Video featuring a cameo from Kyiv…
[Video]
[5.57]
Micha Cavaseno: Not to be cheap but, as a woman of Puerto Rican descent, it’s mildly racist to keep having women from Spain do lukewarm reggaetón in my face/ears. I’m waiting for the moment that Rosalía can do these sort of things where she doesn’t need to lean on Women’s Studies Art and Design Homage, where the music feels more like window-dressing to A Conceptual Study Of The Tragedy. This does not have such trappings, but it also hasn’t shown any desire to make good songs in this mode either.
[2]
Alfred Soto: The street Spanish with which it opens suggests a Neneh Cherry jam, but the vocal manipulations are their own, didactic lyrics and all. Many ideas, too many. Stick with the solo piano interlude.
[5]
Harlan Talib Ockey: Presumably Rosalía’s been too booked and busy to sit down with Bizarrap, but if you ever wanted to hear how she’d sound over his menacing, bass-like-an-oncoming-train production, this is remarkably close. Like, to the point that I had to triple-check who the producers were and loop the BZRP L-Gante session for 20 minutes. That aside, there are several really impressive production choices here; the little avant-garde jazz interlude is fun on its own in a Boarding House Reach way, but it’s actually more entertaining to listen for the little Chekhov’s gun piano notes sneaking in through the second verse. The “Saoco” interpolation, however, is questionable. There’s no obvious thematic connection stitching the two songs together. Rosalía herself has only indicated it’s a tribute to an era of reggaeton she personally likes. Unless you want to be incredibly generous and argue using it as an intro represents the evolution of the genre or something, it’s deeply strange to offer it this much prominence. Structurally, I know the constantly shifting, through-composed nature of it all is entirely the point — it’s about transforming, obviously — so as unsatisfying as it is to only hear the chorus once, mission accomplished. Lastly, this may not be an ornate vocal performance, but it easily equals both the production and the lyrics in its commanding confidence.
[7]
Oliver Maier: Possibly the most consistent popstar who is, well, an actual star, Rosalía always sounds like she’s moving forward even when she isn’t reinventing herself. “Saoko” has plenty of her oddball sensibilities mixed in — I really like the jazzy touches, like the sizzling ride cymbal at the beginning and the weird piano break midway through — while reaffirming her talent for making massive, massive bangers.
[8]
Nortey Dowuona: That gingersnap sounds a little enticing, then it’s crushed under bland reggaeton kicks and dulled bass synth, just looping eternally and occasionally twirling in different directions, with a light synth laid down, then disappearing for a rippling piano solo. Then its back to Rosalía “rapping” in the most indistinct way possible. And then it ends.
[5]
Edward Okulicz: I know Rosalía’s talented and versatile, but this tries to do so many things so frenetically that it’s more an audio equivalent of a show reel than something pleasurable. It’s kind of exhausting really — having burst onto the scene at the top of the game, it’s weird that she wants to be middling in some other game.
[4]
Ian Mathers: I’m honestly not sure even after multiple listens what the idea was with that jazzy little piano bit like 90 seconds in, but to my ears all it really does is slow the momentum on what otherwise sounds like an inexorably world-devouring track. And not in a good, tension-raising way.
[8]