What is Eusexua? You could listen to FKA Twigs explain her album concept a million times and still not quite know. It’s a “practice … state of being … the pinnacle of human experience.” It’s “a moment of nothingness” before orgasm. It’s something you experience while high out of your mind at the rave. Inspired by some feverish nights dancing to techno in Prague, the British pop star’s latest album is all about the club. And as her special guest, she’s invited the 11-year-old North West. Maybe North’s got a really good fake ID?
North features on “Childlike Things,” a chintzy house-pop anthem in Eusexua’s back half. It’s strange and possibly offensive. North is rapping — in Japanese. She’s praising Jesus. She’s playing the Harajuku Girls to Twigs’s Gwen Stefani. I love it though. “Childlike Things” is a buoyant reprieve on an album that’s just a little too serious for the club. (As a friend joked, Eusexua is “giving MoMA and we need to at least get to MoMA PS1.”) This isn’t North West’s first time rapping in Japanese — she did so on her father Kanye West’s album Vultures 2 last year. This time is much better though. Kanpai!