This Room of Fools, We Make Something Together (or, Dance as a Means of Survival)

The club is not always the escape we expect it to be. It's the distraction, the deterrent of all things weighing heavily upon us before we pass through the grey iron gate, cloaking us in darkness and spotlighting us in our most hideous yet most untethered states; in many ways, justifying our existence and reinvigorating the sense of belonging dulled by the mundane existence of our everyday reality. But then again, these profound bar-side realizations hardly last long enough to do any lasting damage. Shots?

Have You Experienced Eusexua?

EUSEXUA, the fourth full-length studio album from FKA twigs, is an elctropop, dancehall recession tape whose melodies resemble those of classic Sonic the Hedgehog levels, as if you took every DreamCast-era SEGA character, locked them in a room, and forced them each to contribute a track to a beat tape before they were set free (except Axel from Crazy Taxi, for legal reasons, SEGA has barred him from the mix table and has been asked to turn in his keys and disassemble his stereo).

This album makes my skin crawl (but that could just be the caffeine and added preservatives giving me the itch). It is a gleefully twisted night out, a memory warped and misconstrued by the chemically-induced stupor of the earliest morning hours; caked in spit and spilt liquid courage, skin seasoned in sweat and cigarette smoke, shoes naturally in hand or unceremoniously donated to the overpopulated dancehall floor. But snuck between these seemingly senseless celebrations of brash, lustful hedonism are melancholic slows and ballads, simulating the come down from the previous songs and providing a more realistic look into the haphazard life of the escapist club rat, staunchly contradicting the highs present on the early tracks.

Never let a man that dresses like this break your heart. Or do. I'm not your mother.

The album is generally transparent in it's messaging, leaning heavily into it's overarching themes of hedonism, liquid/chemical liberation and the open secret that deep down we're all sticky, horny freaks in desperate need of an honest-to-god dicking. But beneath the showmanship, behind the innuendos and party-girl-edness of it all, exists a perhaps intrinsic desire for anonymity, starkly contrasting FKA twigs petitions for intimacy and physical companionship. Granted, this feeling is closer to the surface on songs like "Perfect Stranger" and "Room Of Fools," it still lines the cracks of the rest of the album; existing instead as a secondary explanation for many of the record's underlying themes.

Songs like "Keep It, Hold It" and album standout "Sticky" both put themselves forward as prime examples of EUSEXUA's beautiful pacing and sonic teasing, packed tightly between two rave-ready trance jams. These two drawling melodramas unpack an unapologetically blunt view of the contradictory nature of love and, let's face it, sex. The longing to be touched, to be deeply and physically understood beyond the confines of the mortal coil, and yet still fearfully distancing oneself from the emotional toil of intense companionship, only to look back regretfully at the decision to push people away. And then North West is there. And she's speaking Japanese. Still a banger though. Y'know what, let's do a shot.

Konnichiwa! My name is North-chan, California to Tokyo!

While it’s unfortunate (and albeit played out) that the comparison to brat must be made, the return to the laser-lit lifestyle of electric hedonism is clearly at hand, and EUSEXUA is no exception. The two represent two ends of the spectrum, however; Charli representing the deniers and the optimists, those unwilling to allow the negativity in or let it affect their state of being, and FKA twigs embodying those forced to accept and compromise with the hardships the music finds them weighed down by. They are alive despite their situation, seeking temporary reprieve from the world’s horrors, though never separating fully.

It is worth noting that while the music itself may not have been created with that intention, as FKA twigs has since alluded to and outright explained EUSEXUA's "the body is art" motifs, art is still a reflection of the current society at large, and we are helpless and uninvolved in the selection of that mirror. All we can do, all that we control are the bodies we inhabit; we are but a room of fools, making something together— dance as a means of survival.

Rob Lucchesi

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FKA twigs

HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED EUSEXUA?