“This album is dedicated to all survivors of abuse. That light inside your chest, keep it and hold it.” These are the last words in the lyric booklet for EUSEXUA, the latest studio album from the London based artist known as FKA Twigs
A strong statement that resonates over its 43 minute runtime. Like all of her work before it, this is not just an album. It’s a concept, a statement, a form of defiance that wants you to dissect it and consume it wholly. While having some downtime from starring in the 2024 reboot of The Crow, she found herself in a warehouse rave, letting her inhibitions go to the sound of techno, surrounded by likeminded strangers. With this, EUSEXUA was born. An intimate yet communal offering inspired by the ecstasy of dance music while not directly being a dance album.
Starting with the opening title track, a dense and rich start with an edging sense to its production. Almost an explanation of the title itself, it pleads for you to ‘feel it, but don’t call it love’. Leading into ‘Girl Feels Good’ which is a classic empowering pop moment, pouring out with interesting synths and warping progression. Production choices that wouldn’t make the song feel out of place on the soundtrack for the 2001 classic of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. I also really love the topics of the track feeling like a continuation of the importance of divine femininity as seen on her track ‘Minds of Men’ from her loose and explorative 2022 mixtape CAPRISONGS. Like the best dance inspired pop music, Twigs and her collaborators (co-produced by Koreless alongside offerings from Ojivolta, Two Shell, and Dylan Brady of 100 Gec to name a few) understand the impact of a classic track progression with lyrics that bleed with blunt relatability. Enter stage left, ‘Perfect Stranger’. A song that would’ve been all over Kiss radio in the early naughties, its Twigs at her most commercial while never sacrificing her honesty, singing of the electrifying nature of one night stands.
Just when you think you might get too comfortable with what’s on offer ‘Drums of Death’ begins. It's a glitchy, glorious drum fest that is as empowering as it is intentionally jarring. Complete with a curveball of a sample, (‘One of a kind’ by G-Dragon anyone?), alongside a vocal airiness that’s just as prominent it was 10 years ago on her debut. Interpolating ‘Avril 14th’, a quieter offering from electronic innovator Aphex Twin, the mid album ballad ‘Sticky’ oozes with melancholy while never divulging into sadness. It’s a stark acceptance of moving through the pain, and evolving beyond it. "I want to forgive myself, I want to release myself, from the pain I have inside".
More unconventional choices are a constant throughout this album, which shouldn’t work on paper but work fantastically in practice. Case in point, ‘Childlike Things’, which has North West praising Jesus Christ in Japanese while Twigs raps with such playfulness and attitude that its deeply infectious. Moments like this seem to have been inspired again by CAPRISONGS but continue to refine them instead of just rehashing old ideas.
‘Room of Fools’ was potentially one of the first tracks written for the album written in the back of a club bathroom, and it shows. The beat is perfectly muffled, imitating the birthplace of the feeling. Its progression is deep rewarding, getting more euphoric as she triumphantly swoons "It feels Nice!".
‘Keep it, Hold it’ references those closing words in the booklet in its own satisfying presence, with an ambient marching band style in its beat while implementing choir harmonies and distant uses of strings and piano. The midway dance break encapsulates Twigs’ release of the trauma and rising above into new heights. She inspires you to keep moving, to keep growing.
Sexual empowerment is a large topic at hand, appearing in the vocally mutative ‘24hr Dog’, where Twigs casts aside her guilt with her sexual desire. The vocal distortion is very reminiscent of her debut LP1, while again delivering on the evolution of those stylistic choices. Its gritty, primal and immediately vulnerable all at once. The main highlight of the album that also touches on these topics is ‘Striptease’. An absolute tour de force, barrelling through at a bracing rate with a glitchy interpretation of R&B. Its truly a gift that keeps on giving, as shown near the end mark, with a honest homage to the jungle genre sprinkled with ethereal harmonising. The beat almost combusts on it’s self as she proclaims “I’m borderline, its getting late, I feel alive, I wanna show you, i-i-i-i".
As the closer ‘Wanderlust’ begins, the sense of melancholy returns, with essences of emo balladry as indicated by the guitar arrangements. As a closer, compared to her past closing tracks it initially feels like one of the weaker works, but then unfurls into more directions throughout its playtime, serving as a complimentary end to a layered collection of tracks. As Twigs continues to grow in popularity, it’s so beautiful to see her never compromise her vision and truly deliver on whatever concept she chooses to take on. She’s reflected on her struggles and pain to reintroduce a new found meaning to her life and practice. The light will always shine through the dark.
Comentarios