Los Ángeles (album)

## ***Los Ángeles*** Album by ROSALÍA

***Los Ángeles*** is the debut studio album by Spanish singer Rosalía, with production and arrangements by Raül Refree. It was released on February 10, 2017 by Universal Music Spain.

## Background

Rosalía began performing in tablaos a decade before the release of her recording debut, gradually becoming a well-known vocalist within Barcelona's flamenco circuit. She worked as a guest artist and supporting act for various artists, including Chicuelo, Enric Palomar, La Fura dels Baus, Miguel Poveda and Rocío Márquez, performing across countries such as Germany, Singapore and Panama and events like the 2015 Primavera Sound and an APAP conference in New York City. She told *ABC*: "I have done many collaborations with other musicians, and I have always tried that they were older than me, in order to learn from them." Rosalía grew up in a family with no artistic background that mostly listened to music in English. She discovered flamenco at thirteen when her friends played Camarón de la Isla while meeting in a park after school, soon becoming fascinated with the genre and studying it on her own. As she immersed herself in the Catalan flamenco scene, Rosalía met local fixture José Miguel Vizcaya "El Chiqui de la Línea", who suggested she started a degree in music. "El Chiqui" became Rosalía's teacher for the following eight years, as she studied Interpretation of Flamenco Singing at the Catalonia College of Music (Catalan: *Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya*, ESMUC). The ESMUC only accepts one student of this discipline per year and Rosalía was selected in 2014. The singer has described "El Chiqui" as a fundamental figure in her career, who encouraged her to investigate the genre even further back in time. Speaking with *ABC*, she stated: "To me, flamenco was Camarón, something of gypsy aesthetics, and when going back I found many other things that I loved. [...] When I discovered *cantaores* like Niño de la Huerta or "El Gloria", "El Chiqui" taught me to listen and appreciate their singing, because their recordings sound very bad! To people of our age that sound seems terrible to us."

## Composition

*Los Ángeles* is a concept album that collects a series of *cantes* which have death as its central theme. It is a presentation of Rosalía as a soloist *cantaora* and as such its structure is similar to that of the debut of any orthodox flamenco singer: "a selection of varied *palos*, often with traditional or popular lyrics, in which the artist shows his or her aptitude and background." In this manner, the singer encompasses several forms of the genre, including *alegrías*, *tangos*, *fandangos*, *fandanguillos*, *seguidillas*, *tarantas*, *malagueñas* and "more specific" styles like *guajira*, *saeta* and *milonga*. Rosalía felt that in the album "the *cantes* become songs", and as such did not list the *palos*'s titles in the track listing, explaining that: "It's a way of saying that I am based on melodies and lyrics from *cantes*, but we turn it into something else. Those who know something about flamenco will be able to identify them, because we are influenced by that, but we do our own thing."

It includes a cover of Enrique Morente's *Aunque era de noche* of Saint John of the Cross's 16th-century poem as well as a cover of *La Hija de Juan Simón* (1934).

Rosalía told Ecleen Luzmila Caraballo of Jezebel in 2018: "I feel like with *Los Ángeles*, I wanted to establish my musical legacy... and honor the classic sound of flamenco in the most traditional sense, respecting them to the maximum, with a pop and experimental structure, but with very basic instrumentation and a minimalist sound—just guitar and voice."

## Release and promotion

*Los Ángeles* was released on 20 February 2017 on Universal Music Spain. It was released at digital audio stores and streaming platforms, as well as a CD and double LP record. "Catalina" was released as the album's lead single on 17 October 2016 and presented by Rosalía in Radio 3, after having shared its B side "Que se muere, que se muere" online a few weeks before. Its music video was directed by Txema Yeste and has been described as "a visual translation of the power of this song". An electronic press kit (EPK) featuring English subtitles was published in Rosalía's YouTube channel on 21 April 2017. The video was produced by Yverz and directed by Bàrbara Farré, with photography by Lucas Casanovas and animation by Pepe Gay.

Spanish filmmaking collective Manson directed the music video for the second single "De plata", which features the singer performing the track as she walks and dances in the streets of Los Angeles, California. It was published in Rosalía's YouTube channel on 26 May 2017. Luis Troquel of *Rockdelux* felt that the clip showed a "facet of Rosalía that was unknown to many", as she dances "with a glowing enchantment and exuberant style." Manson shot the clip in 16 mm film, as they "wanted to portray Rosalía as a classic Hollywood star, but with a contemporary sensibility." The collective told Nowness that they chose the song because it had a "Tarantino-esque vibe" that they thought matched Los Angeles. They further explained: "Her art is very pure and wild and we wanted a video to match—no camera tricks, no VFX, no ornaments, no Tumblr aesthetics, just the pure and raw performance of a new-born classic star." A cover version of Enrique Morente's "Aunque es de noche", which was not included in the album and had only been performed live, was released as a single on 2 November 2017 on streaming platforms. Its music video was directed by Ignasi Monreal and produced by CANADA in collaboration with Pink Salt and Collateral Films, with animation by Iria López, Dani Negrín and Bjørn-Erik Aschim from the London animation studio The Line. Filmed as a long take, the video's first two minutes show the inside of a car filled with elements of Christian symbolism, leading the viewer to Rosalía sitting on a chair. The singer then stands up and shows that she is inside a cemetery and in the last minutes, animation appears around and on her. According to Rosalía, the music video "intends to be a celebration of death as part of life", and as such has been linked to the concept of *Los Ángeles*. In between recording for the video, Monreal also filmed Rosalía performing an a capella rendition of the track, which was released via Nowness on 14 December 2017.

## Critical reception

*Los Ángeles* was met with critical acclaim from music critics. Spanish magazine *Rockdelux* called it "one of the most intense and sweeping debuts of recent times", with critic Juan Monge complimenting its mix of tradition and avant-garde. AllMusic's Mariano Prunes highly commended Rosalía's vocals, writing that "her instrument is a tornado capable of sweeping away any cultural or language barriers", while noting that "she does not accomplish this with sheer volume or vocal histrionics, but by reaching almost unbearable levels of intensity and expression." He concluded that *Los Ángeles* "signals the appearance of a major talent in both the flamenco and the world music scene." Writing for MondoSonoro, Yeray S. Iborra felt that with *Los Ángeles*, Rosalía "is posited as the contemporary cantaora who has better understood the current times", noting the difference between the album and her "more American" collaboration with C. Tangana.

## Commercial peformance

*Los Ángeles* debuted at number 42 on the Spanish Albums Chart on 19 February 2017. A month later, Sebas E. Alonso of Jenesaispop.com noted that the album had remained charting since its release, ascending to number twenty-eight in its third week and maintaining that position the following week. Feeling that it was in its way to becoming the Spanish "sleeper hit of the year", Alonso described *Los Ángeles*'s chart run as "totally exceptional", taking into account that most albums "after the hype of the fans during the first week, [fall] slightly on the list until they settle depending on the duration of the promotion of the album or directly collapse." Likewise, Jordi Bardají wrote on 1 November 2018 that the record was "one of the greatest 'sleepers' that Spanish sales lists have known in recent times." *Los Ángeles* reached its peak position of number nine on 11 November 2018 and remained in the albums chart until 9 February 2020, accumulating a total of 116 weeks.