On the surface, this album may look more like a difficult academic challenge than a new pop record from an artist who just had a last single featured an international pop star. Broken into four distinct parts and sung in 13 tongues, this is a breathtaking classical-tinged opus investigating female mystery, religious transcendence, and physical change, frequently by way of the prism of different women saints. The dissolution of a love affair—a theme treated with grounded honesty on another major 2025 album—soars heavenward on this record, buoyed by the constant presence of a major symphony orchestra and contributions from an award-winning composer within a vast list of collaborators. Its sheer daring by itself renders the efforts of other pop stars appear quite laughable.
Transcending Academic Exercise
That this album succeeds in avoid dry intellectual posturing feels nothing short of miraculous, with sole praise belonging to Rosalía. While it's not the first time album to blend historical sounds and modern styles, the scale are far greater here, and the tightrope walk far more precarious. The element that really elevates this fourth album, outside of its multilayered melodies, dense compositions, and inherent theatricality, is an essential sense of fun. Much like the legendary artist during her peak, there is a wondrous quality to the vocalist's voice that pulls you up in its whirlwind. When she's tearing your heart apart, you nevertheless desire to stay right there through the ride.
A Signature Example of Exuberance
This exuberant energy comes forth brightly during a stirring piano-led ballad about Saint Clare. It bathes in a sorrowful melancholy for more than four minutes. Suddenly, all the music drops away, to reveal we hear a gleeful laugh followed by a comment prior to a hilariously over-the-top orchestral crescendo thuds in with cartoonish impact. The song immediately shifts to the frenetic single driven by galloping orchestration, a powerful choir, and a cameo role from none other than Björk.
"The charm with this album lies in the listener rarely exactly know—nor wish to know—where you will go next."
Almost each track ends at a totally different point from how it started. One moment examines the transient nature of celebrity with a featherlight orchestration only to collapsing into digital chaos. Another, a cut echoing the artist's earlier trap-infused work starts out dark and sinister, with menacing vocals, before sudden traditional rhythms and an angelic choir arrive to soften its jagged corners.
The Balance Between Art and Accessibility
A key balancing act of the album is navigating the gap between bold innovation and mainstream accessibility. This is no coincidence that it has become her highest-charting work to crack the upper reaches of key charts: at its core a suite of truly catchy hits. A song sung entirely in English builds on a refrain that seems to collect more and more infectious hooks as it spirals upward. This trick gets repeated on another expansive ballad that grows and constricts, intertwining multiple melodies as an intricate weave.
- A waltz-like song seduces via its playful, Disney-adjacent flair and a chant-along chorus.
- In its words, it aligns the cultural honesty of other heartbreak anthems, eviscerating an ex- partner described as an "psychological bully".
- Across the album, the singing have a painted-on smile, like a fairy-tale figure hiding a knife: "Top prize in acting like a scoundrel / You've the podium of disappointment."
A Maximalist Banquet for the Ears
This album is pop on a maximalist scale, an ambitious grasp for high artistry amid of looming AI-generated sameness. It rejects self-absorption for sublime elevation, crafting a dramatic drama that masterfully controls its own built-in excess. This is an abundant well of buried gems that takes patience to completely explore but never seem like a chore. While other major pop albums of 2025 seemed like a meager scraps, this record is a sumptuous feast at which the guests around the table, perhaps tipsy on sacred drink, flutter between conversations about historical figures, the galvanizing sensation of heartbreaking grief, and common stories about hopeless partners. It is a modern-day musical from pop's most restlessly inventive practitioner.
