Album Review: FKA twigs, Eusexua

The third studio album from Tahliah Debrett Barnett, better known as FKA twigs, originates from the acclaimed UK artist’s time in Prague, where she was based during the filming of The Crow. Unlike the movie – which was a critical and commercial flop – Eusexua is excellent, standing as a liberating, experimental and nuanced consideration of self-discovery.

More specifically, the record is heavily inspired by the city’s underground techno scene. This influence permeates through the deep driving rhythms of the euphoric opener and title track;, the infectious Shibuya cyberpunk of ‘Childlike Things’; and the fast-paced, club culture celebration of ‘Room Of Fools’. Eusexua, for the most part, could easily be left spinning at a basement rave without much complaint from punters.

Lyrically, as the title might suggest, things get pretty steamy, especially on the submissive ‘24hr Dog’ – which features a soaring, invigorating vocal – or the outright horny ‘Drums Of Death’, where, atop a crushingly industrial and glitchy soundscape, twigs delivers lines such as “Feel hot, feel hard, feel heavy / Fuck who you want/Baby girl, do it just for fun".

‘Sticky’, meanwhile, takes proceedings a step further, as she contrarily reveals a longing for deeper, meaningful connection. This idea of escapism is perhaps best, or most obviously, encapsulated by the comparatively soft, guitar-glittered and diaristic closer ‘Wanderlust’ – a fittingly subversive end to a leftfield effort from one of the most idiosyncratic acts of the last decade.

8/10

Out now.