like a striptease,” Twigs makes one thing clear: She wants to be explored inside and out, skin to soul.
This desire culminates in the latter half of the song. The beat begins to break down, and Twigs’ vocals transform into autotuned pulses as she croons, “Late nights/My sternum stretched wide.” Twigs is opening herself up to her lover, and as the beat builds back through her screams, her chorus is revived with new, euphoric life.
The final two tracks on “EUSEXUA” see Twigs at her most low-key and vulnerable. “24hr Dog” follows her as she allows herself to fully submit to her partner, singing within a constricted range, “I’m a dog for you,” and “I bend more than what I thought was possible.”
The album comes to a close with “Wanderlust.” Twigs layers her voice in autotune as she takes on a half-talking, half-singing approach. A somber guitar follows her through most of the track as she sings about how she feels lost sitting still and not exploring life to its fullest extent.
The album’s final moments tie the project off perfectly to its theme. The beat picks up, and Twigs sings, “I’ll be in my head if you need me/Right there if you need me.” As the seconds dwindle, Twigs falls into the distance as she repeats, “Right there if you need me,” in a quieter and quieter voice until her euphoric, 11-track masterpiece draws to a close.
Reach Will Engle at entertainment@collegian.com or on Twitter @WillEngle44.
