What kind of crazy f*cked up world do we live in where the most adventurous, most innovative album of the year is made by a Spanish artist singing in a multitude of foreign languages?

One in which everybody in music seems to be going in one direction, doing their best to distill their work to fit the precepts of their chosen genre, and everybody with a profile is afraid of going completely left field for fear of alienating their audience and never recovering.

Then again, how many of these people are truly artists? A lot of the rock and quiet music folks can't even sing well, that used to be a main criterion of being a professional artist. And you can buy beats, get a ton of digital help such that you create something that might appear professional, but it is lacking the innovation, the nuance, the je ne sais quoi of great art. A left turn, a great leap forward, something that makes the listener question their attitudes and beliefs.

If you pull up "Lux" I doubt you'll like it right away. You haven't even heard anything like this before.

And to tell you the truth, I wasn't going to listen, but Richard Griffiths, whom I trust implicitly when it comes to what is great, what is a hit, said:

"My big discovery this weekend has been Rosalia. Have you listened to her?

"I think she’s amazing!"

To say Rosalía's is not in Richard's wheelhouse is an understatement. This is the man who brought Pearl Jam and Rage Against the Machine to the public as the president of Epic Records. I know Richard likes prog, and he was the co-manager of One Direction, but Rosalía?

I knew who she was. I thought I'd seen her at an awards show. But to say I'd been paying close attention, knew her music, would be completely untrue.

So I'm in the back of a car Monday night, catching up on the "Washington Post," and I come across this article:

"Rosalía made one of the year’s most demanding pop albums. Listen closely. The Spanish pop auteur’s sweeping new album is a test for shrinking digital attention spans."

The first paragraph says:

"Let’s try to keep calm, because, for all of its ambition and grandeur, this new Rosalía album, 'Lux,' demands a sharpened mind more than a blown one. It’s an opaquely themed, scrupulously produced concept record in which the Spanish pop auteur sings about a handful of saints and martyrs in more than a dozen languages, backed by the unmitigated power of the London Symphony Orchestra — a stacking of lavish gestures that Rosalía hopes might help elongate our diminished online attention spans."

Free link: https://wapo.st/4paOPU9

Now if that does not intrigue you...I guess you never lived through the seventies, which get a bad rap, but the first half of that decade was a fount of creativity and diversity. From Jethro Tull to Joni Mitchell to Led Zeppelin to David Ackles... I could go on, but my point is the acts didn't feel a need to sound like those who had hits. As a matter of fact, when there became so much money involved that acts did try to game the system, we ended up with corporate rock, which along with formulaic disco killed the record business. The public could smell a rat.

So I pull up "Lux" on my phone and...

The opening cut, "Sexo, Violencia y Llantas," sounds like an intro/overture, but definitely doesn't sound like anything else, certainly nothing in the hit parade. The second track, "Reliquia," is more easily digested, closer to conventional popular music, but it too goes off the rails as it proceeds, as if Taylor Swift suddenly dressed like Julie Andrews in "The Sound of Music" and started singing operatically in the mountains.

And one thing is for sure, Rosalía can sing.

And the next day I wake up to this review of "Lux" in "The New York Times":

"Rosalía's 'Lux' Is Operatic. But Is It Opera?"

The headline tells all in this case. The writer's beat is classical music and opera, the article was not written by the usual pop reviewer, because after all what is this? A pop artist bending genres, testing limits... This guy, Joshua Barone, coughs up some kudos, but ends with some caveats, after all, are we really going to put a lowbrow pop artist in the canon of those who train and take music seriously?

But Rosalía studied at the Catalonia College of Music, she's not someone who developed her chops solely by listening to Top Forty radio.

And roots go a long way, they're a springboard for innovation, the basics. In the seventies, said roots were the cornucopia of successful records, which inspired others to deliver their own opuses.

So last night hiking I decided to listen to the entirety of "Lux."

And it's different, VERY different. Reminded me of John Cale's "The Academy in Peril." Yup, I bought that one. Cale returned to traditional rock with "Paris 1919," but his first solo album, on Reprise, was instrumental and closer to classical than rock. I bought it. And played it not ad infinitum, but a number of times, to try and get it.

And I did the same thing with "Lux" last night.

Talk about a musical adventure. My head was spinning.

The second time through it started to make more sense. Will you get that far? I don't think the average person will even listen, and if they do, they'll stop pretty quickly.

Now in the seventies, an album like this would not be a major seller. But we live in the streaming era, where the barrier to entry is essentially nonexistent, meaning anybody can check out an album. And people are...

If you listen to the press. The hype over the weekend was that "Lux" became the most-streamed album by a Spanish speaking woman.

I hate this sh*t. It's now like baseball statistics. Parsing the numbers to come up with irrelevant stats. And the funny thing is ultimately they don't matter, it's just a way of stroking the ego of the artist involved. However...

Some people are listening to "Lux." "Berghain" is #18 and rising on the Spotify Global songs chart. And Rosalía is the #5 artist in the Spotify Daily Top Artists Global chart. As for the USA...of course Rosalía is not in the US Top 50 daily chart. Used to be that the USA was the market leader, in every way, the most music consumed, the most innovative acts, Europe was a backwater, when it came to international acts South America/Latin was not even kept in mind, but today... In an era where the tools of production are available to everybody and the gatekeepers are history...

Yes, state radio calcified European music. It didn't play the outré stuff so few made it. But today...

For me, "Lux" is the most exciting thing to happen in recorded music this year. Because we've got a successful artist pushing the envelope, not for the sake of outrage, to solely get attention, but in pursuit of their own personal creativity.

And Rosalía is thirty three, she's been around for a while. A break from the barely-pubescent molded by major label committee. I mean if you were unknown and came to a label with this music, the three majors would want no part of you. But with a track record, Rosalía could pursue her own path.

Now the game is different in the streaming era. It's not about the debut, the launch numbers, but longevity. How long will people continue to listen to "Lux"? I don't know.

But Rosalía has put a stake in the ground, "Lux" is a beacon for all the supposed artists repeating themselves, putting out tripe, taking baby steps as they use the producers du jour to try and game the charts.

"Lux" is what we need.

Listen to it. You may find it difficult at first. But while you're doing so, think about the person who created it. Just like with the hit music of yore, you'll ask yourself HOW DID SHE COME UP WITH THIS?


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