This album broke me. I listened to it unbroken, uninterrupted and without multi-tasking. I just sat and listened to it all the way through and wept. It moved me to my core and I’ve listened to the album about 30 times since. It’s a stellar example of how mainstream culture is turning its gaze to the Christian faith with intrigue and interest. People are looking for a better story and finding it in Jesus!
It flourishes onto the music scene like a flamboyant Soprano soloist dressed to the nines, who then flamenco dances through a virtuoso performance and finishes with a mic drop.
I was new to Rosalia and I’ve become a massive fan since! LUX, Latin for light, is an homage to various female saints throughout the centuries. It is a celebration of female spirituality and femininity in general.
Rosalia is a Catalan who writes mainly in Spanish but this album is in 13 languages and spans classical music, opera, pop and rap. She does what she likes and she does it better than anyone else - a true diva!
If you are interested, the languages are: Spanish, Catalan, English, Latin, Sicilian, Ukrainian, Arabic, German, French, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, and Mandarin.
The current single from LUX is called Berghain and is all about the 12th-century German abbess Hildegard of Bingen. It also features the inimitably haunting voice of Bjork and a horrendous and aggressive quote of male dominance from Mike Tyson in 2002. Ergh!
My favourite track on the album is Mio Cristo Piange Diamanti (‘My Christ Cries Diamonds’) which explores the concept of the compassionate tears and empathetic reach of Christ into our existence. As it builds to the finest crescendo I’ve heard in decades, she refrains, “Ti porto, ti porto sempre” (I carry you, I always carry you). He carries us in Him and we carry Him with us as we go. Jesus Christ’s tears bring healing to this generation as they have done for centuries.
LUX sheds insight into where the culture is at because Rosalia is saying that there is so much light to be found through the lives, poetry and teachings of the saints. She has a personal relationship with God, reads her Bible and prays every day. She will lead so many of the student generation and others to explore faith. She is a beacon to God in a lost culture.
Rosalia says she is so bored with pop music being filled with celebrities gossiping about celebrities, back-stabbing and bad-mouthing each other. There is a better story to tell and more depth to explore. She’s also bored of artists just sampling each other to death with little creativity (Taylor Swift’s latest album is case in point!). So she has written this masterpiece from scratch. In fact, her first and award winning album in 2018 was her degree thesis and this could be a doctorate!
Watch this album rise up the charts, listen to it become the sound track to this cultural moment. Don’t be offended by the occasional rude word! I believe this album will soon be regarded as one of the greatest of all time.
