It’s not often a mainstream artist is willing to experiment to the point of creating a truly pivotal moment within the music landscape anymore. In the age of streaming and algorithms, labels and musicians alike seem to be more focused on making something new that’s similar enough to stuff people already know. Pop has never been more user-friendly in how it demands as little of audiences as possible in the hopes of convenience and popularity. ROSALÍA, however, has always been inclined to challenge her fanbase. Since her flamenco-rooted breakthrough, El Mal Querer, to the reggaeton and electronica MOTOMAMI, she has been infusing genres and letting her conservatory-trained mind roam free despite the industry’s confining status quo.
When looking back at ROSALÍA’s discography, her new album, LUX, is an immersive and dramatic shift that makes the adventurous nature of its predecessors look like warm-ups. In operatic fashion, it’s constructed with four movements and is ambitious, provocative, and demands a lot of its listeners. When given the time it deserves, the reward is complete transcendence. Singing in languages such as Arabic, Ukranian, Hebrew, and Latin, she defies the dopamine era and AI usage, reminding everyone how great human capability is to both create and engage art.
There is a lot of Catholic imagery throughout the record. Examples in writing can be found in “Divinize”, where she says “Pray on my spine, it’s a rosary”; in “De Madrugá” as she describes a cross on her chest that calibrates her body; and “Dios Es Un Stalker” goes so far as to equate herself to a deity. Other songs are directly inspired by hagiography (documentation of saints and religious leaders’ lives). “Reliquia”, which embraces contemporary glitchy beats of hyperpop, pulls from Santa Rosa de Lima (1586-1617) whose relics, or holy remains, are scattered around the world. Comparably, ROSALÍA talks about transforming her heart into a relic so her lover can take her with him wherever he goes as she recalls memories from various cities.
As she reflects on the sacrifices women have to make to achieve spiritual freedom, “Porcelana” takes after Ryōnen Gensō (1646-1711), a Japanese nun and poet who was originally turned away from the temple at first because her beauty was deemed too distracting. In grief, she burned her own face, valuing intellect and divine purpose over looks, and later was accepted and eventually became head abbess. The following track, “Mio Cristo Piange Diamanti”, inspects platonic love and mirrors Clare of Assisi (1194-1253) and Saint Francis, who helped her escape her family’s plans of an arranged marriage. There’s a unique playfulness here as well, when the big ending comes on her conversational cue. Towards the back of the album in the balladic “Sauvignon Blanc”, she offers to give up her material goods in favor of keeping the love she has found with someone, referencing Santa Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) who relinquished her wealth in pursuit of a righteous life.
Not everything remains stereotypically pure. When discussing this project on a podcast, ROSALÍA mentions two other women (Vimala and Santa Olga de Kyiv) that do not fit the typical narratives of sainthood who equally influenced her creative process. Emotionally, she conveys darker feelings like anger and heartbreak. In the waltz-time “La Perla”, things take an autobiographical turn with sharp lyrical punches which contrast the giggling heard after an instrumental swell. The first and only pre-release single, “Berghain”, features Vivaldi and Italian baroque-esque strings by the London Symphony Orchestra and a resounding arrangement done by youth choir Escolania de Montserrat. With additional contributions from Björk, bringing “divine intervention”, and alternative rocker Yves Tumor who reprises Mike Tyson’s 2022 tirade until it fades to plead, “love me”, the full-throttled, multi-structured track is a grand gesture of mastery. Dense but exploratory, ROSALÍA navigates losing oneself in an all-consuming relationship, chanting in German, “His fear is my fear / His rage is my rage / His love is my love / His blood is my blood."
The Official Music Video for "Berghain" by ROSALíA
Every song showcases different voices and technical mechanisms, displaying ROSALÍA’s talent and deep well of knowledge in the tradition of music. Her vocals range from breathy and vulnerable, to complex runs and full-on rapping. “La Yugular” poetically ponders topics like the weight of a soul, the afterlife, and imagines God in expansive forms all with precise vocals. She revisits her flamenco background in the bulería “Mundo Nuevo”, where she establishes her ascent as she expresses, “I want to leave this world behind”, and again when she is joined by Silvia Pérez Cruz and Estrella Morente in “La Rumba Del Perdón” to form a feminine trinity wrestling with forgiveness. She holds her own alongside fado singer Carminho in the haunting “Memória”, giving way to the delicate essence of life.
The project tells a full circle tale, opening with ROSALÍA singing, “How nice it’d be / To live between them both / First I’ll love the world / Then I’ll love God / How nice it’d be / To live between them both”. This moment is similar to “I Want” songs in musical theater, or arias in opera, where a character lays out exactly what they wish. It isn’t until the record’s finale, “Magnolias”, that the story resolves. Depicting her funeral, a choir sings “When God descends / I ascend / We’ll meet / Halfway”, signaling she has reached the very in-between place she longed for. The return to light, the thing the whole album is named after and is that which she cited as her desire from the beginning, was only possible through loss. She is not a saint, but she has been reborn, landing fully and on level ground.
LUX is what innovation is about – putting the pieces of experiences together to form something new and original. Aggressively human in its emotional vocal delivery and lush orchestral and choral support, it’s still celestial and soul-stirring. It’s an invitation to the next evolution of music. No one is doing it like ROSALÍA, and perhaps no one else can.
