Heartbeats introduce the title track “Eusexua.” FKA twigs pairs breathy vocals with a light prickling beat and echo, haunting the listener every passing second. The listener might ask, “What does Eusexua even stand for?” FKA twigs would respond by releasing songs that one may lose themselves in, setting the tone with faint, alien-like sounds in a genre-defying record.
Y2K club bangers started to gain traction after Charli XCX’s “Brat” was released in 2024, making a smooth transition for this genre to evolve. FKA twigs’ next song, “Girl Feels Good,” plagues this genre with autotune. This album does not have songs to dance to. Its tracks are meant for sitting alone in a corner and brooding. Nonetheless, it is a relaxing tune, giving the listener hope that the following tracks might be catchier.
“Perfect Stranger” has FKA twigs’ whispering vocals. Meanwhile, the faint techno and EDM influences overpower the song. One cannot ignore that this is something to be played at a 5 a.m. yoga class.
The single, “Drums of Death,” has a clap and a muted beat with chopped intermissions, in which her vocals enter after a minute and a half. She sounds whimsical in an edgy, fairy-like way — much like the industrial version of Kate Bush.
The most clear example of the Y2K influences is heard in “Room of Fools,” which is reminiscent of a less intense version of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ “Challengers” soundtrack. This track is the highlight of the album. The Björk reference of “Venus as a Boy” shines towards the end as FKA twigs fades into the next track.
FKA twigs murmurs the lyrics in “Sticky” and “Keep it, Hold it.” Muted instruments and her breathy, soprano voice bring nostalgia that one would only feel in the dawn of the most hidden depth of the woods, and then there is a techno beat. Imagine Disney’s “Brave,” but on hallucinogens — haunting in a Scottish folk tale sort-of-way.
North West features on “Childlike Things.” FKA twigs and West bring the listener a Japanese-pop-sounding track, with West praying in Japanese. It is ironically catchy, yet a fever dream of a song.
FKA twigs’ breaks free from the grasp of the last song to continue her EDM-techno-artsy musical exploration with “Striptease.” She does not go faster than 120 bpm in the whole album, yet contemporary dancers can easily find a way to move to it; the same goes for “24hr Dog.” This one is a skip due to her slight mumbling combined with heavy autotune and a slow muted synth.
“Wanderlust” jumps from the previously used genres to a song in which FKA twigs’ soprano vocals are fully showcased. It is artsy. It is alternative, and it has a slight Massive Attack flair to it, ending the album in a way that leaves the listener in a trance.
“Eusexua” is the perfect record to explore the horizons of synth sounds and recurring shower thoughts. While it does not have any instant hits, the album’s overall feel would be exponentially aided by staying at home on a rainy day.
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