Rosalia’s Motomami is brave, bawdy, and completely uncompromising. Read our review of the Spanish pop rule breaker’s excellent new album.
is a reaction to all that fame, attention, and discord, one that refracts the noise that’s surrounded her for the last few years, bends it to her will and launches it back into the ether. What she offers is a dizzying, kaleidoscopic self-portrait—brash and bawdy at some turns, crushingly vulnerable at other points, and completely ridiculous when it wants to be.
“Hentai” reaches a different level of intimacy: Rosalia’s voice floats over a dreamy piano melody, singing with the warmth and delicacy of Judy Garland. “I wanna ride you like I ride my bike/Make me a tape like Spike/I whipped it until it got stiff/In the second place is fucking you/In the first place is God.” She embraces the simple, straightforward pleasures of sex, toying with expectations and contrasts while subverting the kind of lyrics that men are allowed to get away with all the time.
Occasional tests of boldness don’t quite pay out; the silliness of “Chicken Teriyaki,” for example, seems like it should live strictly on TikTok. Other moments, such as the Weeknd collaboration “La Fama,” trace the more complicated aspects of Rosalia’s artistry, specifically how she’s been free to dive into Latin and Caribbean genres and collage them together as a white, European woman.
A more straightforward homage comes on “Delirio de Grandeza,” a salsa experiment that directly honors the Afro-Cuban sonero Justo Betancourt. As Rosalia sings, the beat skips and a snippet of the Soulja Boy remix of Vistoso Bosses’ ‘Delirious’ sneaks in. It’s an unexpected touch that’s almost sacrilegious on such a classic song—and deeply exciting.
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