DRAMA RAINS & LUX
Wow.
It’s raining in Los Angeles.
8:56AM. The rhythm falls - discordant. When I step outside to run, no one else will be running. I’ll have the sidewalks of El Sereno, South Pasadena, and San Marino to myself. Angelenos hunker down in the rain.
I’m drawn to rain (thank you Washington State childhood). I’ll wear water resistant earbuds while I run 10 miles. I’ll listen to LUX, the new album from Rosalía.
I’m thinking nonstop about Rosalía. She’s 33. She’s a genius. It’s totally fair to say that. I promise. Look her up. Dive into the vortex. You, too, will bear witness.
I first listened to LUX on a drive - the entire album in one go. My spirit soared to my throat. My ribs expanded. I grabbed the steering wheel like I was flying. It felt like music that had always existed. Like this album is eternal? inevitable? essential?
And yet shocking. Shocking in an exquisite way. Over and over, I’m listening, re-listening, like: how does this exist? I’m so happy this exists?!?!
If you’re baffled by LUX, I get that. If you’re indifferent, try again? This album is the antithesis of easy listening. It’s more like kneeling in a cathedral at Golden Hour while a Thunderstorm rages. It’s like being in a forest during an earthquake and all the woodland creatures emerge.
These are weird analogies.
But I wake up excited about this album - excited to my core. I’m aware that this is an ARTIST at work (she sings in 13 languages. These are like ARIAS).
Rosalía’s album is maximalist, breathtaking, enlivening. I’m hyped at this very moment to shut my laptop and run through the downpour in Los Angeles, listening to this entire album. I’ll play out the fullness and the ineffable and the exhilarating in Brooks shoes on splashed pavement.
And then maybe I’ll write poetry, or revise my screenplay. You guys! this! music! catches fire in me! and I have to go be an artist too.
It’s 9:40AM. The rain falls harder.
“Divinize” is playing, and I have miles to run.
Cheers.
(Please listen to LUX, and tell me what you think.)
My days, recently:
Lux is UNBELEIVABLE!!
Listening now!