What goes through your head when you’re luxuriating in a long, warm bath? Well, whatever FKA twigs is thinking is always going to be on a higher celestial plane than the anxious thought experiments and half TikTok song hooks that cycle through my own head mid-shampoo.
On the day of her Eusexua album release, twigs posted a video to Instagram from the bath: “The album is about reprieval of one’s self,” she says. “When you’re out and you’re dancing, and the music is so loud and pumping all around you…It’s about the elation on the dance floor and the ego death…The feeling that everyone there is connected to you.”
“When I’m out, nothing matters. We’re all connected,” she continues, while rinsing her hair and lathering up again. “My life is so small and meaningless, and in that moment on the dance floor it’s this big release. I can be my truest self. I’m in tune with a god, a universe.
“I realize my purpose here is to live and to learn, and one day, I’ll die. I go home after this ego death and spiritual awakening and I realise everything feels so yummy. This beautiful, soft comedown. Everything is delicious, like chocolate cake or a warm bath, because I realise I’m safe, I’m myself, I can do this. I have an infinite love and I can keep on going no matter what I’ve been through…Somehow, I’m connected to nothing and I’m connected to everything.”
A lot to take in, in less time than a deep conditioning treatment takes. A study previously reported in New Scientist concluded that taking regular afternoon baths could be linked to a moderate but persistent lift in mood among people with depression. The study found that the size of the effect was greater than that of physical exercise, a more established mood booster. Epiphanies in the bath and shower hit us all too—and there’s science behind it. The relaxed state and reduced external stimuli while in the tub or shower can bolster creative thinking and insights, by allowing for more “mind wandering”, where subconscious connections can be made between ideas.
Now to what twigs’ bath thoughts are really getting at. Throughout this album campaign, twigs has been talking about the concept of ‘Eusexua,’ a portmanteau of the words ‘euphoria’ and ‘sexual.’ “For me, it’s also the moment before I get a really good idea of pure clarity. Like, when everything moves out the way, everything in your mind is completely blank and your mind is elevated,” she told Vogue’s The Run-Through podcast. Basically: Like a spiritual release. Or an orgasm.
The album itself is a rip-stop tour through club sonics: techno and banging drum and bass, serotonin-spiking trance, and garage. She’s even said that Eusexua’s euphoric peak, “Room of Fools”, was written in the bathroom of a club. Like Britney, Robyn, and Madonna, the pop star to club music oracle pivot is a well-trodden path for artists who find mental and emotional clarity in the rave.
Of course, there are physical benefits of hitting the dance floor. Dancing is a form of cardiovascular exercise, which aids heart health and stamina. The mental benefits of dancing are also well studied, improving mood and alleviating symptoms of stress, depression, and anxiety. But is the rave pure panacea?
Well, the Brits certainly think so: a study in the UK found that young people believe clubbing improves their mental health: the social aspect and the opportunity to zone out and move your body being key touchpoints.
For a generation of people putting themselves through doomscrolling and enduring a constant wall of information, being “in the moment” seems to be one of the biggest emotional and mental hurdles they strive to overcome. How do you feel your feelings, hear your body, let your creative imagination grow? “Everything is watched, everything is scrutinized 24/7,” twigs told Imogen Heap in another conversation for Spotify. “It’s difficult for artists in our times to have moments of spontaneity.”
While the ‘Eusexua’ label might not suit everybody, it’s ultimately a practice that prizes creating unabashedly, feeling comfortable in your body, and being more present whether on the dance floor or in your day-to-day life. Bath-to-rave sounds like a good time, regardless.
