For an album whose title suggests a comedown from its predecessor\u2019s euphoric high, the opening track of Eusexua Afterglow goes surprisingly hard. Backed by a relentless 4\/4 throb, the fleeting \u201cLove Crimes\u201d finds FKA twigs equating corporal pleasure with mortality: \u201cYour body\u2019s a death trap\/Precious like a teardrop.\u201d She describes a man\u2019s \u201clove\u201d as \u201cvenom\u201d on the glitchy \u201cHard,\u201d and tells him his touch is \u201churting\u201d her on \u201cTouch a Girl.\u201d<\/p>\n
These are poetic appositions that twigs may want to consider unpacking with her therapist, but from a critical standpoint, they\u2019re fascinating points of reference for a project that began as a handful of bonus tracks for an expanded edition of last winter\u2019s Eusexua<\/a>. The blissed-out single \u201cPerfectly,\u201d<\/a> released over the summer, is curiously omitted here, while the breezy \u201cWild and Alone,\u201d a reworked version of a previously leaked track, is notable primarily for managing to get PinkPantheress on a song that\u2019s four minutes song and features a bridge. <\/p>\n Afterglow\u2019s 11 songs bleed into each other, linking each one to a loose narrative through line that extends from Euseuxa, but it\u2019s twigs\u2019s psyche that emerges as the album\u2019s fulcrum. On \u201cSlushy,\u201d she uses food to locate both emotional comfort (\u201cA honeycomb, a bowl of rice\/A shoulder to rest upon\/Accoutrements, someone to phone\u201d) and nostalgia (\u201cThings that make me smile when my world falls down\/Download them from my memory\u201d) atop a bed of Eastern-coded keyboards and beats that skitter and shuffle as they grow in intensity. <\/p>\n The last few tracks form a mini song cycle, from \u201cSushi\u201d\u2014a ballroom anthem that sees twigs rapping couplets like the deliciously dumb \u201cI wanna cinema somewhere outside\/I wanna cinnamon bun on a bike\u201d and the punny \u201cSushi, got me feelin\u2019 fish tonight\/Roll me into the midnight\u201d\u2014to the disorienting \u201cLost All My Friends.\u201d The singer wades through her druggy brain fog and repetitive half-thoughts on the latter, searching for her friends at the club: \u201cWhen I was alone, I was spinning\u2026I don\u2019t even remember who you are.\u201d<\/p>\n Afterglow\u2019s building blocks are the same as Eusexua\u2019s: drum \u2018n\u2019 bass, swirling Ray of Light<\/a>-esque arpeggios, and a preoccupation with pleasure, pain, and the human form. But the album also exists as a standalone work, with distinct elements like the distorted guitars and grindy synths that dirty up \u201cPredictable Girl\u201d and the shoegazy \u201cStereo Boy,\u201d and indecipherably pitched-up vocals on tracks like \u201cCheap Hotel\u201d that call fellow futurist Grimes to mind. And while Eusexua felt rooted in the moment, Afterglow is very much a reflection of what just happened. <\/p>\n Score:\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \u00a0Label: Atlantic \u00a0Release Date: November 14, 2025 \u00a0Buy: Amazon<\/a> Since 2001, we’ve brought you uncompromising, candid takes on the world of film, music, television, video games, theater, and more. Independently owned and operated publications like Slant have been hit hard in recent years, but we\u2019re committed to keeping our content free and accessible\u2014meaning no paywalls or fees.<\/p>\n If you like what we do, please consider subscribing to our Patreon<\/a> or making a donation<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For an album whose title suggests a comedown from its predecessor\u2019s euphoric high, the opening track of Eusexua…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":{"0":"post-290466","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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