Motomami

In November 2018, Rosalía released her second studio album El Mal Querer to critical acclaim and commercial success. The concept album, inspired by the 13th-century anonymous Occitan Romance of Flamenca, launched the singer into mainstream stardom.[8] The album received critical acclaim for its avant-garde production, which fused flamenco music with pop and urbano. El Mal Querer was listed in many year-end publications as well as in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. It was also awarded Album of the Year at the 20th Annual Latin Grammy Awards and Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards.[9][10]

Recording sessions for the singer's next project began in Los Angeles as early as 2019.[11][12] While on tour that year, Rosalía released a collection of singles. In March, the first of eight, "Con Altura", featuring J Balvin and El Guincho, was released on digital platforms.[13] It topped the charts in Argentina, Venezuela, Spain and Colombia among others and was the second most-watched music video released in 2019 on YouTube as well as the most-watched female music video that year.[14] May saw the release of "Aute Cuture" whereas "Milionària" and "Dios Nos Libre del Dinero" were released in July. In August, a collaboration with Ozuna, "Yo x Ti, Tu x Mi", was released to great commercial success.[15] The singer continued releasing standalone singles such as "A Palé", "Dolerme" and "Juro Que" throughout 2019 and 2020.[16] Rosalía also collaborated twice with Travis Scott; first on the remix of his track "Highest in the Room" alongside Lil Baby and then on "TKN", the latter of which became her first entry on the Billboard Hot 100.[17][18]

When Dutch radio station 3VOOR12 asked the singer through a Zoom press conference about a possible single compilation or box set, Rosalía expressed total rejection to the idea explaining that "I don't really enjoy records that are just a collection of singles. I usually enjoy records that tell a story and that are alive and involve a lot of thinking."[19] She also revealed that she was "trying really hard to release a new project in 2020" but all of the independent singles released so far wouldn't be included. She continued by saying that "as a musician I feel the responsibility to release a cohesive album, one that makes sense; one in where the songs are linked and share an essence". Rosalía was later seen in the recording studio with Michael Uzowuru, Mike Dean, the Neptunes and Playboi Carti among others.[20][21]

During 2021, Rosalía released more standalone singles such as "Lo Vas a Olvidar" and "Linda" alongside Billie Eilish and Tokischa, respectively.[22][23] In May, talent manager Rebecca León confirmed that Rosalía wouldn't release an album in 2021.[24] In August, the singer revealed to Santiago Matías that the album "was already taking shape" yet the number of songs was still unknown.[25] She later admitted that she had troubled times with deadlines, as the recording process lasted two years plus the mixing stage being over nine months. Motomami was completed on April 15, 2021. Rosalía also revealed she suffered from writer's block while on tour, with isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic and partly moving with Frank Ocean to New York City helping the process flow despite being homesick.[26][3] The recording process of Motomami was registered on the singer's private Instagram account 'holamotomami'.[27] In October, the singer teased on TikTok that the project would be released "soon" and premiered 30 seconds of the album's lead single.[28] During a fan meet and greet in Mexico in partnership with Exa FM, Rosalía revealed that her new album would be "very different" from its predecessor and that the lead single would be released in November.[29]

Motomami was officially announced on 2 November 2021, the third anniversary of El Mal Querer, along with a 15-second trailer directed by Daniel Sannwald which contained a snippet of the title track as well as a tentative 2022 release date.[30] Sannwald also pictured the album cover, which was revealed on social media on 31 January 2022.[31] On 8 November 2021, Rosalía announced the album's lead single, "La Fama" featuring the Weeknd. It was released on 11 November.[32]

Primarily, Motomami is an experimental pop, alternative reggaeton and avant-garde record.[33][34][35] In an interview with Diego Ortiz for Rolling Stone, Rosalía described the album as a "brave" record that is heavily influenced by reggaeton. She then expressed that the album is the "most personal and confessional album that I've made so far", revolving around lyrical themes of transformation, sexuality, heartbreak, celebration, spirituality, self-respect and isolation.[36] Motomami is largely inspired by the Latin music she danced to with her cousins as a child, and encountered again traveling the world as a budding pop star.[1] Denoted for "finding freedom in contradiction",[37] the confection of the album went through many stages as Rosalía was once convinced of making "four projects at the same time" differencing a flamenco record, a piano ballad one, a dark pop one, and an alternative reggaeton record.[38] The singer ended up "finding a purport within chaos", committing to a color palette at the sound level.[39] The production on Motomami distinguishes six elements that get used in almost every track: "aggressive" drums, filters that "make the music seem distant", a nude voice (no use of vocal harmonies or reverbs), the use of vocal chops, and a repeated minimalist production.[40] During the album's creation, Rosalía drew influences from artists such as Héctor Lavoe, Nina Simone, Patti Smith, Bach, Michèle Lamy, Pedro Almodóvar and Andrei Tarkovsky.[41] Ortiz praised the experimental nature of Motomami, stating that "there's room for everything here. Every element has been hand-sewn to form a skeleton of what modern music should be: art and flavor, dembow, champeta, flamenco, bachata, hip-hop, piano melodies, etc." He then compared "the degree of lyrical, rhythmic and sonic experimentation" to Beastie Boys' Ill Communication (1994) and Moby's Play (1999), and found similarities in Lorde's Pure Heroine (2013) and Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral (1994).[42]

Songs

The Weeknd (left) and Tokischa (right) provide vocals on "La Fama" and "La Combi Versace" respectively.

Motomami begins with "Saoko", an alternative reggaeton and experimental track with industrial and avant-jazz elements.[43] The song features heavy synthesizers, distorted pianos and traditional reggaeton drums; while its lyrics celebrate transformation and change.[44] The reggaeton sounds continue into its "slow-building" second track "Candy", where Rosalía sings about a broken relationship over "shimmering" synthesizers.[45] Its third track, "La Fama" featuring Canadian singer-songwriter the Weeknd, is a midtempo bachata influenced by electropop that details the downsides of fame.[46][47] Rosalía returns to her flamenco background in the fourth track "Bulerías", which sees her defending her position as a celebrity over communal chants.[48] The fifth track "Chicken Teriyaki" has been described as a "TikTok dance-ready" reggaeton track where Rosalía raps about a trip to New York City. The song is highlighted for its use of "ironic" and humorous lyricism.[49][50] The sixth track "Hentai" is a "delicate" piano ballad with pulsing electronic beats that explores the pleasures of sexual intercourse and female sexuality.[51][52] The seventh track "Bizcochito" is a champeta track that's "so playful it sounds like an ice cream truck rolling through the neighborhood."[53] Rosalía sings about isolation and homesickness during her time in the United States within the pandemic in "G3 N15" as she also delivers a pessimist point of view of Los Angeles in between piano melodies. It features a voice message of her maternal grandmother in Catalan at the end.[54] Followed up by the title track, "Motomami" serves as an interlude. The tenth track, "Diablo", lays Rosalía’s pitch-shifted vocals over ominous electronica and an off-kilter reggaeton beat.[55] It features uncredited guest vocals by Leyvan and James Blake.[56] The eleventh track "Delirio de Grandeza" reimaginates Justo Betancourt's 1968 track adding a sample from short-lived rap duo Vistoso Bosses.[57] The twelfth track "Cuuuuuuuuuute" is a clattering cyberpunk song that suddenly switches to piano balladry and back again.[55] It draws inspiration from Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights".[58] The thirteenth "Como Un G" is a piano ballad about an unrequited, ephemeral love.[59] The following track "Abcdefg" serves as an interlude. It features a voicenote in which Rosalía recites the alphabet.[60] Rosalía and featured artist Tokischa seem to have fun dressed in Versace in "La Combi Versace", a minimalist dembow/neoperreo track.[61] The sixteenth track "Sakura" is an "emotionally authoritative" closing track that sounds like it was recorded live in an arena as it features audience cheers recorded during the El Mal Querer Tour.[37] In "Sakura", Rosalía compares her time as a pop star to the brief life of a cherry blossom.[62]

During an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music 1, Rosalía described Motomami as a loose concept album that paints a self-portrait of herself. She also revealed that the album is more playful than her previous albums, explaining: "I feel like I haven't done that in the other albums. Also, they were much more serious if that makes sense. And I think that in this one, I was like, 'I really want to find a way to allow my sense of humor to be present.'"[63]

Rosalía shared that she chose the name Motomami because it's "structured in binaries, two types of contrasting energy." The album is separated into two parts; Moto is the divine, experimental, frictional and the strongest part of the album, while Mami is the genuine, personal, confessional and vulnerable part. Rosalía also stated that "feminism is implicit in the intention. It is very much present in some songs, and maybe not some much in some others, because in the end, it's all the emotional journey of the ups and downs an artist can take. There's a lot of my day-to-day life that's why this vindication of women and femininity are implicit."[64][65] Rosalía hopes Motomami "provides a feminist counterbalance to misogyny in music".[66] She also chose to name the album Motomami in honor of her mother, Pilar Tobella, and the company she runs Motomami S.L., which administrates activities around artist representation.[67]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	8.5/10[101]
Metacritic	94/100[102]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[103]
Clash	9/10[104]
The Independent	[105]
The Line of Best Fit	9/10[106]
Mondo Sonoro	8/10[107]
NME	[108]
The Observer	[109]
Pitchfork	8.4/10[61]
Rolling Stone	[110]
The Telegraph	[111]

Motomami was met with widespread acclaim from music critics, who often commended the album's experimentation and genre-bending sounds.[112] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 94 based on 16 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim", and placing it 16th on the best albums of all time on the site.[102][113] Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 8.5 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.[101]

In a five-star review, Diego Ortiz of Rolling Stone en Español wrote that Motomami "redefines the concept of the mainstream with its abstract sound exploration, where borders and genres are completely blurred. Undoubtedly, it is one of the most daring and reckless productions of recent years and which in turn paves a new path of almost infinite possibilities."[114] Mark Richardson of The Wall Street Journal agrees, writing, "...for Rosalía, this future-forward strain of pop is swirled together with rap, the Caribbean style reggaetón, dance, and, of course, flamenco—here, folk guitars collide with otherworldly digital processing. She's a visionary in the mode of M.I.A. or Madonna, one who uses her mainstream perch to push music in new directions."[115] Thom Jurek of AllMusic described the record as "provocative and risky as it is creative. It showcases Rosalía as a master, twisting together the contradictory strands of Latin and Anglo pop with traditional and vanguard forms and fresh sounds into a gloriously articulated radical approach that makes for obsessive listening."[103] Nathan Evans of The Quietus wrote that Motomami "darts away from the angelic image of Rosalía’s previous work, stirring the cauldron to create an outlandish, genre-hopping revision of herself."[116]

Pitchfork crowned Motomami with its "Best New Music" honor, with Julianne Escobedo Shepherd writing, "It feels rare to hear an album that's so experimental, that aspires to stretch itself out across genres and play with form, and that attains exactly what it sets out to achieve. Rosalía was already a formidable singer, but here she also sounds like she learned that with global superstardom comes the freedom to set her own agenda."[61]

In the United States, Motomami debuted at No. 33 on Billboard 200 with 17,000 equivalent album units sold in its first week.[117] It achieved the largest opening week for a Latin pop album in 2022, so far. The album also opened at number one on Top Latin Pop Albums, becoming her second album to reach the top spot.[118]

It achieved the best debut for a female spanish album on Spotify’s history, with 16.3 million streams the first day.

All lyrics are written by Rosalia Vila, except where noted.

Notes

• All tracks are stylized in all caps; except "Abcdefg", which is stylized in sentence case, and "Cuuuuuuuuuute", which is stylized as "CUUUUuuuuuute"
• ^{^[m]} indicates a miscellaneous producer

Sample credits

• "Saoko" interpolates "Saoco" (2004) by Wisin and Daddy Yankee.
• "Candy" samples "Archangel" (2007) by Burial.
• "Delirio de Grandeza" reinterprets "Delirio de Grandeza" (1968) by Justo Betancourt and samples "Delirious" (2009) by Vistoso Bosses featuring Soulja Boy.

• Official website