Recommendations of the Editorial team
Originally conceived as an expanded edition of her excellent album “EUSEXUA”, the British pop innovator’s new album “EUSEXUA Afterglow” is a work in its own right.
Similar to the democratic ideals of the USA, the creative avant-garde of pop music has recently developed primarily outside the USA. Rosalia’s “Lux,” to take the most illustrative example from 2025, advances the musical language by looking back to old-world virtuosity and spirituality.
FKA Twigs’ “EUSEXUA”, on the other hand, shows how she ventures into brave new worlds: AI, virtual spaces, digitized ecstasy and body modifications – all things that make humans metahuman, for better or worse.
Continuation of a cybernetic project
“EUSEXUA Afterglow” is a continuation of the personal cybernetic project Twigs has pursued since her amazing 2014 song “Two Weeks.” Originally conceived as bonus material for the deluxe edition of “EUSEXUA”, “Afterglow” is now being released as a standalone LP, which is entirely justified since the 11 tracks are all new recordings and not remix packages like Charli XCX’s “Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also Still Brat and Pink Pantheress’ Fancy Some More?”
If you hear echoes of these musicians in Twig’s latest work, you can also hear echoes of them in their work – in the context of a colorful British pop generation born in the heyday of rave culture and, well, its afterglow.
Guests, ecstasy and otherworldly pop moments
Pink Pantheress appears on “EUSEXUA Afterglow,” specifically “Wild and Alone,” a gently burbling banger that portrays fame as a perpetual obstacle to relationships without getting too worked up about it.
Elsewhere on this horny, party-ready set, relationships seem secondary. “Lost all my friends in the club/ then I lost my mind in the car/ I don’t even remember who you are,” Twigs purrs dazedly in “Lost All My Friends,” a sort of sequel to Pink Pantheress’ “Illegal,” backed by smeared downtempo beats that are sometimes sharp, sometimes blurred.
“Slushy” feels like the offspring of Kate Bush’s “Deeper Understanding” after over 30 years of computer love, a swirl of harp and hi-hat spectrums under ASMR positivity mantras.
Where FKA Twigs goes furthest
Admittedly, there’s nothing here as sticky as “Sticky” on “EUSEXUA”, let alone “Childlike Things”, “Room of Fools” or “Drums of Death”.
“Afterglow” is at its strongest when the beats are at their sickest, which is right around the middle, when it climaxes with the tag-team of “Predictable Girl” and “Sushi,” a frenzy of Junglist bass growls and breakbeat abstractions.
It’s heady after-afterparty material – dance music for people who might be too far gone to stay upright, let alone dance. But Twigs is all about pushing your limits so that you might feel like you can rise to the occasion.