The Song That Helps Explain FKA Twigs
The DailyYou’re reading The New Yorker’s daily newsletter, a guide to our top stories, featuring exclusive insights from our writers and editors. Sign up to receive it in your in-box.In today’s edition, a favorite FKA Twigs song. Plus:The families in Chicago preparing to be separatedDrinks with a recently imprisoned environmentalistThe rise of China’s soft powerFKA Twigs’s “Two Weeks,” from the 2014 album “LP1,” set the stage for her signature luxe, experimental style: a layered blend of electronica, R. & B., and pop that roils with desire. Since then, she’s solidified a place among the critically lauded avant-garde—Björk, Laurie Anderson, Rosaliá—with four studio albums, each marking evolution in her alien aesthetics and exploration of womanhood. With the acclaim came the spotlight; tabloids obsessed over her string of high-profile relationships, personal traumas, and health issues. Her latest album, “Eusexua”—her first on a major label—was created, she told me, to move outside of herself. The neologism is a portmanteau of “euphoria” and “sex,” meant to mirror the “egoless presence” experienced when “you’re kissing a stranger, or you’re just about to have an orgasm, or you’re just on the precipice of a brilliant idea,” she explained. Or, as in the case of Twigs, when you’re having an epiphany in the bathroom of a rave in Prague.I spoke with Twigs, for this story, under calmer circumstances: over a brief visit at a serene teahouse; in a car on the L.A. freeway; and amid holiday lights at Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont. She recounted her nights spent dancing through Berlin, London, and Ibiza. The resulting album is a stunning, glitchy, nineties-club inspired record. The process of creating it was therapeutic for Twigs, transforming “Eusexua” into a philosophical movement: a rejection of self-obsession in favor of intentionally embracing the present. Read or listen to the story »The Briefing RoomPhotograph by Christopher Dilts / Bloomberg / GettyFear among the undocumented: ICE raids have begun in Chicago. Gerald Cadava reports from the city, speaking with undocumented migrants and other community members to get a sense of how the sweeps are playing out.President Trump’s deal with President Maduro: Tom Homan, the U.S. border czar, has said that deportations for Venezuelans will begin “within the next thirty days.” Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans live in the U.S., many of whom entered legally and have now had their short-term protections revoked. In 2024, Jonathan Blitzer reported on this especially vulnerable population.More Top StoriesElon Musk’s Revolutionary TerrorAmerica’s Soft-Power RetreatWhy Was a Climate Activist Put in Prison for Five Years?Daily Cartoon“Super Bowl? This is just my regular comfort food these days.” Cartoon by Ali SolomonCopy link to cartoonCopy link to cartoonLink copiedShopShopMore Fun & GamesPlay today’s bite-sized puzzle. A clue: First island mentioned in the Beach Boys song “Kokomo.” Five letters.Shouts & Murmurs: The Magic Travelling SalesmanMusk and His Marauding Band of I.T. GuysP.S. The Beatles launched the British Invasion in the U.S. on this day in 1964. Only a few weeks before, our reporter Thomas Whiteside interviewed their twenty-nine-year-old manager, Brian Epstein. “I think that America is ready for the Beatles,” Epstein told Whiteside. “When they come, they will hit this country for six.”
In today’s edition, a favorite FKA Twigs song. Plus:
- The families in Chicago preparing to be separated
- Drinks with a recently imprisoned environmentalist
- The rise of China’s soft power
FKA Twigs’s “Two Weeks,” from the 2014 album “LP1,” set the stage for her signature luxe, experimental style: a layered blend of electronica, R. & B., and pop that roils with desire. Since then, she’s solidified a place among the critically lauded avant-garde—Björk, Laurie Anderson, Rosaliá—with four studio albums, each marking evolution in her alien aesthetics and exploration of womanhood. With the acclaim came the spotlight; tabloids obsessed over her string of high-profile relationships, personal traumas, and health issues. Her latest album, “Eusexua”—her first on a major label—was created, she told me, to move outside of herself. The neologism is a portmanteau of “euphoria” and “sex,” meant to mirror the “egoless presence” experienced when “you’re kissing a stranger, or you’re just about to have an orgasm, or you’re just on the precipice of a brilliant idea,” she explained. Or, as in the case of Twigs, when you’re having an epiphany in the bathroom of a rave in Prague.
I spoke with Twigs, for this story, under calmer circumstances: over a brief visit at a serene teahouse; in a car on the L.A. freeway; and amid holiday lights at Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont. She recounted her nights spent dancing through Berlin, London, and Ibiza. The resulting album is a stunning, glitchy, nineties-club inspired record. The process of creating it was therapeutic for Twigs, transforming “Eusexua” into a philosophical movement: a rejection of self-obsession in favor of intentionally embracing the present. Read or listen to the story »The Briefing Room
- Fear among the undocumented: ICE raids have begun in Chicago. Gerald Cadava reports from the city, speaking with undocumented migrants and other community members to get a sense of how the sweeps are playing out.
- President Trump’s deal with President Maduro: Tom Homan, the U.S. border czar, has said that deportations for Venezuelans will begin “within the next thirty days.” Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans live in the U.S., many of whom entered legally and have now had their short-term protections revoked. In 2024, Jonathan Blitzer reported on this especially vulnerable population.
- Elon Musk’s Revolutionary Terror
- America’s Soft-Power Retreat
- Why Was a Climate Activist Put in Prison for Five Years?
Daily Cartoon
“Super Bowl? This is just my regular comfort food these days.”
- Play today’s bite-sized puzzle. A clue: First island mentioned in the Beach Boys song “Kokomo.” Five letters.
- Shouts & Murmurs: The Magic Travelling Salesman
- Musk and His Marauding Band of I.T. Guys
P.S. The Beatles launched the British Invasion in the U.S. on this day in 1964. Only a few weeks before, our reporter Thomas Whiteside interviewed their twenty-nine-year-old manager, Brian Epstein. “I think that America is ready for the Beatles,” Epstein told Whiteside. “When they come, they will hit this country for six.”
