FKA twigs is one of pop's most influential auteurs - can Eusexua turn her into a UK chart force?

What does Eusexua mean to you?

For FKA twigs it's an experience, a feeling with no quantifiable English meaning. A portmanteau of the terms 'euphoria' and 'sexual,' the third studio album by the English experimental alt-pop icon seeks to find music - luxurious dance-pop with elements of New Age, electronica and bath-house techno - to communicate this feeling in real-time.

But a heady concept is nothing new to Tahliah Barnett, who had made a career out of interrogating the boundaries and barriers of modern pop music. Ever since her arrival with the enigmatic EP1 in 2012 (released under her first moniker, Twigs, so named for her lithe figure and the way her joints pop and bend when she dances), twigs has been committed to combining auteur taste-making with pop-leaning melodies, often with hypnotic and arresting results.

Over the last decade, twigs has become that rare thing most artists aspire to be - an auteur completely in charge of her own sound and vision (there is a reason her work has been compared to that of Kate Bush and Björk and fellow modern-day shape-shifting experimentalist Rosalía) - but there's been a definite disconnect between the critical appreciation for her work, and the commercial rewards that she's reaped. 

As it currently stands, FKA twigs has yet to land a Top 10 UK album, despite arguably being one of modern pop's most monolithic influential figures. Her debut album, LP1, reached Number 16 in 2014, while 2019's highly emotional break-up opus MAGDALENE peaked at Number 21. LP1 was nominated for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize, while MAGDALENE's rapturous acclaim helped twigs a nomination at the 2020 BRIT Awards for Best British Female (an award she lost to Mabel). 

For as long as she's worked in music, twigs has flirted with the idea of a commercial breakthrough. Two Weeks, perhaps her best-known single, sounded like something Aaliyah might have come up with at the turn of the decade, while 2023's stop-gap mixtape CAPRISONGS was full of vivacious, bouncy bangers and even featured pop's biggest commercial success, The Weeknd, on lead cut Tears In The Club. 

That being said, the sole UK Top 40 single twigs has earned was thanks to a featured spot on Ty Dolla $ign's 2020 track Ego Death, which also featured Kanye West (it debuted and peaked at Number 34).

The release of CAPRISONGS was the biggest hint yet that twigs was getting more and more comfortable with the idea of migrating closer to pop's centre. This evolution continues apace in Eusexua; Perfect Stranger, the album's second single, is by and far the most commercial release of twigs's career thus far. Produced by pop hitmakers Stargate (Rihanna, Katy Perry) and Welsh dance mastermind Koreless, Perfect Stranger's feather-light synthesiser's glide over a bridge that's as sweet as honey.

'Let's love in words unspoken,' twigs whispers. 'Let's stay naive, unbroken. I love the danger. You're the perfect stranger.'

Originally conceputalised while twigs was stationed in Prague filming the reboot of cult-classic The Crow (although perhaps, the less said about that the better!), Eusexua was brought to life by her experiences in the city's club scene, a potent exposure to techno and electronic soundscapes. Eusexua is rapture and rhapsody; a pure, undefinable emotion filtered through club culture and pop melodies. 

This specific breakthrough - twigs harvesting the basest of her pop instincts, which have always been present in her work, albeit heavily buried at the best of times - is the culmination of everything Tahliah Burnett has been working on since she first dropped her mysterious, enigmatic first EP more than a decade ago.

Since then, many of twigs' peers, who blurred the lines between experimental and commercial at the turn of the last decade, have also surrendered to a wider audience. Charli xcx finally allowed the mainstream to catch up with her on BRAT, Rosalía recently featured on BLACKPINK album LISA's high-octane banger New Woman (produced by the vanguard of Top 40 pop hits, Max Martin) and even Grimes attempted a break-through mainstream moment a few years with a duo of electronic pop songs, Player of Games and Shinigami Eyes (although that pop album, Book 1, has yet to surface).

So, is this finally FKA twigs's moment for pop glory? Eusexa certainly feels like twigs' biggest pop moment yet, although for every Perfect Stranger on the record, you also have left-of-centre confections like Drums of Death, a Koreless collaboration that is pure, unadulterated bath-house techno. It's a sign that twigs will not surrender herself to the pop machine completely.

And why should she? When you've spent the best part of 10 years always one step ahead, you shouldn't have to dilute your visions or your instincts for the masses. If you wait long enough, they'll catch up to you eventually. 

That could be one meaning of Eusexua. Freedom of expectations and freedom of sound. Freedom to do whatever you want with your art.

Eusexua by FKA twigs drops January 24 via Turks/Atlantic.