Have you ever been turned on by your own thoughts, or perhaps the moment of enlightenment when a new idea starts to form? FKA Twigs‘ new single ‘Eusexua’, a word of her own creation, pays homage to this particular phenomenon. In a teaser video for the song released on Youtube, various artists and models define Eusexua: “The feeling right before an orgasm / Creat(ing) something without using the generally available language / The thing that makes me feel alive.” Eusexua is not a form of narcissistic egoism, but instead, the feeling of pleasure one experiences in response to creative force.
The track is the first single from the upcoming album of the same name, set to be released in January 2025. The project carries the torch from Twigs’ move to a more joyful sound in recent years. ‘Eusexua’ seems more interested in play, joviality and the pleasures of desire than some of the darker themes previously explored in her work.
The song starts strong with a fast-paced heavy drum beat that immediately transports you to the club. The trill of an arpeggio slowly builds over the top. Twigs’ ethereal and whispy vocals act as a counterweight, contrasting the bubbling excitement with a softer, more pensive tone. She sings, “Wonder how you feel / Words cannot describe, baby / This feeling deep inside.” In these opening lines, FKA Twigs begins to shed light on the idea of Eusexua: a liminal experience between the conscious and unconscious, one beyond words and deeply affecting. At the pre-chorus, Twigs offers us the thesis statement: “King-sized, I’m vertical sunrised / Like flying capsized.” The imagery suggests the feeling of ecstasy, passion and creativity unbound, becoming too big for the body to hold thus transforming it in the process.
At about 3 minutes in, a catchy synth blares over the song carrying it to its climax. At this point, the song goes full eurotrash dance banger all in the best way possible. The song equally channels Madonna’s ‘Ray of Light’ in its sound and its quasi-spiritualism. It is a call to arms, preaching for us to enjoy our own creativity and sensuality. Despite all the 90’s nostalgia, the song isn’t regressive. Sonically, it uses these references which saw the approaching new millennium as a time filled with technological and social promise, to look forward. In fact, Eusexua is totally sci-fi. The song sounds like a cicada shedding its husk, an image that finds parallels in several films and video games concerned with extraterrestrial life. Like the cicada or the alien, Twigs opens up to a new kind of sleek aesthetic, one that privileges the body’s potential for movement and change, for the body’s ability to feel. She emphasises this in the final lines, “I was on the edge of something greater than before / But nobody told me / Eusexua.” As Twigs holds the final note of the song, discordant scratching synths chime in. The whole thing sounds like she’s breaking through a screen of static—transcending to a new state.
FKA Twigs has slowly been teasing this new sound over the last year or so: Eusexua made an appearance at the Valentino L’École Spring/Summer 2024 show and the song nods to Opus III’s ‘It’s a Fine Day’ which Twigs performed at the opening of last year’s Vogue World. Inspired by Opus III’s classic 90’s hit, Eusexua is filled with hope and the promise of good things to come. Let’s hope this is equally true for the rest of the upcoming album.
Eusexua is set to be released January 24th 2025.
Words by Kit Gullis
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