Review: ‘Eusexua’ is a pulsing, supernatural rave

By Emelia Gauch     1/28/25 11:13pm

Score: ★★★★½

Key track: “Striptease”

“Eusexua” isn’t just an album title; it’s a state of being. 

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More specifically, according to FKA twigs in an interview with The Standard, “Eusexua” is “that moment of nothingness just before a big surge of inspiration or creativity or passion. I describe it as a moment before an orgasm.” 

Listening to the project, the verb “surge” feels apt. On “Eusexua,” FKA twigs incorporates crescendos and kickbeats, drum kits and bass guitar, all alongside her distinctive dreamy and haunting soprano. Her vocals push forward and pull back, are spliced and modulated, as she explores a new musical direction within songs and throughout the entire album.

 “Eusexua” begins with the title track. Quick circling beats facilitate a feeling of anxiety, which is at tension with twigs’ slow singing, “King-sized, I’m vertical sunrised / Like flying capsized / Free, I see you are Eusexua.” The song seems to hurtle towards the alien unknown, as twigs says, “Do you feel alone? You’re not alone.” The bass thumping, you can imagine cool bright lights flashing in time with the beat.

“Girl Feels Good” is reminiscent of pop songs from the 1990s or early 2000s, with a warbly bounce, light laser noises and Madonna vocals gone digital, while “Perfect Stranger” fast forwards in tempo and time, more rooted in 2020s recession pop or hyperpop. In “Perfect Stranger,” twigs reflects on the emotional safety of being with someone unknown; we are protected from disappointment. 

Lyrically minimal, “Drums of Death” features scratchy snares and voices that cut in and out, chopped into bits. The song feels like it’s in glitch, as twigs tells us to “crash the system.”

Synthy and made for the dance floor, twigs shows off the versatility of her singing in “Room of Fools.” She almost growls in the chorus, only to transition into yodels reminiscent of Kate Bush as the song winds down to bring the listener into the next song “Sticky,” as well as the slower second half of the album.

“Sticky” features gentle piano notes and crying buzzes. Twigs pulls back the curtain. In the lyrics, she confesses her challenges with opening up and her simultaneous desire to be known. In the latter half of the song, voices overlay and the sound breaks down into electronic noise.

“Keep It, Hold It” starts choir-like and orchestral, with plucked strings, harp strokes and chiming bells. The breathy refrain of “What do I got to do? / And what have I got to say?” acts as a mantra, convincing twigs and the listener to “Keep on walking, just keep it and hold it.” The song, like with “Sticky,” changes tune, or more specifically beat, mid-way through and becomes a high-tempo dance track. This sonic switch works well, a testament to the production and twigs’ artistic vision.

“Childlike Things” stands out on “Eusexua” as different from the rest with its glittery, bubblegummy, high-energy sound and North West feature. In some ways, the song acts as a palette cleanser. In others, it feels almost out of place between “Keep It, Hold It” and the following song “Striptease.” Almost.

Voices spliced together become the melodic instrumentals in “Striptease.” Twigs is in control (“Watch me flow”), but lost in movement. The Kate Bush-style runs make a return over a percolating beat. Chaos and control meet flawlessly.

 If “Sticky” wrestles with desire, vulnerability, and how much to reveal, FKA twigs asks to hide from it all in “24hr dog.” With the lyrics “Please don’t call my name / When I submit to you this way,” in “24hr dog,” submission is liberation and a way to forget oneself.  

In the final song, the bittersweet ballad “Wanderlust,” identity and the self are centered again. Twigs lets us know, “I’ll be in my head if you need me / Right there if you need me.” With electric guitar and fluttery modulated vocals, the song feels like the conclusion of a movie that ended too soon.

Musically and emotionally dense, each song on “Eusexua” takes on a life of its own, jumping between tempos, sounds and beats, remixes and vocal styles. The album paints an image of a sweaty dance floor, where you can be whoever you want with whoever you want, losing yourself in the whirl of a trembling dance floor, DJ sets and a sweaty crowd for worse or for better. 

“Album’s way too long though,” twigs says on the closing track “Wanderlust,” as if she knows that the only thing that could make this album better is more.

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