Lux

スペイン発グローバル・アイコンRosalia(ロザリア)
グラミー受賞作『Motomami』からさらなる進化を遂げた最新作『LUX』

グラミー賞受賞経験を持つスペイン出身のシンガーソングライター、プロデューサーのグローバル・アイコン=Rosalia(ロザリア)。
マルチな才能で世界から注目を集め続ける彼女の4枚目となるスタジオ・アルバム『LUX』は彼女のキャリア史上最も革新的でグローバルな作品だ。
ロンドン交響楽団と共に録音され、Bjork (ビョーク)、Carminho(カルミーニョ)、Estrella Morente(エストレージャ・モレンテ)、Silvia Perez Cruz(シルビア・ペレス・クルス)、Escolania de Montserrat i Cor Cambra Palau de la Musica Catalana(モンセラート合唱団およびカタルーニャ音楽堂室内合唱団)、Yahritza(ヤーリッツァ)、そしてYves Tumor(イヴ・トゥモア)といったヴォーカルがフィーチャーされている。アルバムを通じて、『LUX』は、女性性の神秘、変容、そして精神性といったテーマを探求し、幻想と喪失、信仰と自己という対極の間を描き出している。

If there’s one thing apparent from the last decade of Rosalia’s career, it’s that conventions are something to be deeply understood and then swiftly broken. Launching herself into the public eye with her 2018 opus El Mal Querer, the Catalonian visionary has spent the best part of a decade reworking traditions in her image: on Los Angeles and El Mal Querer she dealt flamenco’s palos a new hand before cutting the dancefloor apart with 2022’s abrasive Motomami. But if Motomami was her at her most coarse and minimal, then Lux, her fourth album, arrives as its contradiction: this is Rosalia at her most grandiose, maximal, astral -- and with an entire orchestra at her fingertips. The story here is of the feminine and the divine, a constantly shifting pair of ideas that morph through lenses of faith, love and conflict. A superb opening trio of songs contemplate the space between heaven, earth, and the body: bloodshed and greed clash with doves and saints on opener “Sexo, Violencia y Llantas” before “Reliquia” and “Divinize” reconceptualize the body as a divine vessel. On the dramatic “De Madruga,” the cross is a spiritual magnetizer -- elsewhere, God becomes an ever-folding avalanche, a stalker, a boundless force for redemption. This divine multiplicity forms much of the albums spine. On “Porcelana," the divine narrator plays with being both "nothing" and "the light of the world," while the gorgeous “Magnolias” converts Rosalia’s funeral into a joyous requiem, her body ascending to the stars as gasoline, tears, and red wine soak into her coffin. Even the album’s cover washes itself in this contested water: the singer folds her arms to her body under nun-like attire -- perhaps comforted, perhaps constrained. Each of the album’s 18 tracks are inspired by a saintly figure from history, ranging from Italys Saint Clare of Assisi to Taoist master Sun Bu’er. In this infusion of stories, Rosalia plays both architect and guide: she imbues the album with this richness of lived experience, but one that allows her to glide between cultures with ease, expressing the universal through the intensely personal. Any record shooting for this scope runs a critical risk of losing focus, but her tireless curiosity and distinct vision let her stretch the canvas to its limits. She sings here in 13 languages, weaves in elements from jungle, hip-hop, and classic Italian arias, and uses an orchestra as a representation of her own intrusive thoughts. “Novia Robot,” a satire of a company making robot girlfriends, sits between a devastating modernization of the story of Jeanne D’Arc (“Jeanne”), and a three-artist orchestral rhumba beaming God’s forgiveness onto sinners. Yet with an auteur’s hand, this Frankenstein-like mission seems utterly effortless -- natural, even, as if these pieces were always meant to be. The result is an album so expansive that the edges are almost entirely out of sight. Fearless, maximalist, and laden with emotion, Lux is a work worthy of both the Heavens and the Earth. ~ David Crone