Single Review: With “Eusexua,” FKA twigs Comes Close to Ecstasy

The title of FKA twigs’s third studio album, Eusexua, is a term that the U.K. singer coined to describe what she calls “a state of being” and “the pinnacle of human experience.” From a purely etymological perspective, it translates to “good sex.” Just “don’t call it love,” twigs insists on the title track.

The first single from the album, “Eusexua” is a minimalist techno song inspired by twigs’s time living in Prague. Earlier this month, she previewed the project’s sound with a one-minute teaser, which is scored to frenetic jungle beats and features members of the artist’s creative team attempting to define the concept.

twigs’s angelic soprano is couched in softly throbbing computer beats and undulating synths on “Eusexua” as she struggles to express a feeling “words cannot describe,” one so intense that it can apparently warp time. The song’s oblique lyrics affirm the limitations of language: “King sized, I’m vertical sunrised,” twigs sings, elongating each syllable. A flurry of beats gradually builds until, in the final minute, the track reaches a frenzied pitch that resembles something like ecstasy.

Directed by Jordan Hemingway, the music video for “Eusexua” sees a flustered twigs arriving late to work at a drab, grayscale office filled with other corporate drones. She receives an unsettling phone call, triggering a mass-consciousness event—and some wickedly erotic group choreography involving office chairs—that thrusts the employees into an earthy, flesh-colored alternate space for an orgiastic ritual. They eventually return to work, feral but awake.

Watch “Eusexua” below:

Euseuxa is scheduled to be released on January 24, 2025 via Atlantic Records.