Album Review: FKA Twigs, EUSEXUA Afterglow

FKA Twigs has created something beautifully contradictory: otherworldly in aesthetic yet thematically grounded in her reality.

EUSEXUA Afterglow is a narrative sequel to her January record, EUSEXUA, with the title being her neologism to describe a sensation so euphoric that one could transcend human form.

Opening track ‘Love Crimes’ sees her mystical whispers and murmurs starkly contrasted with thumping club rhythms. The song makes a statement: FKA Twigs has stepped from her R&B past into a new digitised electronic dance era, and she does it superbly.

The futuristic textures are even more present in ‘Slushy’, as clicking and reverberating samples rise and fall beneath her echoing vocals.

For ‘Wild and Alone’, she calls on PinkPantheress to provide cheerful vocals over Jersey club beats. Of course, this is an album by and about FKA Twigs. Throughout, she reflects on both abstract concepts (transformation, joy, self-awareness) and tangible experiences (fame, the music industry, womanhood).

Indeeed, every aspect of EUSEXUA Afterglow stems from her imagination – and what a vibrant imagination it is.