The Spanish Singer and Songwriter released her third LP titled Motomami. A concept album that leaves the sound of her previous great album El Mal Querer of beautiful melodic vocals and urban beats mixed with flamenco elements for more experimental pop, alternative reggaeton and avant-garde styles.
Click album cover to listen on Spotify
Roslaía – Motomami
Experimental Pop / Alternative Reggaeton / Avant-Garde
Spain
[Columbia]
It is probably the most important release of this year until now and already has the most prominent and distinctive cover artwork up to this point. It features production and music credits on almost every track by Noah Goldstein, who was involved in production and mixing of all the important records by Kanye West in the 2010s and also worked on LPs by Frank Ocean, Drake and several other notable artists. There is also production by Pharell Williams and the Neptunes most notably on the track Motomami. Influence of sound aesthetics by Arca can also be noticed.
Observations:
The album opener Saoko with its disharmonic piano beat reminds of Kendrick single Humble and also features an interesting jazz piano interlude. There are three tracks on this album titled with Japanese words.
The song Candy brings to mind her song with James Blake Barefoot in the Park.
La Fama with its bachata rhythm and melodic structure reminds of Drake’s Hotline Bling.
Bulerias is in the style of her last LP El Mal Querer with distinctive singing and flamenco clapping.
Hentai sounds like a ballad in the style of 2016 Rihanna on Anti and the last part with the staccato drums and repeated medlodic phrases is very Kanye-esque.
Bizcochito forms a triplet union with opener Saoko and Chicken Teryaki all featuring uptempo reggaeton beats and disharmonic elements, which make them distinct but can also feel annoying based on the listener’s taste.
G3 N15 really puts on display Rosalía’s beautiful and unique angelic singing voice combined with harmonies by organ that make one feel like listening to her in a church. The spoken word interlude in the end has the famous piano melody in the background that is also featured in the beginning of the 1958 classic Jazz LP Relaxin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet.
The short song Motomami very obviously uses sung elements in the style of the 2000s Pharell Williams and beat structure reminding of Kanye’s 808&Heartbreak and Black Skinhead.
Diablo with its reggaeton beat and strange vocals and sound effects brings to mind the recent style of Arca and it features vocals by James Blake. One could argue that Rosalía and James Blake are the most unique and extraordinary singing voices that appeared in the last decade with Blake coming in at the the beginning and Rosalía near towards the end. So it is obvious why these to voices work together so well.
Delirio de Grandeza works as a tribute to the Cuban musical styles like Buena Vista Social Club.
CUUuutee sonically is also a mix of experimental Kanye and Arca production combined with an El Mal Querer style interlude accompanied by piano.
Como un G features Rosalías beautiful singing. The end melodic part with a child voice imitating the melody reminds of the 2011 song Raconte-Moi un Histoire by M83.
Abcdefg is great in its natural documentary and field recording style.
La Combi Versace again uses base sounds and elements typical for a late Arca production.
Outro song Sakura is a stunningly beautiful live performance by Rosalía that features some small melodic resemblances to the famous Spanish language song La Llorona.