On the surface, this work might appear more like an arduous academic challenge than the latest pop album from a musician who just had a previous single featured an international pop icon. Split into 4 different sections and sung in 13 tongues, this is a head-spinning symphonic work exploring female mystery, spiritual ascent, and bodily change, frequently via the perspective of different female saints. The end of a romance—a theme handled with grounded honesty elsewhere—soars skyward on this record, supported by the constant sound of a major orchestra and work from an award-winning composer within an extensive roll call of contributors. Its sheer daring alone renders the work of other pop stars look rather modest.
Transcending Academic Pretense
The fact that this album manages to avoid dry academic chin-stroking feels almost a miracle, with sole credit belonging to Rosalía. While it's not her first album to alchemize the past and the present, its stakes feel much greater here, and the balancing act far more dramatic. What really raises her fourth release, outside of its multilayered tunes, rich arrangements, and inherent theatricality, proves to be a core sense of fun. Similar to the iconic artist during her height, you find a wondrous quality to the vocalist's voice which sweeps the listener up in its whirlwind. Even when she's tearing your heart apart, the listener nevertheless want to stay right there through the ride.
A Prime Example of Joy
That exuberant energy comes forth clearly on the stunning piano-led ballad inspired by a saint. It luxuriates in a string-drenched melancholy for more than four moments. Suddenly, everything falls away, and we hear a spontaneous laugh followed by a comment before a comically exaggerated orchestral crescendo thuds in like cartoonish force. The track then shifts into the wild track driven by galloping strings, an imposing choral group, and a surprise appearance from the artist Björk.
"The magic of this album is that you rarely exactly know—or even wish to know—what you is going next."
Almost each song ends at a completely distinct point than how it began. One moment examines the transient trappings of celebrity over a featherlight symphony only to collapsing into electronic chaos. Another, a cut echoing her previous trap-infused work starts out moody and sinister, featuring menacing vocals, until sudden flamenco handclaps and a heavenly chorus enter to soften the song's rough edges.
The Bridge Between Experiment and Pop
Another crucial achievement of the album is navigating the line of radical experimentation and mainstream appeal. This is little coincidence that the album has achieved the artist's first release to crack the upper reaches of key markets: at its core a suite of utterly catchy hits. A song sung primarily in English builds on a refrain that seems to collect increasingly nagging melodies as it spirals skyward. That feat is repeated by a different expansive track that grows and contracts, intertwining layered tunes like an intricate weave.
- A dance-infused song seduces with its jaunty, theatrical flair and an anthemic chorus.
- In its words, it aligns the pop culture impact of other heartbreak anthems, lambasting an ex- lover described as an "emotional terrorist".
- Throughout these tracks, the vocals carry a sharp smile, akin to a storybook character concealing a knife: "Gold medal in acting like a scoundrel / You've won the trophy of disappointment."
An Opulent Banquet for the Ears
This album represents popular music on a grand level, an ambitious grasp for high Art in an era of looming AI-generated blankness. It eschews solipsism for glorious elevation, crafting an over-the-top drama that masterfully manages its built-in excess. It is an abundant source of hidden treasure that takes time to fully mine but never seem like a chore. While some big releases of the year seemed like feasting on meal, this record is a lavish feast at which the guests around it, perhaps intoxicated on sacred wine, flit from conversations about historical saints, the profound feeling of soul-shattering sadness, and common stories about useless men. In essence, it's a modern-day musical from music's most endlessly creative visionary.
