Lit af Blog #8 —where are all the thinkers?

Sunday 30th Nov 2025

Me when I enter the aquarium that makes me serve face

“A sky of blue, a sea of green, A messy room fits perfectly, Inside my head I have the best time.”

— “Perfectly” by FKA twigs (2025)

The concept of releasing two AOTYs in one year is no longer a concept, because FKA twigs has somehow done that. With January’s EUSEXUA and November’s Afterglow, twigs has completed a slam dunk, not once, but twice, releasing two of 2025’s most compelling and unique albums. Anyone who has known me for more than ten minutes could tell you that FKA twigs is my favourite artist and has been for about four years now, meaning I could harp on for limitless amounts of time about how amazing I think she is, but I’ll save all that waffle for the main focus of today’s post: a ranking of every song twigs has released in this glorious year of 2025. This list has been painstakingly crafted over the past two weeks through hangovers and bed-binding viral illness, and I hope my writing does the beauty and ingenuity of her work justice. No one else in modern music is quite like her.

To commence, here’s a quick run-down of twigs’ moves over the past couple years leading up until now, just to provide some background context for those who are unfamiliar. Back in October 2023, FKA twigs performed live at the Valentino Spring/Summer runway show in Paris, showcasing three pieces of new music in her ‘Unearth Her’ performance. A mere two weeks later, she was unfortunately hacked and eighty-five of her demos were leaked, causing a year-long delay of what would be the start of the EUSEXUA era; “no new music for a while now bye”, she wrote on Instagram. Lowkey she was just being dramatic because the album announcement and lead single came not too long after in September 2024, followed by two more singles and EUSEXUA’s grand release on January 24th of this year. Her third studio album was marked with widespread critical acclaim, many deeming it her magnum opus. But was she finished? No…

Top-left to bottom-right: EUSEXUA cover, EUSEXUA Re-Release cover, Afterglow cover, Afterglow single covers

After various hints, teasers and a non-album single in mid-July, twigs announced EUSEXUA Afterglow, a standalone sequel, or sister album to the original EUSEXUA (originally a deluxe — coined DELUXUA by her fans — that then morphed into a separate project). Preceded by two singles, Afterglow dropped on November 14th along with a re-release of EUSEXUA that featured five new songs (replacing five original ones). FKA twigs fans have been fed this year. Alongside these twenty-seven new tracks, she’s had a prolific year culturally with dozens of fashion show appearances, starring roles in The Crow remake and the upcoming The Carpenter’s Son, press interviews, public events, guest features and the tumultuous Eusexua Tour. She must be exhausted — what hasn’t she achieved?

I should note a couple of her minor controversies from this year, and though I can’t be bothered to go too deeply into them because unemployed people on TikTok and Twitter have already rinsed these issues into oblivion, I will say that her “where are all the thinkers?” interview was dumb as hell. It was a frustratingly counterproductive statement, but here we’re focusing on twigs as an artist rather than twigs as an activist/politician/philosopher so please try to overlook this for the sake of this article. She also garnered criticism for featuring North West on one of her songs (due to her connection to Kanye West and Kim Kardashian), but I don’t really think this is a big deal and I cannot bring myself to care about something I don’t care about, so let’s move on!

A few disclaimers before we begin the ranking:

• I think it would be safe and accurate to say that FKA twigs has an incredible discography, from personal, critical and musical standpoints. Across her officially-released body of work there is only one, maybe two songs (“killer” you suck) that are actively not great, but even then they are significantly less offensive than the worst songs of other artists. With that in mind, I’ve created this ranking not only in the usual subjective/objective manner, but more deeply considering facets such as thematic basis, ingenuity and technical detail over whether a song is ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Every song on this list offers something of note and so this list is more of a still-good-to-amazing ranking than a worst-to-best one. However, I do naturally like some songs more than others and thus my own subjectivity will come into play at times.
• Keep in mind that EUSEXUA Afterglow released a mere sixteen days ago. Though I’ve listened to it a lot (about twenty times, oof get a job challenge) since it dropped, I have tried to keep recency bias towards it to a minimum, at the same time being aware that I’ve had eleven months of listening to EUSEXUA and therefore should not be too inclined towards it either.
• I’ve not included remixes or tracks where twigs is a feature in this list so that the playing field is as even as possible. Shoutout to Oklou’s “viscus”, Yeat’s “FLY NITË” and “Striptease” featuring Eartheater though because they’re all fab.
• For the sake of clarity and to avoid too many ‘-sex’s, from here on out I will be referring to January’s EUSEXUA as ‘EUSEXUA’, the recent EUSEXUA re-release as ‘E2’ and EUSEXUA Afterglow simply as ‘Afterglow’. The word ‘Eusexua’ has began to not feel real — oh wait it wasn’t in the first place.

Without further ado, Lit af Blog presents…

A Eusexual Ranking of Every 2025 FKA twigs Song

26. “Piece Of Mine”

One of them had to be last, and it just so happens to be Afterglow’s “Piece Of Mine”. To put it frankly, it’s the runt of the album, lacking the notability and lucidity that characterises most of the other tracks on this list. A vague, sluggish address to a lover, “Piece Of Mine” shuffles along and never quite picks up at any point, Two Shell’s production failing to land on ethereality and instead melting into swampy indistinctness — this isn’t helped by its position in track list in between two of Afterglow’s most characterful, atmospheric songs. It’s also a non-entity lyrically through its trite overuse of the “ride of our lives” motif and the clunky “piece of mine”/“peace of mind” homophone in the chorus. The SOPHIE-inspired sample in the intro is pretty cool, but considering the heights that twigs can reach with her artistry, “Piece of Mine” is wholly forgettable.

25. “Wanderlust”

“Wanderlust” is such a cutie and I feel bad ranking something both so intro- and extrospective this low. As EUSEXUA’s final track, it does its job culminating the album’s themes in a charming, softspoken manner, with minimalistic guitar production and a real clarity in her anecdotal lyrics and voice. The bridge in particular is lovely, with twigs affirming more cosmically that “it’s alright to be the light […] to wanna ride with higher tides”, but unfortunately its starker instrumentation disallows it to match the heavy hits of other songs. Furthermore, “Wanderlust”’s replacement on E2 covers the same ideas as this but through more developed, emphatic means, rendering “Wanderlust” as the inferior closer of the two.

24. “Touch A Girl”

Based on the title, I was so excited for this song to be gay as fuck. Slightly disappointingly, “Touch A Girl” instead sees twigs urging her lover to open up emotionally. Though more minimal than the previous two songs, “Touch A Girl” wallows in it’s ambient-ish synths and fuzzy bass, providing a moment of nocturnal stillness and intimacy amongst the glitchy distortion of Afterglow. The writing varies in strength; “hurt so good I got that afterglow” works well as a tongue-in-cheek title drop whereas “got me spinning, carousel” is haphazard in its obviousness. I like the song’s dreamy approach and placement as a tempo-slowing centrepiece, but we are not yet in the realm of stand-out brilliance.

23. “The Dare”

The first of two overt Madonna Ray of Light tributes (this has “Substitute for Love” written all over it), “The Dare” is perhaps twigs’ most random song of the year, like where the hell did this one come from?? No teasers, no snippets and no warning, a bit like the re-release itself. Thus far in this ranking we’ve experienced the more lethargic end of the spectrum and though “The Dare” continues that pattern, it’s strong in its simplicity. Accompanied by a laidback, downtempo sound, twigs dares for a failed relationship to re-ignite, expressing boldness in the face of vulnerability and dying love. Yet, in the opposite manner to “Wanderlust” and its better half on E2, “The Dare” shares a more wholehearted and realised counterpart on OG EUSEXUA, where the theme of vulnerability is taken to ninth degree and fully fleshed out to greater effect.

22. “Wild And Alone” ft. PinkPantheress

WAIT DON’T SHOOT! Disclaimer: it pains me to place this brilliant collab so far down but I literally can’t envision it above any of the rest — let it be known however that from now on all the songs have little-to-nothing wrong with them. After a ten-year genesis and a full reworking with PinkPantheress post-2023 leak, this groovy little anthem has finally blessed our ears! Tracing the different perspectives of romance with a celebrity, “Wild And Alone” offers a airy symbiosis of the two singers’ voices over skittish percussion and melodic electronic. Its occasionally repetitive structure is the only slight downside, but this is more than made up for by Pink’s expressive lyrics and delivery along with the aggressive club breakdown that closes the song. Though it doesn’t do anything too crazy, “Wild And Alone” is a perfect unison between two of modern electronic’s leading figures.

21. “Lost All My Friends”

If I was ranking each song’s ability to curate a vibe or niche aesthetic, this would win gold. That one moment after drunkenly leaving the club by yourself at 2am when everything you’ve ever done and lived through hits you like a reversing lorry? twigs gets it. “Lost All My Friends” plays out like a developed fusion of much of her earlier work, combining the pronounced percussion of “Hours” with the ambient swelling of “Hide” and “How’s That”. The result is trance-like, a piece that crescendos from a murky lullaby into bewitching chants of “I lost my mind in the car, I don’t even remember who you are”. The lyrics are self-contained and don’t change much throughout the song but such repetition serves to emphasise the drug-infused disorientation twigs so effectively evokes. She even goes full ASMR mode with the vocals a few times.

20. “Lonely But Exciting Road”

Never did I think to see the day where this would actually be released. “Lonely But Exciting Road” is in some ways the unofficial kick-starter of the whole EUSEXUA era, it being the first track performed at the Valentino Show in October 2023. What many thought would become lost media has instead been shown the light of day as E2’s closer and in turn smashed “Wanderlust” out of its role. This track is the more developed and emphatic ballad I mentioned earlier, employing a wider array of vocal techniques, electro-orchestral tones and backing vocals to coalesce its straightforward lyricism into emotive choral serenades. “Lonely But Exciting Road” is to me exactly how it feels to be twenty and bewildered about life, but it also screams ‘girl who is going to be okay’; after all, it might just be “a heaven that’s coming (our) way”…

19. “Childlike Things” ft. North West

I’ve honestly had enough of stan Twitter pretending like this song isn’t lit af for eleven months straight. Across a mere two and a half minutes, twigs covers supersonic powers, chocolate teapots, gin and tonics, Where the Wild Things Are, “childlike things” and イエス様 王様 (‘Jesus is King’ sung in Japanese by North West because what the hell, sure!), the lush concept of living voraciously like a child conveyed in a luminously batshit manner. With its bouncing club beat and playground-rhyme “dun”s, it embodies the silly and the whimsy of EUSEXUA, a decora-stained paintbrush that gleefully cuts through the album’s sincerer moments like a Jackson Pollock amongst a series of Botticelli's. It truly is “polyphonic”, and I have just one more thing to say on the matter…

KARA, TŌKYŌ!

18. “Perfect Stranger”

Released in October 2024 as the second single for EUSEXUA, “Perfect Stranger” is one that would perhaps be much higher up on other people’s lists and I’d completely understand why — it truly is a quintessential pop song, engaged, communicative and catchy in all areas. Reflecting on the thrill of one-night-only club encounters, twigs abandons nit-picky details. Is she concerned about your hometown, your favourite food, your star sign, your ex? NO! — “I don’t know and I don’t care”, she states. She’d rather “love in words unspoken”, and damn that is a sentiment I adore. If “Lonely But Exciting Road” is how it feels to be a twenty, hopeful and existential, “Perfect Stranger” is thirty, drunk and euphoric. It’s a song rooted in the here and the now, a ravishing portrait of nightlife at its most beautiful, mysterious, rapturous, romantic. Ugh #musicispower, this should’ve been her “Everything is romantic”. The music video is also some of her best visual work, but more on that later.

17. “Sticky”

Aren’t all a bit tired of our own self-destructive tendencies, always “messing up (our) lives with overcomplicated moments and sticky situations”? One aspect of artistry that twigs has always been a master of is the shaping of both specific and universal experiences, crafted through careful consideration of sonic, vocal and lyrical qualities. “Sticky” is a paradigm of this in action. Avoidant attachment, self-sabotage, refusal to open up, sexual connections: twigs becomes a gentle prophet for lovesick masses over twinkles of piano (very Aphex Twin’s “Avril 14th”) and vocal chopping, culminating in a confession that her “body aches to be known” and she just “want(s) be loved” wait #measfuck. With the grinding industrial breakdown at the end, her tender pleas dissolve into discord, and such “sticky situations” are given a metaphorical voice of their own. Oof…

16. “HARD”

Like its namesake, “HARD” goes fucking hard with its charged electropop-R&B sound, resulting in something like Kelela on steroids. A shimmering intro gives way to “wet thighs, I’m ecstatic, chemistry was automatic” which very much succeeds in making me wet and ecstatic. The energy and danceability that this track conjures is irresistible and I’ve found myself a complete “victim of (this song’s) touch”. It’s the one from Afterglow that has grown on me the fastest in the shortest amount of time. Give it a month or so and “HARD”, along with other tracks on this list, will no doubt rise or fall in my ranking just like the fizzing synths that surge forth and dwindle around twigs’ voice as she questions whether her lover would give her their all. Its earworminess crowns it as the “Perfect Stranger” of Afterglow, yet instead of seeking anonymous pleasures, twigs needs to know one thing: “would you do it hard?”

15. “Keep It, Hold It”

Crash out queen, you deserve it! The frenzied bridge of “Keep It, Hold It” is one of twigs’ best, accelerating from the ornamental strums of the song’s first half into a rapid four-on-the-floor dance beat. The hushed, uncertain warbles of “What have I gotta do?” ramp up to jagged belts and twigs let everything loose. “Keep It, Hold It”’s brilliant structure and East-Asian pentatonic melodies make for a singular journey in itself, one that emulates twigs’ own quest in getting through feelings of emptiness and detachment. twigs understands the twin blades of crashing the fuck out and locking the fuck back in; as she insists, the only way out is through, and sometimes you gotta “just keep it walking”.

14. “Eusexua”

The one that officially started this whole ordeal, the one song to rule them all. Puffs cigar and gazes into distance Midnight on September 13th 2024, three days before moving to Manchester, I remember it so clearly… Drunk as hell on rosé walking “under the stars” through the moonlit streets of my countryside village and no longer feeling alone because the dawn of EUSEXUA had commenced! Fourteen months later and EUSEXUA’s title track and lead single is as boundless and oceanic as ever, a momentous climb from trickling art pop (big up Eartheater on backing vocals & production!) into pulsing electronic. I heard the words “You’re not alone” and moving to a faraway city by myself suddenly seemed less daunting. ‘Have you experienced Eusexua?’ YES I HAVE!!!!

13. “Love Crimes”

If “Eusexua” is a slow hike to a mountain peak, “Love Crimes” is a ski lift on cocaine because it gets there instantly. The production goes balls to the wall on Afterglow’s opener with a hammering techno-esque beat that threatens to drown out twigs herself. It’s a brief but meteoric starting pistol for the album, rocketing from verse to chorus to post-chorus to refrain like a ping-pong ball, ceasing to stop until the adrenaline runs out, and from the gloomy bass a distorted voice compels you to “remain silent with me”. “Love Crimes” is the hare to “Eusexua”’s tortoise; the rush vanishes like “an angel fallen” and the song’s tone slips from euphoric into eerily ambiguous in a heartbeat. So cool.

12. “Cheap Hotel”

Released late-September, “Cheap Hotel” has had the advantage of gracing my headphones for forty-seven days longer than Afterglow’s other tracks, giving me much (needed) time to ponder upon twigs’ decision to release this as the lead single. Due to its high placement, it should be obvious that I have no qualms with this choice, but my god what a freaky (in both senses of the word) way to begin the Afterglow era. Over iridescent synths, twigs becomes an LA motel siren, luring you with high-pitched murmurs to the “cheap hotel right behind the club”. The tempo switch within the first minute is mesmerising, as if sonically inducing you in some horny state of hypnosis. I’ve seen multiple Silent Hill comparisons to this song, and it reminds me personally of the Lotus-Eater hotel in the Percy Jackson series, so if either of those are in your Roman Empire then get to the “Cheap Hotel” asap!

11. “24hr Dog”

Back in 2020, Twitter user @cnstntnn tweeted “fka twigs is a bottom” to which twigs replied “no i’m not”, then five years later she released “24hr Dog” which says otherwise. If anyone could convey the allure of submission so captivatingly, it’s twigs, done through some of the most layered writing of her career. The subdued ambient articulations of this track flow like silk, but the lyrics are the highlight. Lines such as “I’m a slave to your design, so work me to satisfy the core of your mind” and “Your love chores distract me from my worst flaws” evoke powerplay in the most visceral, atypical way, very much how the 2002 film Secretary does. In 2021’s “ride the dragon” she remarks “I’m the boss of my life, do I really have to boss in the sheets?”, and in “24hr Dog” that question seems to have been answered. She’s at her most vulnerable, but that’s okay because “it’s getting (her) high”, and Lit af Blog does NOT kink-shame.

10. “Predictable Girl”

Rounding out the top ten we have “Predictable Girl”, Afterglow’s second and final single. Skittering across skeletal ASMR percussion and motor-bike engine revs, twigs speaks to both herself and a lover, fleshing out the tribulations of romance with someone unknown. The writing works magically with the song’s twisting sound through intricate wordplay (“when you say you are not who you are, you got me so locked in”), clever repetition & interweaving of images and the mishap of “Oof, sorry, I fucked up”, culminating in a kind of oil-stained patchwork quilt of vocal and sonic qualities. Yet despite its meticulous technical construction, “Predictable Girl” never takes itself too seriously, indicated best in the line “you made up a world, then got fucked in the ass”. Though the shortest song on Afterglow, it packs a heavy punch, sort of like being hit with a “Bugatti car”.

9. “Room of Fools”

Justice for “Room of Fools”!! I see this absolute banger placed far too low on far too many people’s EUSEXUA rankings and I cannot comprehend why. The last couple tracks on this list spotlight lyricism, but “Room of Fools” abandons the complexities of language in favour of breaking a sweat on the dance floor. That’s not to say that writing is bad — the metaphor of clubbers as “the beautiful untethered” and “open wounds, just bleeding out the pressure” both work as sleek ornamental additions — but the song’s nucleus is its electric danceability. It’s a ritual for dancing like no one is watching, twigs howling repeatedly how “it feels nice” over vibrant synths and thunderous bass. And the “Venus as a Boy”-esque outro goes above and beyond, a pearlescent moment of mediation that arrives just before the song threatens to trip over its own BPM and dissolve into frenzy; sort of like a deus ex machina at EUSEXUA’s core.

8. “Got To Feel”

“Got To Feel” officially released?! Life is worth living. I have been waiting for this song to drop since October 2023, it being the final of the three tracks teased at the Valentino show. Koreless’ meticulous production is reminiscent of a both a jaw harp (legit the coolest instrument ever look it up) or a sitar, giving the whole track this prehistoric/anthropological vibe and non-Western ethnic sound that is simultaneously something straight out of the future. It replaces “Childlike Things” on E2 and though I believe it to be the better of the two whimsical tracks, “Got To Feel” is the perfect indicator of twigs letting her skullet down and just having fun with her post-EUSEXUA output. It’s fascinatingly different from the rest of her work this year, somehow yielding both golden opulence and sprightly inventiveness. It’s quite difficult to do this song justice in words but I think everyone should listen to it once (source: trust me bro).

7. “Perfectly”

The 2025 twigs track that means the most to me personally; if this were a purely subjective ranking then it’d be first no question. Though it now has a definitive position on E2, “Perfectly” was the random single released in mid-July, thus existing as a liminal bridge between the EUSEXUA and Afterglow eras for quite a few months. I was home for summer when this track dropped, living in my own liminal space in the sunny fields of Devon, working, cycling around, jumping in the sea, generally existing without much direction, and “Perfectly” became a constant backing for that. Though I spent much of this summer craving to be back in Manchester, this song makes me intensely nostalgic for the simplicity of that time. “Perfectly” radiates pure satisfaction and elation, carrying the same messages as “Wanderlust” or “Lonely But Exciting Road” but over a untamed techno-ish beat and glossy electronic instead of minimal ponderings. It is perhaps this high up for personal attachment, but it is wonderfully cathartic and I love it so much. Though each of us can “fix it all in another life”, for now it’s okay to just “la-la-la, let it go”.

6. “Stereo Boy”

“Sticky” stabs you with a knife, and “Stereo Boy” twists it using a 10,000-watt electric screwdriver. Using “Stereo” as a double entendre (in the radio context and as a shortening of ‘stereotypical’), and much inspiration from her earlier work (it’s very LP1 or M3LL155X), twigs laments a love not given back to her through the lens of a car journey. Contrasted to the vocal distortion across the rest of Afterglow, the album’s closer sees twigs’ voice become raw and desperate, cutting through coarse electronic production that sizzles and sparks like a TV being smashed. “Stereo Boy” is a dissonant, jarring listen, but one that stops you in your tracks like a deer in headlights. It’s the most gut-punching thing she’s released since the heartbreak anthems of MAGDALENE, a track that, after thirty-five minutes of twigs throwing everything up in the air, comes crashing down to earth with brutal sadness. In terms of troubled relationships, twigs knows ball: as she concludes, “I changed the station, but my pain, it still remained”, because ultimately her lover is just another “stereo boy”.

5. “Slushy”

I’ve seen very little noise for this track online, despite it being, in my humble opinion, one of twigs’ most evocative songs to date. Taking the humanistic elements of EUSEXUA and the vaporous etherality of Afterglow’s other tracks, “Slushy” sees twigs attempting to “make today heavenly” after the rocketing heat of “Love Crimes”, focusing on the pleasure brought by the smaller things in life. Over an eerie churn of groaning basslines, DnB-esque drums, clicks, bangs, synths and digitalised vocal riffs, twigs notes “things that make (her) smile when (her) world falls down” — things like “the bluest sky”, “the deepest night”, “a lover’s eyes”, “a honeycomb”, or even just a “slushy”. It is not as complex as other songs on this list, but draws its impact through giving dimension to such simple, specific things. “Slushy” is both specific and elusive, comforting and unsure (twigs wonders “who I am, if I can, and who I wanna be”), soft yet determined: the most earnest, and dream-like encapsulation of Afterglow.

4. “Drums of Death”

A wise woman once said “ckuckuchuchchchchchchahdaihdaihdaidaihelloooo chchchchchchahdaihdaihdaidai” and queers all around the world (s)creamed. “Drums of Death” is best summarised by its closing mantra: “crash the system, diva doll, serve cunt, serve violence”, and trust I’ve been doing that since the day it dropped! Released mid-November 2024 as EUSEXUA’s third single, “Drums of Death” is an ingenious creation, opening with the titular drums before giving way to an onslaught of razor-sharp vocal chopping. Alongside Koreless’ pinpoint production, twigs becomes a kind of femme fatale cyborg vampire, tempting you to “tear your clothes”, “rip your shirt”, “feel hot, feel hard, feel heavy” and “fuck who you want”, before assuring that she’s “here anytime, you can call (her) up”. No one has ever been cooler. Through “Drums of Death” twigs unleashes a battle-cry to be sexier, gayer, more blasphemous, more erotic, and most importantly, to “serve cunt” to the highest degree possible. RIP Divine you would’ve loved this song.

3. “Girl Feels Good”

Madonna come get your child! The daughter of 2001’s “Swim”, “Girl Feels Good” is a ode to men, willing them to cherish and respect the women in their life for “when a girl feels good, it makes the world go round”. Period! With its wallowing, aquatic synthesizers and guitar riffs, twigs navigates the vivid 90s downtempo sound with grace and decorum, in turn navigating men to “where there’s healing”, away from “tales of war, delusions of more”. It doesn’t possess the avant-garde production of “Drums of Death”, the emotional weight of “Sticky” or the intimate writing of “24hr Dog”, but has somehow ended up third on my ranking. How, I hear you ask? Because twigs knew what she wanted to do and she did it. “Girl Feels Good” is a masterful example of bringing sonic aesthetics of the past into the present and making a magnificent song out of it. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel; you just need to make it your own.

2. “Sushi”

“Sushi got me feeling fish tonight” — give her every song-writing award that exists. Afterglow’s crown jewel is a five-and-a-half-minute date proposal/night-out floor-filler/ballroom epic/long soak in the luxuries of metropolitan love; she’s “hitting you up for a good, good time” and my god it is exactly that. Teased on her live tour throughout this year, “Sushi” has been highly anticipated for months, fans on the Twigscord (twigs’ discord LOL) begging for her to release it relentlessly. As she herself stated on the chat a few months back, ‘sushi is dessert’, and despite the complaining it was worth the wait. The track builds up across its first four minutes, surging forth with a stomping beat as she lays out the weekly plan of “Sushi on Monday, dancing on Tuesday, karaoke Wednesday” and so on. A trap breakdown of yet more plans (“I wanna see you skinny-dipping, car wash with a margarita”) follows, before the tempo picks up, twigs whispers “now hold that pose for me” (sampled from 2015’s “Glass & Patron) and “Sushi” goes full vogue with ballroom crashes galore. It’s fucking amazing.

1. “Striptease”

Let’s be real, what else would be first? An easy contender for twigs’ best song, “Striptease” is a tremendous musical achievement and flawless amalgamation of what makes her a sole entity in modern music. First teased briefly back in 2022 and featured in a now taken-down 2023 Calvin Klein advert starring twigs, “Striptease” took its place as track nine of EUSEXUA and has been blowing my mind since the minute I heard it. A sensuous appeal to physical intimacy, twigs implores an unspecified subject to “arch my spine and just a shoulder titalises on me”, urging with Eartheater-like warbles over genre-bending electronica. The track is in constant flux with itself, dynamic refrains balanced with paralyzingly sustained pre-choruses, but it never ceases to flow like the “silk”, “lace” and “tears” she describes. twigs knows how to illustrate the body as much as she does the mind, surmising that “opening me feels like a striptease”. And like it’s namesake, the song reveals more as it continues. As if suddenly stimulated, twigs launches into operatic hollers like a Valkyrie ascending to Valhalla, accompanied by frantic drum and bass. It’s an angelic close to twigs’ 2025 magnum opus, and one of the best things released this year. Kudos to you mama.

And just for funsies, a quick ranking of the eight music videos from this era (the “Love Crimes” music video is unreleased at the time of publication):

8. “Childlike Things” — fun in concept with great camerawork, but the acting and choreography is just quite cringe

9. “Predictable Girl” — twigs getting frisky with her doppelganger on an Æon Flux-y motorbike! just not a fan of the AI animation at the end

10. “HARD” — so so glamourous: I love James Vu Anh Pham’s choreography, the black-and-white cinematography and reference to “Pendulum”, just simpler than the rest of them

11. “Perfectly” — twigs and her gang grooving out! I ❤ community! made me buy a bunch of fake piercing gems

12. “Cheap Hotel” — twigs and her gang ho-ing out! I ❤ community!

13. “Striptease” — twigs nearly being hit by a truck fifty-seven times! the sacrifices she makes to serve on bare tarmac; love the outfits in this one

14. “Perfect Stranger” — incredible set, lighting and costume design that wonderfully encapsulates the themes of the song

15. “Eusexua / Drums of Death” —the first of the era and a mothership of all music videos; impeccable production in all areas

Well that ends it! If you’ve made it this far, I salute you for your commitment to this analysis of FKA twigs in the past year or so. I’ve found much entertainment in being able to write at such length about an artist I am so enamoured by, and I hope this has convinced anyone who is not an active listener to give her music a go. Not to sound parasocial, but it is life-changing and I feel so lucky to live in a timeline where she can grace our ears, screens and stages. To finish, I bless thee with the EUSEXUA mantra:

EUSEXUA IS A PRACTICE. EUSEXUA IS A STATE OF BEING. EUSEXUA IS THE PINNACLE OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE.

staylit

Joe :)