LORELY RODRIGUEZ APPEARS onscreen for our Zoom call from Los Angeles. She beams in from her home, which she claims is a mess. The singer, songwriter, and producer, who releases music as Empress Of, attended the Billboard Women in Music Awards the night before and hasn’t had a chance to tidy. “It looks like a hurricane came through here. I had hair and makeup and ring lights,” she explains. Rodriguez is bemused that showing up camera-ready on red carpets is part of her job now, but if performing the role of a star is in her job description these days, it may be because she is one.
Over the past decade, Rodriguez’s emotionally and musically intricate electronic music brought her a sizable underground following. As she’s passed career milestones, selling out dates in Paris and London, touring with Carly Rae Jepsen, that following has become much less underground.
On her fourth album For Your Consideration, Rodriguez approaches this moment with finely honed humor, starting with the album art. On the front cover, she rides a shooting star that seems to have escaped from a marquee while the lights of her native Los Angeles shine below. On the back, she’s coated in gold as she crawls across a plush carpet, looking exactly like an Oscar trophy. Both images are anarchic, erotic, and hyperreal. The visuals pair well with the feral, mischievous energy that pervades the record.
Tracklist:
| 1 | For Your Consideration 3:00 | 72 |
| 2 | Lorelei 3:00 | 80 |
| 3 | Preciosa 2:53 | 76 |
| 4 | Kiss Me 3:21 with Rina Sawayama | 80 |
| 5 | Femenine 3:03 | 71 |
| 6 | What Type of Girl Am I? 2:33 | 72 |
| 7 | Cura 2:33 | 68 |
| 8 | Fácil 2:36 | 71 |
| 9 | Sucia 2:27 | 70 |
| 10 | Baby Boy 3:01 | 71 |
| 11 | What's Love 3:09 feat. MUNA | 73 |