A Review of FKA twigs' Eusexua Afterglow

Album Cover for Eusexua Afterglow

Eusexua Afterglow arrived on November 14th, on the heels of artist FKA twigs’ January album, Eusexua. FKA twigs, born Tahliah Barnett, is an acclaimed multidisciplinary British artist. Her Afterglow is Eusexua’s companion album; a project that began as twigs’ attempt at a deluxe and quickly spiraled into a project of its own.

The original Eusexua was twigs’ articulation of the healing rituals she first found through raving in Prague after the release of her third full-length project, 2022’s Caprisongs. Caprisongs was a more fun-loving, for-the-fans release born out of the isolation of Covid-19, a kind of project that we saw a lot from artists in the early 2020s. It still has its heartfelt, emotional moments; truly you can’t have a twigs album without that, but it introduced a more mainstream, upbeat sound to twigs’ repertoire of sound. That’s not to say that Eusexua and Afterglow aren’t fun loving albums, they very much are, but Caprisongs conveyed a kind of unmoored mixture of enjoyment and grief. In contrast, Eusexua and Afterglow are more mature and grounded projects. They are twigs doing what she does best: weaving deeply personal narratives with intimacy and her signature ticking, metallic production.

‘Eusexua,’ as a word, is all-encompassing. You can apply it to a lot of situations, but my favorite phrasing of the meaning that twigs has given was her definition for NPR back in January. “[Eusexua is] pure presence. It's a moment of nothingness,” she said. “Or it's the moment before a really incredible idea. I've experienced 'eusexua' when kissing someone I don't know really well, but I really like. So it's this ego-less presence which is just filled with this kind of tingling clarity.”

Eusexua is a very innovative, soul-bearing piece of art. Afterglow is a less revealing continuation of twigs’ club-inspired fourth album. It feels like an album after the album, and offering after the initial sacrifice. That’s not to say that Afterglow feels unnecessary in anyway, it just feels more extra than its foremother. While Eusexua has expansive, sweeping narratives, Afterglow contains more bite-sized, tongue in cheek pockets of electronic sound. For example, on Afterglow’s eighth track Sushi, twigs channels a sound that we haven’t really heard from her since her 2015 EP M3LL155X (pronounced Melissa). The beat is a dramatic affair; it’s punchy and dancable, and deeply inspired by New York’s queer ballroom scene. The song also channels M3LL155X’s Glass & Patron, one of my all time favorite songs from twigs.

Sushi, while note released ahead of time as a single, has been the song most talked about on social media ahead of Afterglow’s release. It has gained popularity and anticipation as twigs has been playing it on tour and on the festival circuit as she performed live shows in the lead up to Afterglow’s release. Sushi, in my opinion, is the album’s high point.

While I really like this album, it falls flat for me in certain places. On songs like HARD, Touch A Girl, and Piece Of Mine the sinewy lyrics and looping beats get repetitive for me, and result in a very catchy but forgettable song. Ultimately, I’m the biggest fan of twigs’ first couple of EPs, the aptly titled EP1 and EP2. These two EPs feature a more methodical, almost surgical, sound from twigs. She’s haunted and vulnerable, and that’s what I love from her. This was also why I was so excited when Afterglow’s first single, Cheap Hotel, was released, because that song is exactly that. The song sounds a little bit like you’re out for a walk at night, and the fog unexpectedly starts to roll in. The beat is stompy and alarmed, and thumps like a heart. Twigs saccharine voice floats over the funk in beautiful contrast.

Another favorite of mine is the only collaboration on the whole album: Wild and Alone featuring PinkPantheress. When the track list was announced, I was very very excited for this song because I am a huge fan of both twigs and PinkPantheress. I was very happy when the album came out and the song lived up to my expectations. The song is everything that I like on paper too: danceable, intimate, ethereal, and over four minutes long (just barely, but still).

All in all, I really loved both Eusexua and Afterglow. After Caprisongs, I was really intrigued to see where twigs would take her music next, and this year has been a very pleasant musical evolution. While we are still in the midst of this current era of FKA twigs, every released makes me more and more excited for her future.