Initially, this album could seem more like a challenging academic quiz rather than a new popular music project from an artist whose previous hit was a collaboration with an international pop icon. Divided across four different sections and voiced in 13 tongues, this is a head-spinning classical-tinged album investigating female mystique, spiritual ascent, and bodily change, frequently via the prism of different women saints. The end of a love affair—a theme treated with raw openness elsewhere—is shot skyward here, buoyed by the constant presence of a full orchestra and contributions from a Pulitzer-winning songwriter among a long roll call of contributors. Its sheer audacity alone renders the efforts of other pop stars seem rather laughable.
Transcending Scholarly Exercise
The fact that this album manages to escape dry intellectual chin-stroking feels nothing short of miraculous, with complete praise belonging to Rosalía. While this is not the first time album to alchemize historical sounds and the present, its ambitions are much greater here, with the balancing act more dramatic. What truly elevates her fourth album, outside of its complex tunes, rich compositions, and engrained theatricality, is a core sense of joy. Similar to the legendary Björk during her peak, there is a wondrous sense to the vocalist's singing which sweeps you up in its tornado. When she's breaking hearts in two, you nevertheless desire to be alongside her through the journey.
A Prime Example of Exuberance
This exuberant energy comes forth clearly on the stirring piano-led song about Saint Clare. It bathes in a string-drenched melancholy over several moments. Suddenly, everything falls away, and we hear a gleeful giggle and a declaration prior to a comically over-the-top string crescendo crashes down with cartoonish force. The song immediately segues into the frenetic track driven by racing strings, an imposing choir, and a surprise role from the artist Björk.
"The magic of this album is that you rarely quite understand—nor wish to predict—what it will go next."
Almost each track finishes at a totally different point from where it began. A track examines the fleeting nature of celebrity over a featherlight symphony only to disintegrating into electronic chaos. Elsewhere, a cut that recalls the artist's previous rhythmic style starts out dark and brooding, featuring menacing beats, until sudden flamenco handclaps and an angelic choir arrive to smooth the song's jagged corners.
The Bridge Of Art & Pop
A key balancing act of the album is straddling the gap between radical innovation and mainstream accessibility. This is no coincidence that the album has become the artist's first release to crack the upper reaches of key markets: its heart contains a suite of utterly undeniable hits. One track sung primarily in the English language swells on a refrain that feels to gather more and more nagging hooks while it spirals upward. That feat gets echoed by another powerful track that grows and contracts, intertwining multiple tunes as a complex tapestry.
- A waltz-like number seduces via its playful, Disney-adjacent drama and an anthemic hook.
- In its words, it aligns with pop culture impact of other breakup anthems, lambasting a former partner labeled an "emotional bully".
- Throughout these tracks, the singing have a painted-on smile, akin to a fairy-tale character hiding a knife: "Gold medal in being a scoundrel / You have the podium of letdown."
An Opulent Feast for the Ears
This album represents pop on a maximalist scale, an ambitious grasp for high Art in an era of looming AI-generated sameness. It eschews self-absorption in favor of glorious elevation, crafting an over-the-top spectacle that skillfully manages its built-in ridiculousness. It is a deep well of hidden gems that requires patience to completely mine but doesn't feels like a chore. Where other major pop albums of the year seemed like feasting on scraps, this record is a sumptuous feast where the guests around it, some tipsy on holy wine, flit between conversations about ancient figures, the galvanizing sensation of heartbreaking grief, and shared gossip about useless men. It is a contemporary theatrical production from pop's most restlessly creative visionary.
