Album Review: Arca Solidifies Her Place as the Diva Experimental in ‘KICK ii’

Dabbling in everything from avant-garde to reggaeton, Arca creates one of her most sonically diverse projects in her latest release from the Kick quintet.

Written by C.S. Harper

Photo courtesy of Unax LaFuente

2020 kicked off the decade of Arca, and she knows it. If that year was her breakout, 2021 is when she came to rule the world. The beginning of the decade saw her earth-shattering fourth studio album, KiCk i, which reintroduced listeners to the artist as a transgender woman and creative visionary with a newfound glitch pop/reggaeton/generally mind-bending sound. Soon after releasing the record, Arca (whose real name is Alejandra Ghersi) produced project after project, including an EP that soundtracked HBO’s “Euphoria” and an ambitious collection of 100 remixes of the KiCk i song “Riquiquí.” Not one to confine her successes to a single industry, Ghersi has conquered the fashion world as well, appearing in Calvin Klein and Ray-Ban ad campaigns earlier this year and most recently making the cover of not one, but two Vogue magazine covers.

With these impressive successes, however, come questionable decisions. KICK ii features a collaboration with Australian singer Sia, who received backlash for her 2021 inspiration porn project “Music.” The movie hired a neurotypical white woman to portray a biracial teenager — allegedly using blackface to do so — with autism and did more harm than good for the autistic community by promoting the use of dangerous prone restraint practices and associating itself with ableist organization Autism Speaks. Despite alienating some of her fanbase, Ghersi continues to blossom artistically as she racks up accolades and opportunities, exceeding one million monthly Spotify listeners this year and making her first Lady Gaga collaboration on her remix of “Rain On Me.”

Just when the Venezuelan producer seemed to be at the height of her creative spark, she pushed the envelope even farther than before by announcing her plans to release the remaining  Kick records all on the same day. Granted, she had already teased some of these songs as early as 2018, but KICK ii has a plethora of never-before-heard tracks that reveal new dimensions of the singer’s elusive persona. The year that passed between KiCk i and KICK ii’s releases brought significant changes to Ghersi’s life, from her newfound fame to a monumental breakup, and her growth from these experiences is evident in her music. Although KiCk i was focused on exploring her identities, it also focused on the world outside her ego with several collaborative tracks and love songs dedicated to her now ex-boyfriend. In KICK ii, she peels away more layers of her identity — she calls them self-states — to introduce a narrative grounded entirely in her perspective. If KiCk i explored identity and rebirth, KICK ii revels in its self-assertion and sexuality.

The record kicks off with “Doña,” a spoken-word piece featuring Arca’s characteristic trippy lyricism. “La Doña Arca se reboza / En su cama / Frota su fe / Con desenfado [Madam Arca overflows / In her bed / Rubs her faith / With lack of inhibition],” Ghersi raps in a robotic, pitched-up voice that contrasts with her recitation about sexual self-satisfaction. Over a squelching instrumental, she whispers cryptic lines that suggest a darker state of mind than she had in KiCk i’s braggadocious opener “Nonbinary:” “It is time to enter the end / (...) I’ve lost my respect the amount of times I was the same.”

Image courtesy of XL Recordings

After this climactic opening track come the album’s two smashing singles, “Prada” and “Rakata.” The former playfully acknowledges Ghersi’s newfound status as a fashion icon, as she proudly sings about her Prada heels in the hook. The song also showcases the record’s recurring sex motif: In typical cryptic Arca fashion, the singer explained that the track is “about the futurity of desire and love as a moebius strip.” “Rakata” features similar sex themes but in a reggaeton context, complete with a dembow rhythm and title that is a slang word typically used in the genre.

Continuing these themes, “Tiro” makes for the perfect song for perreo in the year 2050. An immaculate glitch-reggaeton track, the cut features a tresillo rhythm characteristic of Caribbean music as a nod to her Venezuelan heritage. The art pop oddball weaves lyrical wordplay throughout the track, rapping the words so that they meld into a catchy mantra that elevates the song’s futuristic banger feel. She embraces the newfound dominatrix persona she describes in previous tracks, demanding that the listener “Tírame el dinero / Pa’ que haya meneo [Throw me the money / So that I shake it for you]” before breaking into the rave-y chorus: “Desquiciada, desquiciada [I’m unhinged, unhinged].”

But Ghersi doesn’t just make perfect sex and party songs: She also flaunts her artistic versatility in the ethereal “Luna Llena.” A throwback to the tenderness of Arca classics like “Desafio” and “Piel,” the song has a mid-tempo reggaeton beat and whispery vocals. Lyrically, the track feels like a role-flipped version of “Desafio”: While the younger Ghersi told her lover “Reviento por dentro [I’m bursting inside],” she now assertively tells her partner, “Vengo a reventarte [I’m coming to make you burst].” Paired with the soothing instrumental, “Luna Llena” makes for an emotional full-circle moment.

Ghersi continues to gracefully consolidate various musical motifs from her career throughout the album. Shereturns to her early-career instrumental roots in “Femme,” which consists of minimalistic, 808-driven instrumentation with multiple beat switches. However, the second half of the record makes an unexpected switch into glitchy avant-garde territory, resulting in intellectually stimulating but admittedly less memorable tracks that make the album feel like two separate projects put together. She explores new sonic ideas in the mostly instrumental “Muñecas” and “Confianza,” using classical instruments like the piano more heavily in both tracks than in previous full-length albums.

“Andro” closes the record with a cinematic timbre thanks to its layered mix. Throughout the song, Ghersi intertwines a variety of synths, which progressively grow into a wall of electronic sound before muddling together and ultimately drowning out. Though the instrumental sounds epic, without any noteworthy themes to hold onto, “Andro” closes KICK ii on an ambiguous note and leaves Ghersi’s musical journey on a cliffhanger for KicK iii to continue.

With the smorgasbord of sonic and thematic ideas it combines, KICK ii feels more disjointed than its predecessors. But as part of a quintet, it makes sense that the record feels more like the continuation of a storyline, with no discernible beginning or end. Even amongst the inexplicable dubiety that shrouds the album, one thing is certain: Ghersi continues to impress with her production chops and unmatched songwriting prowess. From her mind-boggling music videos to her ever-changing lyrical themes, Arca reinvents herself in every installment of the Kick series, making the quintet feel like a musical character study with different self-states that unravel with each record.