CRYSTAL CLEAR VINYL The emotions in FKA twigs' music are so complex, it's no wonder she coins new words to describe them. Her third album, EUSEXUA, is named for a fusion of euphoria and sexuality, and her pursuit of this blissful loss of self traces a journey paved with intimate truths. The first steps she takes are onto the dancefloor. Inspired by the music she fell in love with in Prague's clubs while on the set of The Crow, twigs uses the pounding heartbeat of dance music as the backdrop for some of her most physical, confessional, and empowering songs. On the title track, a four-on-the-floor beat grounds her voice as she reaches for ecstatic heights that she refuses to call love; on "Girl Feels Good," the filtered synths and slinky grooves hark back to William Orbit's work on Madonna's Ray of Light, another album that found epiphanies in the club. Though FKA twigs' collaborators include A-list producers like Koreless, Stargate, and Sasha, EUSEXUA's throb is as far away from Caprisongs' musical hangouts as that mixtape was from Magdalene's cloistered art-pop. Even at its catchiest, like the sleek celebration of no-strings-attached encounters on "Perfect Stranger," the album's reliance on choruses and hooks doesn't seem like a bid for greater fame. Rather, the glitchy Y2K fembot sounds of "Drums of Death" and the unnaturally perky bounce of "Childlike Things" feel like attempts to escape lingering undercurrents of pain and betrayal that can't be outrun or out-danced. As twigs teeters between the safety of anonymity and fantasies and the risks and rewards of revealing herself fully, EUSEXUA becomes even richer. The album's frank second half is more free flowing and conversational than any of her previous music, particularly on "Sticky," a painfully self-aware moment of introspection ("It hurts so bad to shed my skin/With you watching") that feels equally akin to the confessions of brat and twigs' own "Water Me." She confronts the tangling of love, lust, and self bravely, no matter how complicated it gets. On "Striptease," she illustrates how quickly being open with a partner can veer from authentic to performative with her breathlessly desperate vocals. Her willingness to venture into uncomfortable territory makes for some of EUSEXUA's most gripping listening; it's notable that she sounds closest to the bliss she seeks when she exorcises her pain with the cathartic snarl of "Room of Fools" or explores submission on "24hr Dog." By the time the album closes with "Wanderlust," a stunning epilogue that falls somewhere between SZA and This Mortal Coil's "Song to the Siren," FKA twigs has guided listeners through a remarkably honest song cycle. The complexities are where her music thrives, and EUSEXUA abounds with them. A1 Eusexua 4:24A2 Girl Feels Good 3:56A3 Perfect Stranger 3:17A4 Drums Of Death 3:11A5 Room Of Fools 4:25A6 Sticky 2:57B7 Keep It, Hold It 4:32B8 Childlike Things 2:30B9 Striptease 4:37B10 24hr Dog 4:41B11 Wanderlust 4:17
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