Rosalía (Post-Flamenco Art-Pop From Spain)

I just stumbled across this woman's work this week, and am blown away. Her first album, Los Ángeles, was kind of avant-flamenco, but very stripped-down and raw, with lots of songs about death; it was almost Chelsea Wolfe-ish at times. Her upcoming album, El Mal Querer, is a little more poppy/conventional, but it still uses the handclapping flamenco rhythm rather than standard beats, and the visuals (which are also all hers) are fantastic.

First video - "Malamente":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rht7rBHuXW8

Second video - "Pienso en Tu Mirá":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_4coiRG_BI

it's been a while since i was this amazed by every aspect of an artist's work on first impression like this, both those songs and videos are so good and the flamenco rhythms rule so much

visuals good but the first thing sounds *exactly* like what i'd imagine if someone said 'minimal flamenco pop' to me, it's a snooze

second song has more going on, especially rhythmically, but it still sounds like all the breathy moody pop ever

You might like her first album better:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfDEEyg3AdA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s-MQzPZ6IE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OMwDZUWl5g

I like both.

"Pienso en Tu Mirá" is astounding – a bit more info here:

- https://www.eamonn.com/2018/07/28/rosalia-pienso-en-tu-mira/

- https://www.npr.org/sections/altlatino/2018/07/25/631879546/rosal-as-lethal-mir-and-anitta-s-medicina-our-favorite-latin-songs-this-week

Mentioned here, Rosalía will be acting in Pedro Almodóvar's new film. She's also appeared on this track by J Balvin, "Brillo" - https://youtu.be/tkfM5Aq_NDU

album is out November 2nd

“El Mal Querer” sale el 2 de noviembre 😱😱😱😱
Droppin my new album on nov 2nd ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️ pic.twitter.com/cUkMSw8V44

— R O S A L Í A (@rosaliavt) September 13, 2018

Capitulo 1 AUGURIO - Malamente
Capitulo 2 BODA - Que no salga la luna
Capitulo 3 CELOS - Pienso en tu mirá
Capitulo 4 DISPUTA - De aquí no sales
Capitulo 5 LAMENTO - Reniego
Capitulo 6 CLAUSURA - Preso
Capitulo 7 LITURGIA - Bagdad
Capitulo 8 EXTASIS - Di mi nombre
Capitulo 9 CONCEPCIÓN - Nana
Capitulo 10 CORDURA - Maldición
Capitulo 11 PODER - A ningún hombre

Philip Sherburne has a nice profile & interview w/her today: https://pitchfork.com/features/rising/get-to-know-rosalia-the-spanish-singer-giving-flamencos-age-old-sound-a-bracingly-modern-twist/

I'm definitely curious about the album--the newer tracks are so different from the prev album. Like unperson I'm into both approaches but not 100% sure I want to hear handclaps on every track.

new video out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUBMPaj0L3o

lovely bass on that one

I don't love the new video as much as the two before it, but I'm still really excited for the album. And the video is kinda Halloween-worthy, in a way - those creepy backup dancers appear out of nowhere.

yeah I just watched Malamente again and this video is nowhere near that level. I like the autotune on the chorus (?), feels like a quick leap over the Mediterranean

I love all the songs and videos and am really excited for the album to come out tomorrow.

I know she's the subject of significant controversy in Spain given her use of flamenco and Andalusian tropes generally as a woman from Catalonia. Are there any Spanish ILXors that can shed any further light on this? I've seen stuff on social media and other forums about it but there's not any English-language writing about it yet as far as I'm aware.

Listening to the new album now. It's pretty amazing.

US Spotify link

really great on first listen. less poppy than I was expecting in some ways. every time I wasn't sure about a track it would swerve in some other, unexpected direction.

I feel like people into stuff like Kelela or FKA Twigs would be into this, though to my taste the amount of space given to the vocals on this is more appealing

Interesting work of fusion. I like it as it is, Bagdad for example. Agree that Pienso en tu mirá is astounding.
I'm sure to check her next.

album is a bit underwhelming, not as poppy as the singles yeah so what I loved about those doesn't come through as strongly on the rest of the album. the Cry Me A River interpolation on Bagdad is kinda jarring too

Pienso en tu Mira is so gorgeous.

The album is a lot more meditative than the singles suggested - I still find it very beautiful though, and I'm not too concerned about its failure to, outside the singles, lean into pop tropes, as she's apparently made a bunch of songs (some of which she's already playing live) with producers like Pharrell and a guy that did some stuff on the Cardi B album. I suspect her label will want to capitalise quickly on all this - the streaming numbers are enormous in Spain - and release a second album or EP sometime next year.

She also went all-out Rhythm Nation on this EMA performance which to me seems like more evidence that she's a burgeoning superstar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZTaZRLv3GE

Pitchfork gave a glowing review of the album today as well.

Just shows how flexible these songs are. Compare to this performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_fWWs8xqb0

The Guardian also gave the album 5 stars last week. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/nov/01/rosalia-el-mal-querer-review-flamenco-pop-star-is-a-formidable-new-talent

Hearing the crowd sing along at that MTV performance was really something.

The Cry Me A River sample I think works in that it's so incongruous especially in a song that develops into faux-liturgical counterpoint. I wish I understood the words so I had more of a sense of what she was getting at there.

I know nothing about flamenco but this record is great. If she becomes huge I'm more interested in what mainstream pop can co-opt from her rather than the other way round. The way those handclaps just pop amid all the digital production is consistently fantastic.

I don't truly speak Spanish but I can give it a go.

Y se va a quemar, si sigue ahí / And it will burn, if it continues like this
Las llamas van al cielo a morir / The flames rise to die in the sky
Ya no hay nadie más por ahí / There is nobody left around here
No hay nadie más, senta'íta dando palmas / There is nobody anymore, sit (?) and clap your hands

Por la noche, la sali'a del Bagdad / In the night, the exit (?) of Bagdad
Pelo negro, ojos oscuros / Black hair, dark eyes
Bonita pero apena' / Beautiful but only...
Senta'ita, cabizbaja dando palmas / Sit (?), head bent clapping hands
Mientras a su alrededor / While around her
Pasaban, la miraban / They pass, look at her
La miraban sin ver na' / They look at her without seeing anything
Solita en el infierno / She's alone in hell
En el infierno está atrapa' / In hell she's stuck
Senta'íta, las manos las juntaba / Sitting (?), she put her hands together
Que al compás por bulerías / To the rhythm of Bulerías
Parecía que rezaba / She seemed to pray

Junta las palmas y las separa / She joins her hands and separates them

De las luces / From the lights
Sale un ángel que cayó / Comes out an angel who fell
Tiene una marca en el alma / He's got a mark in his soul
Pero ella no se la vio / But she hasn't seen it
Senta'ita, al cielo quie' rezarle / Sit (?), in the sky who prays to him/her (?)
Prenda'ita de sus males / Ignited by her vices
Que Dios tendrá que cobrarle / So that God will have to cover her

not sure about all of it obviously

woes, rather than vices

Actually, she's probably the one burning (first line). Maybe it's an execution.

There's a hefty interpolation of Jolene in one song as well.

It took a couple listens to fix my malamente expectations, but this album is astonishingly good! I can't even isolate favored songs at this point. I can see why monotony called it "meditative" (as opposed to "banging" I think?), but it can also be quite dramatic in what I assume is a traditional flamenco vein, as on Reniego.

To Matt's point, I would love to see the consistently striking way the production handles acoustic space and vocal/sound arrangement catch on elsewhere. I thought JES's pitchfork review was v good--the "global bass" framing struck me as odd at first but thinking of this as a rooted-in-the-local antidote to generic pan-global trop-house is interesting.

A lot of pan-global trop-house/Spotify pop has a tendency to fill up every single available bit of space, this uses a not dissimilar sound palette in a much more imaginative way.

❤️”Di Mi Nombre”❤️

I know she's the subject of significant controversy in Spain given her use of flamenco and Andalusian tropes generally as a woman from Catalonia.

These seem to cover it pretty well, re: Gypsy culture and Andalusian culture:

- https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=es&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.elespanol.com%2Fcultura%2Fmusica%2F20180531%2Fgitanos-atacan-rosalia-usa-simbolos-pestanas-postizas%2F311468865_0.html&edit-text=&act=url

- https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=es&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fmagnet.xataka.com%2Fpreguntas-no-tan-frecuentes%2Frosali-apropiacion-que-se-acusa-malamente-robar-cultura-gitana-andaluza&edit-text=&act=url

The original articles were on El Español and Magnet.com. I can't speak much Spanish, but the translation reads OK, apart from google often printing 'she' as 'he'.

A couple of quotes:

"The Gypsy activist Noelia Cortés believes that Rosalia 'uses the Gypsies as something cool to incorporate into her disguise, but she does not care socially' [no le importamos socialmente hablando]." – (El Español)

"Rosalía's own roots offer another complex variable to analyze appropriation: the Castilian-speaking culture of the Baix Llobregat [in the province of Barcelona], composed mostly of second and third generations of immigrants from Andalusia, Murcia or Extremadura, has certain affinities with that of their ancestors, whether on a musical level or in some dialectal aspects. The same happens with tracksuits or car tuning: they are characteristic elements of the poligonera culture, so associated with the Barcelona red belt.

"What the controversy reveals, in any case, is the penetration of the identity debate and theories about racial identities and historical discriminations in Spain. And also the complexity and subtlety of many readings about the cultural products that will come in the future." – (Magnet.com)

During the controversy earlier this year, she posted a playlist of flamenco songs that comprise the lyrics and melodies on the Los Ángeles album.

Aqui va esta playlist como regalo de reyes, donde podréis encontrar de donde aprendí los cantes que aparecen en Los Ángeles, con las letras y melodías que componen el disco. Que la disfrutéis!!🎁✨☺https://t.co/OPAVqBTewG

— R O S A L Í A (@rosaliavt) January 4, 2018

"Malamente" won a UK Video Music Award for best pop video.

this is not my fav album of a payo ex/appropriating flamenco this year. the relationship between gitano culture and spanish culture is more interesting to me than this music, which leans hard on these signifiers. the magnet article has the sort of weaselly equivocation I've seen before on this topic

also:

The theoretical appropriation of Rosalia works and works well at the narrative level when the intent is directed towards the gypsy culture: the ethnic group has been socially and legally persecuted for five centuries, and although today there is no formal discrimination, the gypsies still live apart in many ways. cities and in permanent social exclusion. It is probably the only Spanish historical case to which the American racial narrative fits.

hmmm

the relationship between gitano culture and spanish culture is more interesting to me than this music, which leans hard on these signifiers

What did you think of Mala Rodriguez's last single/video? (She actually is gitana.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKJE4-9qRIk

this is a good album

I like her singing and prefer the intensity & energy of that track to the cooler detachment of rosalia. as per matt dc, the way the claps work with the glossier sound are what's most striking to me about rosalia, & I wld imagine other ppl will lift that trick

i love this album but man i'm so excited for her to drop her new shit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAVZ5tXL6lU

as if to further illustrate this ^ - new video for "bagdad" features a bit of "lo presiento" at the beginning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2WOIGyGzUQ

This review (from The Nation, of all places) was very interesting to me because I usually don't pay attention to lyrics, but the author makes it clear how crucial they are to this album:

https://www.thenation.com/article/rosalia-flamencos-new-album-el-mal-querer-review/

Missed this thread; discovered her (2) albums via end-of-year lists. Absolutely love them... her voice!

Way into both of these albums as well.

https://www.stereogum.com/2027027/rosalia-oneohtrix-point-never/news/

Entertaining and slightly nerdy analysis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgHXFTgaVT0

I'm updating the thread for no other reason than I still enjoy checking her different performances so much. Maybe I'm crazy but I still feel like she has this spectrum of moods that each of her songs works with and that make me scream art.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLWfMPPh1F8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRph0jV4mO4
Someone tell how I left out this song from my top25, oh yes, it's partly because of the others.

Also she said she'd love to collab with Dua Lipa and that'd be ultimate sexiness, so fingers crossed.

“Di Mi Nombre” is still my favorite of hers.

This is cool, first time I've seen a vid of her performing. I'm so into El Mal Querer

she's going to be on the james blake album out tomorrow

And since you mentioned it. We hear her first, as we should. I'm not familiar with James Blake, but he makes me think of Anthony. Nice duo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LkoaO8-z6I

Delicious actually. And incredible delicate performance. Her parts (my amateur translation):

Agujerito del cielo - Little hole in the sky
Cuelando el brillo de Dios - letting in the brilliance of God
Un rayo cayó en tus ojo' - a beam struck your eye
Y me partió el corazón - and split my heart
Agujerito del cielo - Little hole in the sky
Díctame por dónde ir - instruct me where to go
Para yo no equivocarme - so that I do not get it wrong
Y así ver mi porvenir - and thus see my future

Ya tengo to' lo que quiero - I already have al' that I desire
Ya no puedo pedir má' - I cannot ask for mo'
Cuando te tengo a mi la'o - When I have you by my sid'
Lo pasa'o se queda atrá' - The pas' is left behin'
Si te apartan de mi vera - If they separate me from your side
Y te tuviera que encontrar - And if I had to find you
Hasta allá te encontraría - I would find you up there
Como el río va a la mar - As the river goes to the sea

new collab with J Balvin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7bfOZek9t4

I definitely prefer "Brillo," their collab from the J Balvin album, but it's always fascinating to hear Rosalia in the context of club music.

Grabbed a ticket for her SF show. Sold out in in less than a few hours last week.

Just a short North America tour this time-- West Coast plus NYC and 1 Canada show

Need to listen to "Brillo" again, think I recall liking it. x-post

I don't think there's anything "fascinating" about it. Rosalía's own music is fascinating. This is generic bullshit - literally any female voice could have been punched into that track. Ugh.

(I hate J Balvin's music in general, though.)

Yeah, same reaction here.

anyway, here she performs Con Altura live (along with "El Presiento)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e9lCXT1xLs

she's a huge pop star--she's gonna do pop tracks. obviously her own stuff is gonna be more interesting than her collabs, but i do think she adds some stuff that generic singer x would not, like how she subtly subverts the synth melody in the pre-chorus.

ugh i mentioned this upthread but i am very very thirsty for "el presiento", "aute couture / esto esto enciendo", "santeria" and all these other unreleased songs she's teased live

the new song is fun, not her best ever obviously but if it turns out to be a hit i'm all for it

well, my thirst ^ is about to be partially quenched... "aute cuture" is out tomorrow

estáis ready????? AUTE CUTURE 💅🏼💅🏼💅🏼💅🏼💅🏼💅🏼💅🏼💅🏼💅🏼💅🏼💅🏼💅🏼💅🏼💅🏼 30/5 pic.twitter.com/jFEKzdR4Cl

— R O S A L Í A (@rosaliavt) May 28, 2019

Estoy ready!

Meanwhile, she’s also done a song for the Game of Thrones album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2OxVKUf8a4

Rosalía ft. A.Chal • Me Traicionaste

https://variety.com/2019/music/news/rosalia-spanish-flamenco-singer-superstar-1203227213/

"con altura" is awesome you guys are crazy

yeah i agree, but still not as good as Brillo

I was too harsh on “Con Altura” on the Rolling Afro-Latin Music thread - I actually like it fine, but it’s not nearly as good as the El Mal Querer singles (or indeed “Brillo”).

only rosalía song i've heard other than "con altura" is "malamente" and i think they're on a similar level (i.e. both quite enjoyable)

"aute cuture" teaser is intriguing

Dyl, you should listen to El mal querer, stat!

hah i think i will :)

i also don't agree that "con altura" could just be any other female vocalist in duet w/ j balvin ... there's a certain presence, confidence, and command of the moment that carries a direct throughline from i.e. "malamente." the song is not as good if it's becky g or karol g or whoever. i think the video makes this clear as well... it's very much a more conventional pop video but it has her stamp all over it.

brillo is super dope too tho

banger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLFUhty8EF4

hell yeah

she is p much a genius

Took me a few plays, but I like this track a lot -- a banger for real! (I'm straight-up dancing here in my "open plan" office environment)

so is she shifting away from her flamenco influence

yeah that song is summer for me right now

I can't wait for her next album.

I can’t wait for her to tour again; I missed her recent show here in L.A.

Not as keen on this new song - her voice is transcendent and this track feels like its squandering her talent.

If her next album indeed does step away from flamenco, I hope she figures out a way to still showcase her vocal brilliance.

BTW, saw her live in SF and Barcelona, she's a must see act. Incredible performer.

I think the track is a good showcase for her voice; it's just in a different format than before....

Madre mia rosalia bajale

I like “Aute Cuture” a lot. Fully expecting the third single to be called “Costa Azul/Côte d’Azur” or something.

More a fan of Los Angeles and the more overtly Flamenco than where she's headed, but keeping an open mind.

Long way from covering "I See A Darkness"!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg7GJghu4Zo

Man I love that cover

Is "Aute Culture" produced by Pharrell ?
It really sounds like it is !
I don't really hear anything Flamenco (or Post Flamenco) but it's nice.

she's still working with El Guincho

There are Pharrell songs apparently but this isn’t one of them. This particular song has been around for a while and could’ve gone on the album, I guess, but it didn’t really fit with its narrative which is I suspect why she waited until now to put it out

I find it effortless, like she wrote it in her sleep, and it goes like a flash, but it's good.
I was with my girlfriend/wife buying Aubade lingerie (on sales) and Con Altura was playing. Close enough, could have been (h)aute c(o)uture.

just saw her at primavera sound in porto and yes, she's a genius.

Sounds great! Seeing her at Roskilde in about a month, very much looking forward to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=60&v=eQCpjOBJ5UQ

oop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQCpjOBJ5UQ

Good track but it's no Aute Cuture!

I like that this one is sung in Catalan. Might be a while since a song in Catalan is heard and talked about outside of Spain.

I also like how the first half is filled with brags about the luxury and the things she can afford now a la “7 rings” vs the second half of the song condemning it: “God deliver us from money, when we have it.”

Makes the song more interesting than it has any right to be.

She was pretty fucking amazing last night at Roskilde. Six star reviews all over. Her final four songs included Con Altura, Aute Cuture and Malamente. She has quite the catalogue already.

Glastonbury set was incredible as well - fourth on the bill on the fourth stage but it felt like we were watching the headliner. Initially I thought her voice might be quite weak live but hell no.

I didn't realise she had people to either side of her doing the handclaps throughout and the rhythms were even harder to pin down live.

Geez, she comes to Bern next (where I work) but to do a stupid teenage festival where you pay 120 dollars for a day pass. Hurts me.

New songs are not wowing me

I went back tho& listened to the older stuff and I get The buzz tho. This def feels like retroactive props for stuff that was missed the first time

By the press I mean obv ilx was on it 👁

So far, after the little I’ve heard, I’m surprised by the hype/genius thing. I’m willing to get excited by something new though so I’ll keep listening !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j3x0VYnehg

Perfect Rosalíaggaeton.

the (extremely wrong) criticisms of "con altura" upthread kind of apply to this for me

it's all right tho

low key but romantic

def a full-throated foray into urbana this time, which isn't really what i look for in rosalia, but the hook has been in my head all day.

and it's way better if you watch the video

love it

I have zero problems with this crass pandering manoeuvre

the little hum at the end of the yo x ti chorus is soooo good

ozuna is a good foil for her on this song too, his voice is so boyish

Rosalía is great at ASMR. I think this should be interesting to watch even if you're not an ASMR devotee as she relates almost all of it to her music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tcXP2Jk5Cw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zwpwbdGNIk

That’s dope

New song “Juro Que” is a return to flamenco:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtym36PG6R8

quite dramatic

The “narrative” didn’t really go where I thought it would go...

there's a trip-hoppy new single, "Dolerme"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuUa9ZQL28w

not sure what I think of it...feels pretty album-track-ish?

Just listened, I like it

tbf very little pop music is working for me right now, will have to revisit TBD

I like the verses and small experimentations but wish there was less autotune on the chorus.

^ i had listened to that song when posted here and liked it. felt like rushed recorded though. then it just came up in some radio station days ago, and brutally kicked in like its an eloquentely accomplished song. it is. i love all of the tough read Dolerme is, and the way she creaks and wavers and punches here. all verses are pure gold

Dolerme still hasn't clicked for me, but I do dig this twitchy new one with Travis Scott, "TKN":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5xIoeG4uVI

^cool song/video

her song with billie eilish is incredible

I was so into her a few years ago, and feel like it all peaked with "Aute Cuture" (still an awesome track). nothing since has really caught my ear. I also watched a longform TV performance, and it was... not very good? (I know you have to take televised concerts with a grain of salt, but...)

(I also acknowledge we're talking about a lot of one-offs and collabs, and maybe her next album will be hot stuff)

i was kinda expecting an album to emerge out of all those singles, and hoping that it might recontextualise some of the lesser post-"aute cuture" singles, but that hasn't happened yet

hopefully when she gets around to a proper next album she'll be back to her peak

her 2019 run was still pretty great even if it wasn't all as strong as "con altura" and "aute cuture", it's only really last year that i started to feel a bit more disappointed

yeah as far as el guincho productions go, at the moment for me it's friendship ended with rosalía, now lous and the yakuza is my best friend

I haven't heard anything by her I like nearly as much as the first two songs posted in this thread.

oh I agree about her last few singles being less fascinatingly good, but her vocal on the duet with Billie Eilish I bumped the thread for is fantastic. she’s good on the “Blinding Lights” remix as well. very much looking forward to her new stuff.

new song w/ dominican dembow artist tokischa is fantastic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmmTz3W-JO0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLoGsDDn4w0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-CEd6xrRQc

alright but weird lead single choice

“ft The Weeknd” has a certain dampening effect on my vibe

When I look at the brilliant work she was doing in 2017/2018, and then I look at everything she's done in the last three years, it's hard to believe it's the same person. Really dispiriting.

her 2019 output was good, just diminishing returns since then though

lmao someone hoovering coke in the first 10 seconds THE WEEKND IS HERE

yeah her run of singles in 2019 was as good or better than a lot of 'el mal qurer' imo, but since then she's really leaned into doing music w/ super famous ppl and it has been pretty bad. tho the song w/ toksicha is pretty great i think. this new song w/ the weeknd isn't bad exactly just kinda boring

querer*

You folks like pop that plays by the rules (whether in English or Spanish) a lot more than I do. Nothing she's done since El Mal Querer has been as weird or deliberately off-putting as that album. It's all been coloring inside the lines, stuff that seems calculatedly aimed at radio. Which is fine, get that money. But the videos that made me start this thread were amazing and her last three years of output have been...not amazing.

I’m hardly pop-averse (spoiler alert), and “Aute Cuture” is one of my favorite songs of the past few years… but I agree she seemed kind of visionary at first, and now not so much.

i think "con altura", "aute culture," "yo x ti, tu x mi" carried on the thread of 'el mal querer' while making broadly more appealing music & music that just overall had a different artistic aim to it. & i don't mean, or think, that she simply made music to get more rich and famous, i think she is a fan of mainstream latin music, stuff that is prob club/party music in her world, and she wanted to make that kind of music. i thought those songs brought her sound out from under the shadow of flamenco (prob inevitable if not necessary) while still being percussive & frenetic in the same way as "malamente" etc were. the thread connected to me. it was clear she was trying to become a global pop star but the songs felt true to the overall project that is her art, imo. i think she's lost that thread since then in ways that are pretty obvious.

also i don't think 'el mal querer' is that weird. it's unique & singular, but weird? i can't get there. it always felt like pop music to me -- the videos telegraph this openly, and it was hugely popular music in spain -- just a very fresh take on it

That video with The Weeknd is really bad

j0rdan otm

I loved "Con Altura" but generally agree with the comments. In a way her arc reminds me of...The Weeknd's...

The Weeknd can die and I don't really like the song, but her vocals and the idea of a Bachata pop song are very fine with me. I am keeping my hopes up for a solid release. She should have remembered James Blake, or Billie Eilish, or Bad Bunny. Someone who actually speaks Spanish for example.

Well she did a Spanish-language track with Billie earlier this year…

she also did a duet with bad bunny on his last album (they performed it on snl)

That's what I meant by "remember", I meant return the favor.

she’s still in the audience-expanding phase of her career. I’m when she works with the weeknd, she’s not the one doing the favor

*superfluous “i'm”

does Hentai mean something else here or

Las personas q os está molestando la letra de Hentai estáis bien??

— R O S A L Í A (@rosalia) January 16, 2022

Looks like it's a track on the upcoming album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFJ4RHibjVw

Rosalia, have you considered naming it.... something else

that’s gonna be a jump the shark from me, dawg

It's totally different from where she is now, but I'm surprised her cover of "I See A Darkness" isn't better known:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg7GJghu4Zo

that’s gonna be a jump the shark from me, dawg
― Rockin’, and rollin’, and whatnot (morrisp), Monday, January 17, 2022 3:38 AM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Or a ride the chairlift

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o7bCAZSxsg

took me a few listens to digest this one but i like it a lot

Yeah, I like this new song better than any of the other singles she's put out.

The instrumental slays, I'm not sure of her vocals yet. Nicely shot too.

too short and maybe slightly undercooked but wow what a sound!

this is the most compelling she's been in a while, i wish it was longer

"slightly undercooked" is right though

iirc it's the intro to the album, could explain the brevity.

yeah. odd one to shoot a video for but it feels more like a teaser of sorts in the context of the pre release strategy

rest of the album won't have songs that are that much longer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motomami

she’s flowing on this one lol, all the reggaeton collabs have rubbed off

She’s dating Rauw Alejandro now , who says, of course, her new album is great in his Rolling Stone cover story. No collaborations between the 2 of them on the album though

really not feeling this (but I guess it's not my kind of thing):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG4gq9fCoRE

Yeah that one is not great and seems like it was just tailored for tiktok.

I stopped that 2:13 song after 1:31, not a good sign.
I get this strange feeling that she thinks the music is crazy and fun, when it's kinda boring and basic. All the weird affectations and vapid childishness don't really square with the image I had of her. It makes me realize El mal querer had all this darkness to it.

genuinely terrible, and listening to Saoko after hearing CT made me like Saoko less :/

Still crossing my fingers there's something that redeems her next album, these two singles so far have been pretty bad. I know some people vibed with 'Saoko', but she wouldn't have been as big as she is by releasing generic stuff like that. We're just listening because it's Rosalía at this point.

i thought she was great on SNL, "la fama" in particular felt completely reborn to me. it shed all the overblown pomp & circumstance of being a duet w/ the weekend, whose vocals render the song perfunctory, and put her back in what i feel like was her original context, singing over a sparse, traditional production, just in this case it's bachata instead of flamenco. the amount of emotion in her vocals compared to the released version is striking, listening back to the original the dullness is even more apparent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnItVv1EsXw

"hentai" is a bit FKA twigs-y for me i think... i was hoping the beat drop would bring in some tempo & though the percussion does sound cool it all feels a bit inert & unfinished to me. reading the translation of the lyrics is cool tho lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6YCNd3ONUU

Her videos used to be so cool & creative, wtf

It's hard to imagine a less appealing (to me) creative direction she could have taken than the direction she has taken

x-post - I thought that the second song she did on SNL "La Fama" (with its bachata backing) , as Jordan S noted sounded great live. Was underwhelmed by first song though.

It's hard to imagine a less appealing (to me) creative direction she could have taken than the direction she has taken

This x 1000

I can't believe how unexcited I am for this record based on how much the last one blew me away.

this album is...probably better than I was expecting though that's not exactly a high bar to clear. There's an "Archangel" interpolation on the second track which works well

wouldn’t be surprising at all if it sounds better front to back than the singles do as pieces

not sure quite how to articulate this properly yet but it seems to have a similarly collage-y nature to Happier Than Ever. I guess I'm just still not convinced by her as a reggaeton artist

it's a weird album that's not a big pop move like one might have expected she'd eventually come out with after her 2019 run of singles, but it's not as good as happier than ever either in terms of slightly-left-of-centre pop albums

nothing as compelling as the best stuff from el mal querer or even those 2019 singles unfortunately

I've listened to about half of it (several tracks are grayed out on Tidal, for some reason) and it's pretty good. The singles, which I hated as standalones, work better in context.

One thing that's made me laugh pretty hard this morning: I guess a memo went around among pop critics that the new way to signify one's savviness and superiority to the reader is to quote her lyrics without translating them.

this works surprisingly well as a complete work
definitely lacks the intensity and extraordinariness of El Mal Querer
but on the other hand i was surprised that it's as quiet and melancholy as it is (resembles Los Angeles in that way) - not the dull pop cash-in that La Fama seemed to portent

i really love the off-kilter production quirks like the (so quiet!!!) piano on "Saoko" or the drums on "Hentai" - signals an art/experimental affiliation that i appreciate

It's definitely odder than I expected, which is a good thing, though I'm also finding it elusive in its disjointedness, lack of intensity is otm

The lack of translation in the pfork review annoyed me; fwiw the NPR review is an exception: https://www.npr.org/2022/03/18/1087060987/rosalias-motomami-is-a-complex-treatise-on-fame-and-her-place-in-latin-pop

she "presented" the album "live" on tiktok last night, with snippets and themed visuals for each song. for those interested: link

I'm still learning how to listen to her if I (still) have trouble finishing her albums.

I do laugh at "BIZCOCHITO," a bit of slang I've heard all my life locally.

Half-way impression: what I imagine Kanye West to sound like when people complain that he does half-finished products. This is mildly annoying, no cohesive sound, ideas scattered, bad choices, and I only wish it was pure reggaeton. Pretty big fall.

La Combi Versace is possibly what I wanted from this album

Whats the interpolation on “candy”? It’s killing me that it’s on the tip of my tongue but the different language is throwing me off.

Oh yes it’s Burial duh

This is actually not as bad as I thought it would be based on “chicken teriyaki”.

I’m actually surprised I’m liking a great deal of it on first listen.

Xpost: don’t agree that it’s a pretty big fall, but otm that more songs like “combi versace” would have been very welcomed.

“Candy” though

I know a big part of why I’m loving that one is the Burial connection but it’s a brilliant reinterpretation imho

great album

it's definitely not 'el mal querer' but that album also feels like such a lightning strike that i'm not sure she could make another album that sounds like it that would actually be better. best just to move on & expand the sound. just generally in terms of artists who are making fringe mainstream experimental pop i think her music is so much more rewarding and fresh than idk fka twigs, charli xcx, arca etc i'm sure there's some other artists i'm forgetting

Now that I've listened to it all the way through it's...nice. The most traditional tracks ("Delirio de Grandeza" and "Sakura") are the only ones that will really stick with me, I think. "Sakura" reminds me of a modern fado album by Lina Rodrigues and Raül Refree that came out in 2020; I interviewed them about it at the time.

do listeners still care about FKA Twigs? No sarcasm -- I don't know.

I'm halfway through this, and I agree it's a more enjoyable listen than the pre-release singles suggested it would be.

Some of these tracks sound pretty cool, actually.

This is gelling more on second listen. Bulerías is another strong connection to her past work (pity it's followed by Chicken Teriyaki), and yeah in general there's a lot of interesting production stuff going on that will take a while to sink in I think

Personally I’d save these ones:

LA FAMA ft. The Weeknd
SAOKO
CANDY
LA COMBI VERSACE
DELIRIO DE GRANDEZA
CUUUUuuuuuute
SAKURA
BULERIAS
BIZCOCHITO

And probably trash the rest.

the album has been out for like 12 hours

It could be 12 years and I still wouldn’t have a positive opinion on chicken teriyaki or think motomami or diablo aren’t disposable

Rosalia interview feature in New York Times:

. A column that ran this year in “El País” included concerns that she had “pulled a ‘Miley Cyrus,’” going from lyrical Lorca allusions to simplistic, dirty rhymes and oversharing on social media.
The truth is, Rosalía wants it all: to be erudite and avant-garde, sexy, silly and absurdist. In intense yet giggle-heavy Spanglish conversation, she drops references to Jung’s “el inconsciente colectivo” — the collective unconscious — and her obsession with TikTok; in lyrics, she pledges allegiance to Niña Pastori, José Mercé and Willie Colón but also Tego Calderón, Lil’ Kim and M.I.A.

s. “I listened to Don Omar, Ivy Queen, Lorna, Yankee, Zion & Lennox since I was at least 13,” she said. “This is part of my experience.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/17/arts/music/rosalia-motomami.html

modern fado album by Lina Rodrigues and Raül Refree that came out in 2020

haven't listened to the new rosalía album yet, but popping in for an enthusiastic co-sign of the lina_raul refree album

i liked that times piece a lot, i thought it honed in on her as a restless artist who is guided by experimentalism & i thought that was a framing of her that i haven't encountered often, and it clicks w/ the way this album came out

agree w/ the posts in here about how this is way better than expected, don't even mind "Chicken Teriyaki" at this point

Yeah, the Times piece is good. I'm pretty weary of ahistorical Twitter-brain "you can't do that" critiques of music (and movies, and books) and I'm glad to see that she's not letting herself get bogged down in dumb arguments, and is just doing what she wants to do, combining things that excite her in interesting ways. I don't like all of it, obviously, but more power to her.

It could be 12 years and I still wouldn’t have a positive opinion on chicken teriyaki or think motomami or diablo aren’t disposable

Agreed... I think Moka's list of tracks to "save" is a pretty good one

this album is just great

yeah, aoty for me so far but idk if it's bc it's just that great or bc my expectations were so low

I wanna go to her show here but I think even the cheapest tickets are $100+

what the fuck

Yeah even in Mexico her ticket prices are through the roof.

F*cking Money Man

based on ticket prices i’ve seen this year actually seems pretty reasonable. at least you know she’s gonna put on a show

Well she’s at least doing something very unique on the genre and pushing it in a fresh direction. Her international success is great if it pushes more artists to be more experimental on a genre that risks so little.

That said as someone who has a club in the biggest fair in the world (feria nacional de san marcos) this album is way too experimental and melancholic lol, we haven’t been able to play her new album to a good response yet.

You can check steve aoki’s instagram and the building that says FVL! that’s us.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cca-jDdO-dn/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

wow, moka - that's awesome!!

They're advertising her DC show via a credit card company ads on tv here in the Washington DC area, and tickets are about $100

Thanks sean!

After 12+ years doing this I’m feeling like I’m getting too old for it lol. I’m seriously considering early retirement from the club scene, probably just stick to less hectic sort of scenes. It’s a great business but super stressful in this scale.

this album is way too experimental and melancholic lol, we haven’t been able to play her new album to a good response yet.

i feel like "bizcochito" could be mixed into something, right?

i've decided my favorite moment on the album is "sakura," which is probably the most el mal querer-like, but there's a lot to love here and something new to latch onto with each listen.

Long English-language interview. The interview's ok but not on her level; she's really fucking smart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFOp-G04jw8

Took me a few listens to hear, absorb, and appreciate everything going on on this album -- it's ridiculously cool. Opener "Saoko" really sets the tone; here, let's put a jazz piano interlude in a 2:17 pop song that interpolates a Wisin & Daddy Yankee track.

I'm warming up to Motomami, especially on the strength of G3 N15, consecutive to the fun Bizcochito and the fragile feminine beauty and preciousness that contrast her vulgar vocals on Hentai in the middle of the album. The apparent sketchiness of the short songs hide flashes of brilliance, and the fragmentation and attention to detail at least keep you on your toes, even if the overall result is still not totally convincing me. There is a lot more flamenco influence than I thought at first... so I actually see some kind of continuation with El Mal Querer now, even if we are far from a thesis on a medieval romance.

I also like the way her vocals detach themselves completely from the background many times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQiGqGMT8i4

video not available in my country :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2ESxHKuSOk

new single is fun

most definitely!

my favourite single of hers in quite a while

Like it as well. Previously performed as Lao Lao as part of her reggaeton medleys.

no loessless anywhere :(

amazing song

there’s a deluxe version of Motomami out, which includes the new single, a remix and a live version, plus a few new songs, of which “Aislamiento” sounds like the highlight on first listen.

her show that she's doing on tour right now is incredible. 90 mins straight thru, mostly motomami songs w/ some others peppered in & a really chic but fun set design. i'm hard pressed to think of many current artists who provide the same combination of experimentalism w/in the context of pop, pure raw vocal & performance talent, and modernist visual/aesthetic sense.

seeing her this Friday, v excited

j0rd otm

She's in DC tonight & alas I have a conflict and can't attend.

you should de-conflict because that show was one of the best large-scale shows i've been to in recent memory

Still bummed I had to miss it. Have checked out some video clips on IG that show her impressive choreography, vocals, music, etc

David Byrne email--

A few days ago I went to Rosalia’s concert at Radio City and was knocked out! I had seen her before at Webster Hall some years ago, along with Caetano Veloso. She’s not strictly Afro Caribe, like most of these tracks, but she sort of fits right in. Her roots are Flamenco (she’s from Spain), but she’s evolved and broadened her scope and now she kind of does it all but still pulls out the duende stuff as a soulful reminder. Her show had very innovative staging consisting of 8 dancers and a video cameraperson on stage. They mostly perform on a giant seamless which acts as a stage for the video screens. Making the video become part of the show. She seemed to be wearing no makeup- other than a little lipstick. Possibly because with all the sweating it might have become a mess? Her presence was very sincere and heartfelt - unusual for a pop show like this.

late pass but i was lured in by the promise of el guincho and it paid off. this album is dense and catchy and diverse and clever and fucking great. wasn't expecting a straight up experimental work but wow!

welcome, forks

i like the album too, do i get a welcome

i liked el mal querer a lot but then cooled as she became a megastar. didn't know she was working toward something as complex and fully baked as this; it's executing on the same level of difficulty as lamar and beyonce.
plus: Vistoso Bosses!

i agree w/ your assessment, her pivoting away from superstar collaborations (lead single aside) for an experimental and deeply idiosyncratic album is prob the most pleasant surprise in music this year for me. you should check out her interviews in NYT & pfork where she talks about her creative process

will look

I have seen a few Spanish language memes in Instagram stories critical of Spain raised Rosalia getting more attention for incorporating reggaeton and Bachata and other Latin American styles than artists who have long been using those styles from Latin America/Caribbean /Iberian locales , but those grumblers seem to be more the exception

"don't culturally appropriate reggaeton!!" has to be one of the funnier takes available

I found her interviews fascinating, as I find interviews with other really intelligent artists with a real grasp on what they're doing and why. I don't enjoy listening to the album, because the music just isn't for me (and I say the same about Kendrick Lamar and Beyoncé) but the work is undeniable.

I'm listening to the bonus tracks, nothing very remarkable but fun and shows the wider sonic palette she was using. One thing I like is how close many songs stay to a song hummed to oneself, and the real distance between her and the background (is there a name for this ?). I like the punched percussion on two songs that sounds like a typewriter. If you close your eyes and have some fantasy, Chiri sounds a little like a Spanish version of Björk's Medulla.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gONN93t5aPg
Rosalía - Chiri

Re:her artistic process. It's crazy how anytime I relisten to a song from this album, I like it more. And it's like she made the album that way.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/rosalia-motomami-hentai-cultural-influences-1234642989/

Interesting interview with her. She explains how much research and thought goes into her work and gives credit to many others. The article’s author addresses the discussion of a white artist from Spain having success in the Black created genres of bachata and reggaeton ; and sees her performing in Puerto Rico

Re:her artistic process. It's crazy how anytime I relisten to a song from this album, I like it more. And it's like she made the album that way.

― Nabozo, Thursday, 8 December 2022 13:22 (one month ago) link

“LLYLM” is really fucking good

it is. i like it a lot more than “despechá” personally

I hope that's not her new direction, those hooks sound too much like generic upbeat pop to me.

Even if the hook is a bit more “generic” than usual from her, the verses are anything but imo

Either way, I know better than to worry about her direction after the post-El Mal Querer singles, some of which were not great, and Motomami, which I’m sure I wasn’t the one whose doubts were assuaged

Definitely, she's a chameleon and singles are absolutely for trying things out and I don't doubt her.
Con Altura, Aute Cuture, Yo x Ti, A palé, and Juro que were fantastic and a favorite period of hers.
Maybe what I'm missing here is the radical production choices.

It sounds a little tame

Yeah chorus sounds a bit… amateur?

Not sure if it’s hearing her sing in english and how generic it sounds. Verses are good.

yes, for some reason I felt inclined to play Ellie Goulding’s “Love Me Like You Do” and Rita Ora’s “Let You Love Me” this morning. LYLM is a banger - LMLYD less so.

as for LLYLM, it does feel like a conscious attempt at a (US) (radio) crossover hit.

...and it's far far inferior to, say, "Aute Cuture"

(but I guess I'm just not a Rosalía fan at this point)

i only heard her first album. unimpressed by that "neo" flamenco sound

Motomami has many good ideas and it’s hardly neo-flamenco - it’s more like a melancholic, experimental mix of neoperreo, deconstructed club and art pop.

the new single probably has more ‘neo-flamenco’ than all of Motomami combined

i'm with the majority here, this is weak and not very good. gonna have to put up with these kinda songs as a fan tho, she's making occasional arena tracks to satisfy a bigger audience.

i think i disagree w/ just about every point made itt about this song. in particular i think the chorus is great pop lyricism, the way she plays around w/ the idea of reality & what kinda relationship one might want w/ another person -- "cover me in a dream / i'll be yours or fantasy". i mean, "who needs the honesty? / baby, lie like you love me, lie like you love me / maybe at the end it becomes real enough for me" packs the kind of direct emotional punch i look for in good pop writing. i think it's a novel way of expressing emotions typical to a pop song & to me that isn't "generic" ... unless you want to call pop music in general "generic," which is a POV one can have just not one that i share personally. i really don't find this song to be much different than i.e. "hentai" in terms of the lyrical approach... it's just wedded to the structure of a pop song instead of an experimental ballad. and even then i think you can very easily find the throughline in the song back to the music she has been making from the beginning. i feel like we're returning to the same convo we had about the "con altura" era... ppl seem quite eager to jump on her for not always being purely idiosyncratic w/o acknowledging that her more "mainstream" songs typically have a sonic POV that still feels like her own

also i'd push back on the notion that this song is some sort of cynical play for a "bigger audience" or that she thinks about "satisfying" american fans. she just had her biggest US chart hit w/ “despechá” which is also straightforward compared to motomami but is sung entirely in spanish. the idea that artists need to crossover now is basically completely antiquated. shakira has a top 10 hit on the hot 100 w/ an argentinan youtuber. rosaliá was accused of this same thing in the "con altura" era... that she was making a cynical ploy to expand her audience in latin america and her response was "me & my friends love reggaeton so i decided i wanted to make some reggaeton" which is a completely legitimate explanation & i'm sure would be similar to her justification for making a version of a westernized pop song. ppl seem to want her to stay in one place & she's proven remarkably good at not doing that

great post

i think it's a novel way of expressing emotions typical to a pop song & to me that isn't "generic" ... unless you want to call pop music in general "generic," which is a POV one can have just not one that i share personally.

It's possible find the chorus melody generic (as I do), and the chorus lyrics nothing special, without calling pop music in general generic...

the idea of a “generic” melody is a slippery one to me but yeah i mean everything comes down to taste at the end of the day, which, you know, hey

Like if this were track 5 on, say, a random Selena Gomez CD, I'd skip it every time. It's an unremarkable song to me, guess I'm not hearing what I should.

What really gets me about Rosalía is that she has an amazing voice (as I recently reconfirmed by revisiting El Mal Querer), but she chooses not to "use it" now... she sings in this pinched tone... idk

it's funny the song "LLYLM" made me think of in terms of production was selena "bad liar" at least in terms of the bulk structure under the verses. but rosalia is an infinitely better artist than her in every facet and my feelings about those two songs are reflected in that

What really gets me about Rosalía is that she has an amazing voice (as I recently reconfirmed by revisiting El Mal Querer), but she chooses not to "use it" now... she sings in this pinched tone... idk

― degenerative AI (morrisp), Monday, January 30, 2023 5:37 PM (forty-nine minutes ago)

i feel this... i have a huge gripe w/ "la fama" bcuz she sings it w/ this really flat affect on record & then when you see her do it live there's so much more emotion in her vocals & it changes everything about the song for me. the official version of her performance on "SNL" has been taken off youtube for some reason but there's still bootlegs on there that spell this out. otoh i think the parts on motomami where she really lets her voice go really standout for reasons of scarcity but i get where you're coming from

i hope she goes more in this direction, i would personally very much welcome a rosalia club anthem.

At least I don’t hate it like I hate Chicken Teriyaki. This is alright… not a winner for me but certainly not bad. She can do way better.

It’s growing on me though… wouldn’t be surprised if I end up with regret for underrating it on first listens. Already happened to me with Motomami.

aiming for a bigger audience is hardly cynical; it's just good business. you want to play arenas and reach a worldwide crowd, people gotta sing along to your choruses.

A week more of listening sees me coming around on this song as a casually enjoyable pop track, if not anywhere near the many heights of motomami

Aka moka was right

drinking her "transformation"-flavoured Coke and I do not taste transformation of any sort

her EP with Rauw Alejandro is out today

like it a lot, tho she completely overpowers him vocally

also, they are apparently engaged!

the Beso video makes that pretty clear!

they have been an item for some time now and have shown admirable restraint by keeping away from each other’s recent albums

I have the impression Rosalía's has used her higher soprano range more and more in the last years and it's now one of my favorite aspects of her performance, the way she lets her voice thin to flute-like sounds, and the contrasts she finds with piano etc. For example the first 40 seconds of Beso = wow.

Song is good enough to post I think

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXQQAsIhHMw
Rosalia - Beso

It's a very good chorus

Ok I've listened to this all day. This song radiates happiness.

New single/video. It's pretty good. I need to listen to it again without the video to see if it holds up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F84pjEryeC0

I listened to it without the video, can confirm. Good lil tune.

Hard to watch that video favorably, in light of how cool & creative her videos was were.

The new song (a collaboration with Björk as a legal benefit for some Icelandic villagers who are suing fisheries for environmental damage) is pretty good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jsi2Tgvx6A

Backstory:

Björk and Rosalía have joined forces to release a powerful new single “Oral.” Produced by the artists alongside Sega Bodega, “Oral” marks the first collaboration between Björk and Rosalía. It aims to shed light on the alarming cruelty, and severe environmental and ecological consequences of open-pen ocean salmon farming in Björk’s native country, Iceland.

“Oral” dates back two decades - first written by Björk between 1997’s Homogenic and 2001’s Vespertine, the track was lost to her archives after feeling like it wasn’t the right fit for an album. Björk rediscovered the song after being reminded of its name while on tour in Australia in March 2023, the same month a report was released about the devastating impact of poorly regulated, Norwegian-owned commercial salmon farming operations on Iceland’s native ecosystems.

After deeply resonating with the cause, and as a passionate campaigner and protester for much of her life, Björk enlisted Rosalía to help bring the song to life and in turn raise awareness of the issue. The cruel practice of open-pen farming, introduced to Iceland after Norwegian businessmen began purchasing fish farms in the country’s fjords, involves intensively farming fish by penning them into open water nets that are anchored in natural waterways, where the fish are kept enclosed until they reach marketable size. This accelerates the fish’s development and, in many cases creates genetic mutations in the salmon’s DNA, as well as being a breeding ground for a number of parasites and diseases. The industry in Iceland has grown tenfold since 2014, producing under 4,000 tones to 45,000 in 2021, with it now estimated that the annual production could be up to 106,500 tonnes. Iceland has the largest untouched natural area in Europe, and the waste and pollution associated with open-pen farming threatens to permanently damage its entire ocean ecology. Lack of regulation and the industry being largely unsupervised has also meant that thousands of these genetically altered, diseased salmon regularly escape the pens and swim upriver to Iceland’s highlands, where devastating genetic mixing occurs and endangers the future of Iceland’s wild salmon population.

Proceeds from “Oral” will be used to support a legal case against the fisheries, brought forth by residents of the town of Seyðisfjörður on the eastern side of Iceland.

More comments about the song on the Bjork 2017 album thread