El Mal Querer – Rosalía
Harry
Rosalia’s sophomore effort departs from the intimate guitar-vocal duets to adopt more grand production, and varied instrumentation alongside catchier song-writing (aka, my worst nightmare). The singles leading up the release had me more intrigued than concerned. The opening cuts are the clearest use of a more classic chorus-verse-chorus song structure, the best being Pienso Au Tu Mira (3), an instantly loveable and catchy song. From this point, I honestly feel the album goes from strength to strength. The new songs allow her to really show off the incredible diversity of her voice, which is often layered over each other or sampled to carry the whole song. A good example might be the 4th track (where she embodies her Princess Nokia with the use of a motorcycle engine) or track 8. The album ends with some of the most beautiful tracks, ending on a real high. For instance, Nana, which honestly makes me believe her voice must be touched by the Gods. In the song, she sings “At heaven’s door they sell shoes to the angels that are barefoot.”
87/100
Zach
When Harry told me I’d be listening to an all Spanish album, I did not know what to think, but I have to say this album pleasantly surprised me. Rosalia’s unique and intriguing blend of traditional Flamenco and modern day R&B is fascinating, and this comes across best in her vocal, which is exquisite: she can saang. The accompanying music is interesting, and while I love to her the claps and guitar as a strong part of her sound, at times I wished for a bit more variety within the different songs on the album. There are occasions, such as the strings in track 5, which provide a stunning change in texture, this could have happened more. What I struggle most with in regard to this album, is it is so unique that I can’t really put it into context with anything else I listen to, and therefore I am not very equipped to judge it so closely. I still enjoyed it though.
Fave Tracks: Di Mi Nombre, Reniego
Spazzy McGee 