FKA Twigs Shines On ‘Eusexua Afterglow’ With A Pulsing, Artistic Sound

When FKA Twigs opened the year with the release of ‘Eusexua’, it immediately felt like something far more significant than a typical album drop. Drawing from her time raving in Prague’s techno scene, the project delivered an unfiltered and deeply emotional look at how she finds joy and escape while navigating personal upheaval. Her 2022 mixtape ‘Caprisongs’ now feels like a playful lead-up to what came after. The album has since become a major moment for the British experimental pop innovator, landing on this year’s Mercury Prize shortlist and earning her first-ever Grammy nomination.

So when Twigs revealed the follow-up album ‘Afterglow’ – which originally started as a handful of tracks intended for the ‘Eusexua’ deluxe edition before blossoming into its own project – the question lingered: how could she possibly surpass what she accomplished on ‘Eusexua’?

Soundtracking the hazy hours that come after the club and tapping into the feeling of “extending the high into the afters”, ‘Afterglow’ is a bold shift for Twigs. Here, the percussion hits harder and everything feels more physical and instinctive. ‘Love Crimes’ unleashes a deep, primal surge, powered by relentless drums, while ‘Hard’ places her feather-light soprano over quick, skipping kicks as she sweetly wonders: “So tell me would you do it hard?”. Later in ‘Sushi’, the second half drops her right into the middle of a sweaty NYC ballroom, giving her one of her loosest and most playful moments to date.

‘Afterglow’ also leans into an otherworldly atmosphere, twisting familiar dance patterns into something dreamlike and slightly surreal. On ‘Slushy’, airy breaks stretch, glitch, and melt, and ‘Cheap Hotel’ reshapes a classic garage rhythm into a psychedelic daydream. There is a sense of stumbling home while still buzzing and sleep-deprived, a strange brightness that lifts these tracks beyond the usual borders of dance-pop.

The challenge for ‘Afterglow’ is the weight of following such a monumental dance-pop milestone. ‘Eusexua’ balanced fragile joy against simmering darkness, and its bursts of hedonism carried emotional consequences. Twigs’ vulnerability gave that album a richness that ‘Afterglow’ does not always reach. None of the tracks here echo the sardonic bite of ‘24hr Dog’ or the chaotic exhaustion of ‘Sticky’. While ‘Afterglow’ expands the sonic world introduced by ‘Eusexua’, its storytelling feels more straightforward.

Even if ‘Afterglow’ began as a collection of ‘Eusexua’ leftovers, FKA Twigs’ B-sides are strong enough to eclipse entire catalogs. It may not match the towering expectations set by its predecessor, but it still serves as proof that Twigs remains one of the most imaginative and influential voices in alt-pop today.