Is LIXALíA’s Lux the Year’s Best Album?

In her short discography, Rosalía has never met a convention she couldn’t break.

Born in Barcelona, ​​the singer spent the last seven years developing at a pace that made his contemporaries look lazy.

His breakthrough album, El Mal Therer (recorded as his graduate thesis in 2018) takes folkloric traditions and ignites them with addictive r & b rhythms.

The follow-up, 2022’s MITOMami, is a fierce pop smash that’s like Cumbia and Reggaeton around glitchy hip-hop in glachy hip-hop in glitchy.

With lyrics about fame, discovering sex, Motomami tops the Chartify Albums of the Real Latin record of Latincru.

After Rosalía’s tour for her critically acclaimed album ended three years ago, her fans were left wondering where she would go next.

The answer is revealed in his fourth Album, Lux, which was released on Friday.

Instead of walking in the steps of its predecessors, the baudwans harvested on their own, unique path – Rosalía’s classical training at the prestigious Catalonia College of Music.

Recorded by the London symphony orchestra, and featuring numerous arrangements by Pulitzer Prize Winner Caroline Shaw, it’s a radical opus like no other in the pop sphere.

Lead alone Berghain Verdi’s riffs wound in Irae, the strings played by serrated knives as a German chorus talking about fear and anger, until BJork comes to let everyone know, “the only way to save us is through God’s intervention“.

Another early highlight, reliquia, chops and splics is a quartet of Chambles to unknown electronic standards, while he restores himself to the idea that he wants the beauty of that vulnerability.

“Take a piece of me, keep it without me / I’m your treasure, I’m your relic. “

Fellow Pop Iconoclast Madonna declared herself a fan, posting a message to Rosalía on Instagram, saying “I Don’t Have a Real Vision!!”

Having been together for three years, lux reflects a time of personal and professional turmoil for the 33-year-old.

At that time, Rosalía broke off her engagement with Puerto Rican Reggaetón Star Rauwogo, favoring her management of Adele’s Colle in the Teen Drama Euphoria.

The split from Alejandro seems to inspire the cheapest lyrics on the record. La Perla addressed a man she called an “emotional terrorist” and “the Olympic Gold Medalist of the sons of women

Cathartic FoCu’ Ranni (only available on CD and Vinyl Copies) duo a desolate vocal rendition; Reflecting on the emotional upheaval of a bride who calls off her wedding for the last time.

In an interview with Le Monde in FranceAnd he said that the song was inspired by his namesake, Saint Rosalia de Palermo, who left the altar to offer his life to God.

“I know that coincidence is not crazy,” added the star, but refused to elaborate, simply saying that it was a “long story”.

The quest for spiritual fulfillment focuses on the rest of Lux – whose title is the Latin word for “light”.

Sauviganon Blanc is a Gossamer Ballad that contains the self-deferating vow: “I will listen to my god / I will reject my jimmy choos“; while the shocking Dopamine Rush of Divamize found him, in the Word of Loki, overwhelmed with glorious purpose.

“Judge me, I will eat all my pride / I know that I was made to divinize.“

But it’s the moments of contemplation that steal your breath away. The closing track, Magnolias, is a charming acceptance of death: “What I have not done in my life, you will do when I am dead. “

And the gentle, subdued sadness is an acknowledgment of the divine in the world that celebrates our shared humanity.

“I conform to the world / and the world conforms to me / I take the world / and the world conquers me,“He sings, in wide-eyed wonder.

The song ended up being recorded by Patti Smith in 1976, encouraging artists to defy expectations.

“Break through to the other side,” the rock star said. “Going through one door is not enough, a million doors are not enough.”

As an encapsulation of Rosalía’s creation, it is almost perfect.

Ahead of the album’s release, the singer advised fans to play with headphones in a dark room, calling it a cure for spy videos and viral videos.

“The more we have during Dopamine, the more I want the opposite,” He told The New York Times. “I know it’s a lot to ask, but that’s what I want.”

Anyone who takes the challenge can be rewarded.

Despite its intense orchestration, Lux is a very new album, with a cutting edge and hip-hop that shines with Rosalía’s amazing, operatic vocals.

A minimal artist might have collapsed in the rigidity of its concept – singing in 14 languages, more than four movements of the French Philosopher Simone Weil – but nevertheless he avoided the trap.

Lux is crazy but it’s also accessible. Turn off the lights, give it your full attention, and find one of the most consistent, original artists of our time.