LUX - Rosalia: Review
Rosalia is a Spanish singer, songwriter, and musical auteur. Her major critical breakthrough came on her conceptual 2018 album El Mal Querer. A few years later, she transcended her experimental darling status into a full-blown superstar on the massively acclaimed and massively popular Motomami. Now, 3 years later, she remains one of the biggest stars of Spanish music, making LUX one of the most anticipated new albums of the year. Now that it's here, the album resoundingly lives up to every expectation leveled upon it.
LUX only had one single, but god is it a swing for the fences fitting for an album so bold. "Berghain" sees Rosalia teaming up with Yves Tumor and Bjork, but more than any of those brilliant artists, it's the blasting baroque instrumentation that absolutely steals the show. The album follows this trend with several of its shorter songs aiming high and hitting their mark. That starts early with the excellent table setter "Sexo, Violencia y Llantas." It introduces you right away to several of the sonic features the record will deploy throughout. From the combination of beautiful strings with transcendent electronic and pop music to the choir that surrounds her dramatic vocals, it all starts here in dazzling fashion.
Several times on the back half of the record, songs make memorable moments without overstaying their welcome. "De Madruga" isn't even 2 minutes long, but wow is it fucking invigorating. It also perfectly propels the record into a great second half that rides the momentum all the way to its conclusion. "Dios Es Un Stalker" fascinatingly positions Rosalia as a literal stalker. The music feels like it could genuinely be the soundtrack to her hunting down the object of her desire, and it's blood-pumping. As a bonus, it contrasts with the much more beautiful exploration of love on the following "La Yugular." That track also concludes with a snippet of a Patti Smith interview that is perfectly recontextualized by the song that precedes it.
Finally, there's "Sauvignon Blanc," a great example of Rosalia's songwriting. In not that much time, she manages to pen a song of pure triumph, moving forward and moving on. The closer "Magnolias" is a similar highlight. It ends such an expansive and entrancing musical experience with lyrics about Rosalia literally turning to galactic dust. It's both a fitting and well-earned conclusion. It's a stark contrast from some of the anguish expressed early on in the record on songs like the one-two punch of "Reliquia" and "Divinzine." The former sees Rosalia revealing the ways that jet-setting fame has brought her down, choosing to tell the story through a literal list jumping from city to city. On the other hand, "Divinzine" is a confrontation of sin and temptation that dives into both the ways it's worked on Rosalia as an outside force, but also how she's perpetuated it.
Elsewhere, the record is just staggeringly beautiful. "Mio Cristo Piange Diamanti" is an absolute show-stopper that leads the first movement to its conclusion in dreamy, sparse fashion. "La Perla" finds it's beauty in a more relaxed yet fantastical way. It ends with what is essentially a roast session that's funnier than it has any right to be, and it adds some levity to an album that's otherwise so staggeringly dramatic. That's hardly the only successful collaboration on the record. "La Rumba Del Perdon" is the record's most direct flirtation with more conventional Latin music, and it's assisted by a pair of collaborators who work brilliantly to highlight the distinct signifiers.
"Memoria" may very well be the record's masterpiece. That's in large part because it sees Rosalia teaming up with Carminho, whose vocals on the song are staggeringly beautiful in an entirely new way from Rosalia's. When they share the spotlight across the album's final minute, it is a genuinely awe-inspiring moment. In fact, the only collaboration that doesn't really work, and one of the only songs I'm not fond of in general, is "Porcelana." It's difficult to go toe-to-toe with Rosalia, but Dougie F's contributions are the only on-the-record ones that make me wish I could skip back to her parts.
What a stunning listening experience. While Motomami represented Rosalia's special ability to pair extraordinary musical talent with uncompromising personality, LUX hones in even more on the girl in the center of it all. Alongside triumphant, dramatic, and occasionally even otherworldly instrumentation, Rosalia bears her soul over and over again. None of this is new; she's always been afraid to inject raw feeling into her records. But with the newfound contrast of the record's baroque high points. the excellence of her craft has never been clearer. 9/10
For more dazzling great music, check out my review of Anna Von Hausswolff's ICONOCLASTS
