Rosalía’s LUX, and the Future of Pop

- Rosalía LUX listening party event (Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC), Barcelona) - Photo sourced from Pinterest

"Seven heavens? Big deal. I want to see the eighth heaven, tenth heaven, and thousandth heaven. You know, it's like, break on through the other side. It's just like going through one door. One door isn't enough. A million doors aren't enough." 

This is a quote from a 1976 interview with esteemed writer Patty Smith, featured on Spanish pop artist Rosalía’s new album LUX. And a very fitting quote at that.

This album feels like a breath of fresh air. Soaring and operatic. Rosalía opens doors for pop, blending classical, avant-garde, and flamenco to create something entirely new. Religion plays a large thematic role in the album, as each song is directly inspired by the life of a female saint, spanning multiple religions, with Rosalía being particularly drawn to visionary saints. She seeks to make an understanding of love, femininity, and the world through the lens of divinity. 

The album requires a concerted effort, featuring 13 different languages, with Rosalía’s native language, Spanish, at the forefront. To experience the album in its entirety, it requires multiple listens. It takes active engagement, reading lyrics, and listening to the dense orchestral moments provided by the London Symphony Orchestra; it contains no cheap dopamine hits. It feels pensive and consuming, much like a church service. Rosalía herself recommends listening to the album in the dark while reading the lyrics. The album was a labor of love on Rosalía’s end as well, dedicating years to studying feminist literature, the lives of saints, and operatic singing techniques.

Some of my favorite moments on the album are found in songs such as “Berghain,” featuring Björk and Yves Tumor, which conveys a dramatic intensity. The track “Porcelana”, which explores the complexity of feminine beauty, features many twists and turns, culminating in a dramatic choral ending that only feels fitting. On the album's closing track, “Magnolias”, Rosalía questions how she will be remembered when she passes. With its sweeping chorus, the song never fails to make me cry.

The album does have some lows for me; the tracks “Dio Es Un Stalker” and  “La Perla”, while being real earworms, ultimately fell flat for me. They feel a bit too simplistic and formulaic compared to the lushness of the rest of the album. They don't fit in and feel like bids to mainstream pop appeal, which the rest of the album seems to be challenging. And while fitting 13 languages into one album isn't an easy feat, it can sometimes feel a bit sporadic. There has been some criticism directed at Rosalía for predominantly showcasing European languages. While I do agree that it would have been nice to see some lesser-known or dying languages, the ones present in the songs often directly correlate to the country of the female saint for whom the song is inspired. 

Overall, the album is an expansive meditation on what pop can be, exploring new sounds in the genre. Much like religion, pop has many rules and beliefs that Rosalía questions and pushes against on LUX. This is a trend amongst many pop artists in recent years, taking risks in the name of progressing the genre and artistry as a whole. Most notably, Ethel Cain’s alternative pop-rock album Preachers Daughter has created its own universe, with fans devoting hours to understanding all there is to know about the album's narrative. Between Preachers Daughter and the album's prequel, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You, Ethel Cain released an ambient drone album provocatively titled Perverts. It's evident in the music that the release of this album was strictly a project of passion. Ambient music doesn't get you charting streams, and it certainly doesn't get you a trending sound on TikTok. 

Not to take it to a place of Taylor Swift. But I did not like The Life of a Show Girl. Serving as almost an antithesis to the aforementioned albums, one of my biggest criticisms is of the “TikTokification” that is so prevalent throughout Taylor's recent work. It is no coincidence that songs like 'Opalite' feature a catchy bridge with a simple, corresponding dance, as showcased in the music video. It was explicitly designed to trend, stream, and sell. And while Rosalía and Ethel Cain have both experienced moments of TikTok virality, none of those instances felt as intentional. Even in the most pop-forward moments on LUX, it never feels trendy.

The Life of a Show Girl also lacked a certain substance. The album did not leave fans with much to chew on. Swift, known for her intricate clues and storytelling, had trouble making allusions to anything more complex than the books we were assigned in high school. The self-proclaimed “English Teacher” sings about her proverbial “haters”, using slang words that have not been popular in years. The album lays out everything it has to say in a very blatant manner. Swift is very clear and very contemptuous. Taylor herself said she worried about what would happen to her music when she was no longer suffering. I can't understand this, as many of her best and most acclaimed songs are about being in love. And many aren't even about her. They are the stories she used to tell on albums like Red and Folklore. She used to be a storyteller, but her current work feels disjointed, less focused on the narrative, and more on tearing down those who dare to criticize her.

I believe that, in the pop sphere, two paths are emerging for artists. Appeal to TikTok, to easy listening, to endless editions and remixes that increase streaming, or to challenge the field altogether. In a time of uncertainty and worrying, it is no wonder people turn to simple, understandable pop. But if we ever wish to unleash ourselves from algorithmic drivel, we have to engage in art. And that takes effort.

-Haleigh Lusinski, Mood Machine DJ