"Now, Rosalía's awe-inspiring new album harkens back to an older tradition of Christian art: the symphony written for the glory of God. Known for fusing traditional flamenco with experimental pop, the 33-year-old Catalan superstar has, for a while now, been the model of internet-enabled, cosmopolitan cool. Her smash 2022 album, Motomami, was a feast of earthly delights-reggaeton, hip-hop, hyperpop. But her fourth album, Lux, adopts the sound and ambitions of a classical oratorio to mirror the modern quest for salvation,"
"Recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra and arranged with conservatory luminaries such as Caroline Shaw, Lux builds from strings, vocal choirs, and enough timpani to simulate a fracking expedition. Throughout, Rosalía continues her own tradition of pairing handclaps and melisma with bleeps and bangs. Employing 13 languages-including Catalan, Mandarin, and Ukrainian-she reinterprets historical tales of holy women, including Hildegard o"
Renewed cultural visibility of Christianity appears across fashion, social media, and popular music, with younger people adopting religious aesthetics and worship-inflected songs charting mainstream playlists. Indicators include stabilized or rising church attendance, TikTok trends like "Christiancore" and tradwife aesthetics, and political figures foregrounding explicit religious identities. Rosalía's Lux channels an older Christian musical tradition by adopting symphonic, oratorio-like structures recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra and arranged with conservatory figures. The album combines strings, choirs, and heavy timpani with Rosalía's flamenco roots, electronic textures, handclaps, melisma, and thirteen languages to retell stories of holy women.
Read at The Atlantic
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