On the surface, this work may look closer to an arduous scholarly examination rather than the latest pop album by an artist who just had a last hit featured an international pop icon. Split across 4 distinct movements and sung in thirteen tongues, it is a head-spinning orchestral-influenced opus exploring feminine mystery, religious ascent, and corporal change, often through the prism of different saintly figures. The dissolution of a romance—a topic handled with raw honesty elsewhere—is launched heavenward on this record, carried by the lush presence of a major orchestra and work from a Pulitzer-winning composer within an extensive list of collaborators. Its sheer ambition by itself renders the work of contemporary artists appear rather modest.
Rising Above Academic Pretense
That this album succeeds in escape dry intellectual chin-stroking feels almost a miracle, with complete credit belonging to Rosalía. While it's not the first time project to fuse historical sounds with the present, the stakes feel much higher here, and the tightrope walk more precarious. The element that truly elevates this fourth album, beyond its complex melodies, dense arrangements, and engrained theatricality, proves to be a core sense of playfulness. Similar to the legendary Björk during her peak, there is a captivating sense to Rosalía's singing which sweeps you up in its tornado. When she is breaking hearts apart, the listener nevertheless want to stay right there through the ride.
A Signature Moment of Joy
That exuberant energy comes forth brightly during the stirring Italian ballad inspired by a saint. It luxuriates in a string-drenched melancholy for several moments. Then, all the music falls away, to reveal we hear a spontaneous giggle followed by a comment before a hilariously over-the-top orchestral surge thuds down like cartoonish impact. The song immediately shifts into the frenetic single driven by galloping orchestration, a powerful choral group, and a cameo role from the artist Björk.
"The charm of this album is that you never quite know—nor want to predict—what you is going next."
Almost every track concludes in a totally different place than how it began. A track examines the fleeting trappings of celebrity with a delicate symphony before collapsing into digital chaos. Elsewhere, a song echoing the artist's earlier rhythmic style starts off moody and brooding, with prowling beats, before fluttering flamenco rhythms and an angelic chorus arrive to soften its jagged corners.
The Balance Between Art & Pop
A key balancing act of the album is navigating the gap between radical innovation and mainstream accessibility. This is no coincidence that the album has achieved the artist's first work to break into the Top 5 of major charts: at its core a suite of utterly undeniable pop songs. A song sung primarily in the English language builds on a refrain that seems to gather increasingly infectious melodies while it spins skyward. This trick is echoed by a different powerful track that expands and contracts, intertwining multiple tunes like an intricate weave.
- A waltz-like number charms with its jaunty, Disney-adjacent drama and a chant-along hook.
- In its words, it shares with cultural honesty of contemporary breakup anthems, lambasting an ex- partner described as an "psychological terrorist".
- Across the album, the singing have a sharp smile, like a fairy-tale character hiding a knife: "Top prize in acting like a scoundrel / You've won the trophy of disappointment."
A Maximalist Banquet for the Soul
This album represents popular music on a maximalist level, a hungry grasp for high Art in an era of looming AI-generated blankness. It rejects self-absorption for glorious elevation, creating a dramatic spectacle that masterfully manages its own built-in ridiculousness. It is a deep source of hidden gems that takes time to fully mine but doesn't feels like a chore. Where other major releases of the year seemed like feasting on meal, this record offers a lavish banquet at which the guests at the table, some intoxicated on sacred drink, flit between discussions about ancient saints, the profound feeling of soul-shattering grief, and shared stories about hopeless partners. It is a contemporary theatrical production from music's most endlessly inventive visionary.
