The Spanish superstar’s third album is a showcase for Rosalía’s exceptional range. It aspires to stretch itself out across genres and play with form, and attains exactly what it sets out to achieve.
On Rosalía’s Saturday Night Live debut in March, she sang her pop-bachata hit “La Fama” while wearing a sequoia-sized puffer jacket and beaded mantilla. It was a strikingly dramatic look for a song trembling with betrayal, and it was immediately memed for its resemblance to a quilted comforter and shower mat (the resulting virality was, perhaps, part of the point). But the streetwear-meets-Catalonian tradition look was also a visual cue to her current mindset as a musician releasing her third album: to finesse the gap between classical and contemporary in a big and brazen fashion, with humor and cojones.
Theoretically, a wide-open, globalist approach is not so different from the Spanish superstar’s astounding second album, El Mal Querer, where her electronic take on flamenco shot her to international renown. Because of flamenco’s relative scarcity in the pop world, and because her interpretation of a centuries-old Romani art form was so futuristic, she was regarded as something of a miracle, a performer with a singular gift whose interior was just out of reach. Since its 2018 release, she’s toured the world, covered major fashion magazines, and collaborated with stars like J Balvin, James Blake, and the Weeknd. But on MOTOMAMI, her 16-track follow-up to El Mal Querer, she sounds preternaturally at ease within her talent and finally ready to let us in.
| A1 | Saoko |
| A2 | Candy |
| A3 | La Fama |
| A4 | BulerÃas |
| A5 | Chicken Teriyaki |
| A6 | Hentai |
| A7 | Bizcochito |
| A8 | G3 N15 |
| B9 | Motomami |
| B10 | Diablo |
| B11 | Delirio de Grandeza |
| B12 | CUUUUuuuuuute |
| B13 | Como un G |
| B14 | Abcdefg |
| B15 | La Combi Versace |
| B16 | Sakura |
