FKA twigs’ first single since 2021 is an electrifying call to action, demanding listeners surrender to pure sensation.
“Eusexua” is the first single from Tahliah Debrett Barnett’s — A.K.A. FKA Twigs — upcoming third studio album of the same name, set to release on Jan. 24, 2025. It will be the U.K. artist’s first full-length album since 2019’s MAGDALENE and her first release since 2021’s CAPRISONGS mixtape.
The song was also performed with choreography prior to any announcement at the Valentino L’École show in Paris last October.
The first half of the song emphasizes twigs’ airy vocals, placing them at the front of the mix over thumping drums and a jittery finger-plucked guitar sample that loops throughout the track. The dynamic contrast between the depth of the bass and the compressed plucking adds an agitated quality to the song, each beat a deepening crack in a dam waiting to burst. It expresses twigs’ need to break free from what could be holding her back, while also wanting to time that freedom correctly for the right moment.
The production gradually progresses, evolving to strengthen her idea of what it feels like to be in a state of Eusexua, a term she coined to describe losing oneself to pure sensation.
In an interview with Vogue magazine, twigs described Eusexua as a meditative state, “when everything moves out the way [and] everything in your mind is blank.” This state could be induced by being “out all night and losing seven hours to music” or “kissing for hours,” the commonality being total submission to sensation.
The accompanying music video released alongside the single conveys this through its storyline. The video begins in an austere office, the employees dressed in uniform grey suits to match the environment. This speaks to the antithesis of Eusexua: losing yourself to something you hate, leaving you perpetually burnt out and overexerted. Soon after though, twigs and the employees get into formation and begin dancing, changing their attire to near nudity to represent a raw, instinctual state of mind.
However, what she makes clear throughout the song is that Eusexua is not a singular feeling at all, but rather an all-encompassing state of being. This is addressed on the chorus with the line: “And if they ask you, say you feel it, but don’t call it love, Eusexua.” She identifies the sensation as highly introspective, something only the individual can recognize by trusting the moment.
Despite the individual quality of the sensation, twigs ensures listeners that “[they] are not alone,” even if they feel so. Eusexua is a state all can achieve, as the music video demonstrates an entire office of people following twigs in this state.
The song abandons the high-energy club production in the outro, dialling it back to focus on twigs’ intimate vocals. She introduces a theme recurring across her music: the act of loving so hard that it creates distance with her lover as a result. This time, however, she leaves listeners with the line, “I was on the edge of something greater than before, but nobody told me.” Although there is a permeated sense of longing in the song, twigs knows that greatness lies ahead and coos over the driving production, not wasting a single second.
As a lead single, “Eusexua” could not be more fitting for its album. It’s sharp, sonically lush and shows listeners that twigs has a precise vision for the album’s execution, leaving enough room for mystery to occupy listeners until its release. She’s at the top of her game and knows exactly where to go from here.