Bring Back Album Appreciation

 This past weekend, FKA Twigs released her fourth studio album, EUSEXUA. 

                                   

EUSEXUA was released on January 24, 2025, by Tahliah Debrett Barnett, widely known as FKA Twigs. FKA Twigs is a jack of many trades; singer, dancer, songwriter, producer, and actress. Eusexua is a portmanteau of “euphoria” and “sex” invented by Twigs herself to describe the transcendental music experience she felt in a 2022 Prague dance scene. Twigs does not categorize this as a dance album, but rather a “love letter to dance music’s emancipating powers.”  FKA Twigs produced every song on the album along with other producers like Koreless and Ojivota who appear on almost every song. The album has head-throbbing percussion and hypnotic rhythmic patterns that place you in a warehouse rave all in your headphones. 

Outside of my appreciation for this new album, I wanted to speak to the hype around new albums and how that plays out after the album is released. In September of 2024, the leading single of the album, also named “Eusexua” was released along with a music video and this generated a great amount of anticpation for the upcoming album online particulary on Twitter (now known as X). But, I have come to see a change after the album’s release in public reception by her usual fans. Many believe the album is not as Prague-inspired as was advertised, and not as dark percussion as wanted from fans. Songs on the album like “Keep It, Hold It” and “Childlike Things” implore more harmonic choices rather than daunting instrumentals. I found most songs on the album to enhance the warehouse rave feel, and enjoyed them all. 

But, I think the cohesiveness of the album would be better understood if allowed to ruminate for longer than two days. Social media has allowed for albums to be picked apart and thrown away within a week. Spaces and communites online like “Music Twitter” take away from the story an artist may be trying to tell with a project, and focus rather on how it comes across and how profitable that message is. Recently in an article artist, Bjork blames Spotify and “streaming culture” for changing society and artists’ regard to music. I think they work in tandem; social media and streaming culture broke down what it truly meant to enjoy music. They both push high numbers for value in both directions.