FKA twigs – quick links
Ten months after the release of her third studio album, EUSEXUA, a synth drenched exploration of identity and rebirth, English singer-songwriter and dancer FKA twigs returns with its highly anticipated sequel, EUSEXUA Afterglow.
First teased with the title Deluxua, it is a triumphant second act in her narrative glitchfest; a true testament to twigs’ ability to craft experimental pop that is both meaningful and accessible while retaining the idiosyncrasies listeners have come to expect from her music.
Afterglow is confident in itself – a messy and oftentimes chaotic release of sensuality and liberty.
‘Don’t want to make it all ‘bout sex, but I like to do that sometimes,’ she teases playfully on the track Sushi, offering her lover a stacked week-long roster of food, music, and pleasure.
She goes as far as to sample her own track Glass and Patron from her 2015 EP M3LL155X, a gesture that makes Afterglow all the more engaging. On Piece of Mine, she addresses another person, ardently singing ‘lay back and recline/you’re the one aligned, yeah/you’re a piece of mine’.
On Wild And Alone, a collaboration with English singer-songwriter PinkPantheress, a fresh new voice adds gorgeous layered harmonies to twigs’ overwhelming sense of lust and yearning.
FKA twigs: thematic core
At its heart, though, Afterglow has the very same thematic core as EUSEXUA, exploring relationships and nights of dance and passion with an emphasis on her body, mind, and personality. Twigs may filter through genre and sound from track-to-track, but Afterglow makes sure to let her feelings shine through in the sporadic gaps between pulsing club beats.
FKA twigs once defined Eusexua as ‘euphoric,’ and this record feels like the natural next step — self-reflection in euphoria’s aftermath.
FKA twigs: gritty synths
Afterglow excels sonically, with beat switches, gritty synths and instrumentation that lends to a unique blend of genres and styles. Beginning with a bass-heavy pulsing synth, Love Crimes sets the stage for a record dripping with the intensity of a wild club night.
The next track, Slushy, is clear evidence of twigs’ vision for both sonic and lyrical evolution: the abrasive shutters of Drums of Death and 24hr Dog meet a fresh glittery synth under echoing falsetto and warbled piano.
HARD is a track that almost immediately explodes into augmented vocals, ticking synths and rapid bursts of electric guitar, demonstrating twigs’ predilection for crafting music with deliberately messy inconsistency.
Notably, lyrical repetition throughout the album serves as a canvas for twigs and her production team to experiment with different styles, like the ballroom inspired twist to the trap-beat of Sushi. A return to the glitchiness of EUSEXUA is a subtle throughline, too, with tracks like Predictable Girl harking back to the faltering breakdown of Sticky.
Afterglow works so well because this near constant chopping and changing unfurls into a picture of cohesively bright electronic and synthetic textures. It feels like EUSEXUA with its electronic core, but amplified with a much brighter and much more powerful energy, often soaring to levels of intensity the original album never reached.
FKA twigs: intensity
Afterglow often revels in the intensity of neon club lights, but also pulls back at times to reveal a more subdued intimacy. Though, on Touch A Girl, these moments are too subdued, slowing down to a point that detracts from the near perfect pacing of the album. It is an abrupt departure from the cadence of tracks that precede it, like Cheap Hotel, a heavily sample-driven track that sits just before it.
It is also sonically restrained, but with moments of accelerated vocal speed and glitchy production that justify its placement on the final record. Lost All My Friends encounters similar issues – while it fits better within the album’s sonic landscape, it falls short due to repetitive songwriting. If not for its length, it could have made an excellent interlude, setting the stage for the final track.
FKA twigs: a masterful sequel
Afterglow is a masterful sequel, staying true to the narrative, themes and soundscape of its predecessor. FKA twigs has been in the game for over a decade, and though not the first artist to release two albums in one year, she has certainly joined the ranks of those who’ve done so with remarkable success.
EUSEXUA is a night out – the club, the dancing, the music, the people, the passion. Afterglow is right after – the sex, the hangover, the sunrise, the new Instagram followers, and preparing to do it all again. It’s messy, gritty, fragmented, and choppy – it’s FKA twigs at her rawest.
‘Are you searching for an Afterglow?’ she asks across months of Instagram posts, TikTok videos and album promotion. Turns out, the afterglow might just be even more exciting than the night itself.
EUSEXUA Afterglow by FKA twigs is released 14 November 2025 on Young Recordings Limited.
This article is published as part of ArtsHub’s Creative Journalism Fellowship, an initiative supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
