Released just months after its critically monumental predecessor EUSEXUA, FKA twigs’ EUSEXUA Afterglow, proves that a sequel album can be just as powerful as the original.
Initially teased as a deluxe edition, this album quickly asserted itself as a standalone body of work, serving as a feverish continuation of the techno-rave ethos that defined her 2025 renaissance. If EUSEXUA was the ecstatic peak of a night spent in a dark, pulsating warehouse, EUSEXUA Afterglow is the hazy, fragmented comedown—a complex blend of lingering euphoria, intimacy, and introspection set to a soundtrack that is, surprisingly, even more abrasive and structurally challenging.
The concept of “eusexua”—which twigs defined as “the sensation of being so euphoric that one could transcend human form”—is explored here through its aftermath. This is a record about transmuting the physical high of the dancefloor into psychological freedom.
The album begins with a mission statement that is the bone-rattling intensity of ‘Love Crimes’. This track immediately shatters any notion of a restful, soft “afterglow,” instead dragging the listener back onto the dance floor with ferocious, industrial percussion and gritty synths. Lyrically, it’s a breathless dive into the intoxicating chaos of post-rave reality, setting a disoriented yet driven tone. She masterfully uses the sound palette of UK dance heritage—garage, jungle, and abstract breakbeats—but warps it into something distinctly alien.
The record’s core lies in its fractured, textural sound design. On ‘Slushy’, twigs creates a foggy miasma, with atmospheric breaks and glitchy, fractalized rhythms that reflect a half-remembered, sensory experience. She sounds detached and floating, finding comfort in the solitude of the early morning hours.
This hazy mood continues on the trip-hop bombast of ‘Cheap Hotel’, where the slow, syrupy beats and hushed, almost whispered vocals evoke the intimacy and fleeting connection of post-club encounters.
The true catharsis arrives on the high-energy dance cuts. ‘Sushi’, a five-and-a-half-minute epic that starts with coy and suggestive whispers, before it launches into a playfully audacious lyrical list that outlines a week-long roster of pleasure—dancing, Paris, Pilates—for a lover. Sonically, the track explodes into a blistering, unpredictable ballroom breakdown, marking one of the album’s most joyous, all-out moments.
Similarly, ‘Predictable Girl’ uses a frantic, hyper-fast beat, allowing twigs’ airy soprano to dance delightfully on top, lyrically subverting the title by celebrating the freedom found in chaotic, non-conformist movement.
EUSEXUA Afterglow is also where the artist delves into the relational themes left in the wake of euphoria. ‘Piece of Mine’, with its glitchy start and ardently sung lyrics, emphasizes the emotional cost and claim of these intense connections, balancing the sonic chaos with a raw demand for ownership and alignment from a partner.
Meanwhile, tracks like ‘Stereo Boy’ close the album with a squelching, futuristic detachment. Here, twigs’s vocals are highly processed and submerged in the mix, echoing the sense of a fragmented reality and lost tether to time and place—a hallmark of the post-club haze. This willingness to embrace noise and disorientation is what makes Afterglow a genuinely brave artistic statement.
The sole collaboration ‘Wild and Alone’ featuring PinkPantheress, provides a brief moment of garage-inflected pop clarity. With a sound that leans toward Y2K-throwback sensibilities, the track explores themes of intense desire and the complexities of maintaining relationships, effectively bridging twigs’ experimental edge with a more immediate, accessible pop hook.
While this new project may lack the sweeping, vulnerable emotional arc of its predecessor, it compensates with sheer sonic bravery and immediacy. It’s less concerned with telling a definitive story and more focused on sustaining a feeling—the persistent, throbbing pulse of the dance floor seeped into the psyche. EUSEXUA Afterglow solidifies FKA twigs’ position as one of alternative pop’s most inventive and vital voices, proving that even her extensions and companion pieces exist on a plane far above her contemporaries. It’s a raw, sweaty, and essential listen for anyone dedicated to following the evolution of experimental club music.
Words by C. Sharmishtha
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