FKA twigs Feels Momentary Transcendence on "EUSEXUA"

On her new project EUSEXUA, British singer, actress, dancer, and creative visionary FKA twigs manages to find peace, acceptance, and a new passion for life on the dance floor. According to the singer, the album's title represents, "A feeling of momentary transcendence often evoked by art, music, sex, and unity." Much of the inspiration for this project comes from her time filming the 2024 remake of The Crow when she would regularly attend raves in Prague. It was during those moments where she witnessed human joy, emotion, and passion.

Still healing from a toxic relationship with actor Shia LeBeouf, the birth of this album also represents sexual liberation while fearlessly reopening one's heart to the world. After a five-year musical hiatus, EUSEXUA is an artistic statement that marks a bright and joyous return to the music scene that only an artist of her caliber could create.

The album opens on the title track, with a blissful ethereal song that slowly throbs and pulsates through its relaxed electronic production as twigs enchantedly croons the phrase, "You're not alone." While this track evokes Bjork in a sense, "Girl Feels Good" is reminiscent of Madonna's Ray of Light with its upbeat dance pop production.

Despite this album having many highlights across its eleven track runtime, there are two songs that serve as the creative foundation of EUSEXUA, the explosive "Drums of Death" and the climatic "Striptease". Produced by British electronic artist Koreless, "Drums of Death" manages to take harsh, raw, pulsating industrial drums and turn it into a catchy and surprisingly accessible song with FKA twigs' heavenly vocals providing depth and atmosphere into the mix. On the other hand, "Striptease" might be the best song of twigs' career so far. The alternative R&B track opens up with an atmospheric trap beat and a slow but booming chorus, before evolving into an angelic drum & bass track that contains likely the best vocal performance of her career up to date.

Despite many highs there are a few underwhelming efforts that hold this project back from being perfect. "Childlike Things" featuring North West is a very bizarre song choice for the album considering FKA twigs' reputation for being concise with her projects' track lists. Additionally, the underwhelming billboard attempt "Perfect Stranger" has very subpar production and very bland lyricism describing meeting dance partners at raves. It would have been better suited on the track list of her previous free-spirited mixtape CAPRISONGS. 

Overall, EUSEXUA is a modern feminist think piece album that effectively allows FKA twigs to express her mind, body, and spirit in a stunning and euphoric display of her musical abilities. Even though this project does not quite stack up to her magnum opus MAGDALENE, this record feels like such a natural path for her to take moving forward and I hope to see her continue in this direction. FKA twigs might be generally underappreciated from a publicity standpoint, but she has once again crafted a timeless body of work that only adds to the special legacy that she has established for herself. There are few artists in the world who are capable of expressing themselves at the level of FKA twigs, and EUSEXUA is proof of that.

Official Maurice Crawford Score: 8.8 / 10