# XXXXX (album)
**XXXXX** is the ninth studio album by the Venezuelan producer, vocalist, and visual artist Arca (Alejandra Ghersi Rodríguez), released on July 31, 2026 through [XL Recordings](https://www.edgepedia.org/xl-recordings). It is her first full-length release since 2021's *kiCK iiiii*, the final installment of her five-album *Kick* series, and it continues her catalog's tradition of enigmatic, five-character titles, following the mixtapes *&&&&&* (2013) and *@@@@@* (2020).[1](https://music.apple.com/us/album/xxxxx/6771049554) • [2](https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/91082/arca-xxxxx/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Artist | Arca (Alejandra Ghersi Rodríguez), Venezuela-born, Barcelona-based producer and vocalist[3](https://www.nme.com/reviews/album/arca-xxxxx-review-3960009) |
| Release | July 31, 2026, XL Recordings (catalog XL1662); 16 tracks, 47 minutes[4](https://www.xlrecordings.com/releases/xxxxx) • [1](https://music.apple.com/us/album/xxxxx/6771049554) |
| Position in catalog | Ninth studio album; first full-length since *kiCK iiiii* closed the *Kick* pentalogy in 2021[2](https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/91082/arca-xxxxx/) • [1](https://music.apple.com/us/album/xxxxx/6771049554) |
| Origin | First conceived as a mixtape in the lineage of *&&&&&* and *@@@@@*, later promoted to a full album[5](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/arca-xxxxx/) |
| Framing | Presented as a broadcast from a fictional station, Diva Experimental FM, with station tags and tracks that fade in and out[5](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/arca-xxxxx/) |
| Premiere | Two-hour *Diva.Experimental* livestream staged in an abandoned factory in Barcelona, directed by Daniel Sannwald[6](https://interspacemusic.com/blog/arca-releases-new-album-xxxxx-on-xl-recordings/) |
| Vinyl | Black LP released November 13, 2026 (XL1662LP)[7](https://www.roughtrade.com/en-de/product/arca/xxxxx) |
## Background and release
Arca announced the album in July 2026, five years after *Kick IIIII* closed the *Kick* pentalogy.[8](https://djmag.com/news/arca-announces-new-album-xxxxx-shares-new-material-listen) In the run-up she aired new material in a worldwide radio takeover on July 17, taking over stations including Kiosk Radio, NTS Radio, UCLA Radio, DUBLAB, and East Village Radio, and broadcasting a 30-minute project called *Airdoll*, a mix of baile funk with currents of ambient music, R&B, and Gregorian chants.[8](https://djmag.com/news/arca-announces-new-album-xxxxx-shares-new-material-listen) • [9](https://www.latimes.com/delos/story/2026-09-15/arca-review-new-album-xxxxx-divahood-venezuelan-dj-scene)
**The livestream.** The album premiered in full via a two-hour *Diva.Experimental* broadcast staged live from an abandoned factory in Barcelona, with performance direction by Daniel Sannwald and lighting design by Matiere Noire.[6](https://interspacemusic.com/blog/arca-releases-new-album-xxxxx-on-xl-recordings/) DJ Mag and InterSpace place the stream on July 23;[8](https://djmag.com/news/arca-announces-new-album-xxxxx-shares-new-material-listen) • [6](https://interspacemusic.com/blog/arca-releases-new-album-xxxxx-on-xl-recordings/) the Los Angeles Times describes it as a July 27 event.[9](https://www.latimes.com/delos/story/2026-09-15/arca-review-new-album-xxxxx-divahood-venezuelan-dj-scene) In the stream, Arca performed the album in its entirety in an elaborately staged routine: writhing on the back of a moving truck, climbing sand dunes in the dark, covering herself in what appeared to be blood, and getting her makeup done between songs.[5](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/arca-xxxxx/) • [9](https://www.latimes.com/delos/story/2026-09-15/arca-review-new-album-xxxxx-divahood-venezuelan-dj-scene) Twelve videos from the performance were shared publicly in the weeks after.[6](https://interspacemusic.com/blog/arca-releases-new-album-xxxxx-on-xl-recordings/)
## Music and structure
The album runs 16 tracks over 47 minutes, from the 1:31 opener "No End" to the 4:14 closer "Sueño".[4](https://www.xlrecordings.com/releases/xxxxx) It was originally conceived as an entry in Arca's mixtape series, in the lineage of *&&&&&* and *@@@@@*, before she decided to give it the status of a full album, a move Pitchfork's Andrew Ryce reads as a way to break the curse of following an elaborately conceived five-LP statement.[5](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/arca-xxxxx/) Arca herself describes the record as a "glitch," a concept she has carried through her art for over a decade.[5](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/arca-xxxxx/)
**Sound.** Where the *Kick* era leaned toward avant-reggaeton and club-friendly pop, *XXXXX* trades those impulses for darker, more confrontational electronic music: harsh noise, metallic textures, IDM, glitch, and deconstructed club, with classical composition threaded through.[1](https://music.apple.com/us/album/xxxxx/6771049554) • [10](https://soundsoftheuniverse.com/product/mqccyahba) The record is framed as a radio show on Diva Experimental FM, with occasional station tags and tracks that fade in and out like a late-night broadcast.[5](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/arca-xxxxx/) Reviewers heard specific reference points in individual tracks: "Willow" opens with a tolling bell before pivoting from a jerky trap beat into dubstep with a chiptune melody; "Raver" recalls the broken beat of Jamie Vex'd; "Grip" channels the hi-tech sound design of EPROM; "Finisher" blends ominous strings with eerie synths; and "Fxck" is a sexually charged club track whose chorus demands to "kill the father".[5](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/arca-xxxxx/) • [3](https://www.nme.com/reviews/album/arca-xxxxx-review-3960009) • [11](https://chorus.reviews/albums/arca-xxxxx) The album closes with "Sueño," on which Arca screams, distorted and Auto-Tuned, "STOP DYING!"[5](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/arca-xxxxx/)
**Themes.** The press release describes the record as "suspended between posthuman augmentation and raw emotion".[12](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/jul/31/arca-xxxxx-review) The cover art, the latest in her Giger-esque series of cyborg-like figures, shows her body attached to what looks like a tank or ship, accompanied by two owls, which one reviewer read as symbols of the underworld and protection in [Greek mythology](https://www.edgepedia.org/greek-mythology).[5](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/arca-xxxxx/) • [2](https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/91082/arca-xxxxx/) Critics framed the album as an inward turn after the outward-facing *Kick* cycle, probing the conflicts between humanity and technology, past and future.[3](https://www.nme.com/reviews/album/arca-xxxxx-review-3960009) • [13](https://www.buzzmag.co.uk/arca-xxxxx-album-review/)
## Reception
The Guardian's Shaad D'Souza called *XXXXX* "a wild, brilliant album" and one of Arca's densest and best, hearing elements of classical composition, deconstructed club music, and pop fighting for dominance.[12](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/jul/31/arca-xxxxx-review) Andrew Ryce's Pitchfork review found it "mostly brilliance, full of sharp turns and right angles," singling out "Willow," "Everything," and the closing scream of "Sueño," while calling the brief "Cinch" a momentum-killing meander; he judged it not her most essential album but one carrying some of her rawest and most ambitious music.[5](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/arca-xxxxx/) Beats Per Minute scored it 86 percent and called it her most diverse yet most balanced album since *Xen* and *Mutant*.[14](https://beatsperminute.com/album-review-arca-xxxxx/) Anthony Fantano of The Needle Drop gave it a decent-to-strong 7, praising its boundary-free experimentation while faulting tracks that finish out of nowhere.[15](https://www.theneedledrop.com/album-reviews/arca-xxxxx-album-review-qmpj78-ulio/) Slant Magazine described the album as volatile and disorienting but precisely constructed, noting that its whiplash shifts sometimes work against it.[16](https://www.slantmagazine.com/music/arca-xxxxx-album-review/)
## Context in Arca's catalog
*XXXXX* arrives after a period in which Arca moved between the mainstream and the underground: she appeared in Madonna's *Confessions II* film, remixed Robyn's "Sexistential," and crafted the score to Stillz's *Bairro Triste* in 2025.[8](https://djmag.com/news/arca-announces-new-album-xxxxx-shares-new-material-listen) The Los Angeles Times situates the record within Venezuelan underground electronic music, where Arca was the youngest of a generation of DJs and producers, and reads its diva framework, which she had already explored in her NTS-streamed show, as a reconfiguration of divahood through mutation of body, soul, and sound.[9](https://www.latimes.com/delos/story/2026-09-15/arca-review-new-album-xxxxx-divahood-venezuelan-dj-scene) A limited screen-printed "2 LP White Label" edition of 300 copies was offered through XL's webstore after the standard black vinyl pressing.[7](https://www.roughtrade.com/en-de/product/arca/xxxxx)
## References
1. [XXXXX – Album by Arca, Apple Music](https://music.apple.com/us/album/xxxxx/6771049554)
2. [Arca – XXXXX (album review), Sputnikmusic](https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/91082/arca-xxxxx/)
3. [Arca – 'XXXXX' review, NME](https://www.nme.com/reviews/album/arca-xxxxx-review-3960009)
4. [XXXXX, XL Recordings](https://www.xlrecordings.com/releases/xxxxx)
5. [Arca: XXXXX Album Review, Pitchfork (Andrew Ryce)](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/arca-xxxxx/)
6. [Arca Releases New Album 'XXXXX' on XL Recordings, InterSpace Daily](https://interspacemusic.com/blog/arca-releases-new-album-xxxxx-on-xl-recordings/)
7. [Arca – XXXXX (LP – Black), Rough Trade](https://www.roughtrade.com/en-de/product/arca/xxxxx)
8. [Arca announces new album, 'XXXXX', shares new material: Listen, DJ Mag](https://djmag.com/news/arca-announces-new-album-xxxxx-shares-new-material-listen)
9. [Arca reconfigures the role of the diva in her new album 'XXXXX', Los Angeles Times (E.R. Pulgar)](https://www.latimes.com/delos/story/2026-09-15/arca-review-new-album-xxxxx-divahood-venezuelan-dj-scene)
10. [Arca – XXXXX, Sounds of the Universe](https://soundsoftheuniverse.com/product/mqccyahba)
11. [XXXXX – Arca, Review Score, Chorus.Reviews](https://chorus.reviews/albums/arca-xxxxx)
12. [Arca: XXXXX review, The Guardian (Shaad D'Souza)](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/jul/31/arca-xxxxx-review)
13. [Arca's XXXXX album explores modernity and our nearing future, Buzz Magazine](https://www.buzzmag.co.uk/arca-xxxxx-album-review/)
14. [Album Review: Arca – XXXXX, Beats Per Minute (John Wohlmacher)](https://beatsperminute.com/album-review-arca-xxxxx/)
15. [Arca – XXXXX, The Needle Drop (Anthony Fantano)](https://www.theneedledrop.com/album-reviews/arca-xxxxx-album-review-qmpj78-ulio/)
16. [Review: With 'XXXXX,' Arca Serves Up Controlled Chaos, Slant Magazine (Paul Attard)](https://www.slantmagazine.com/music/arca-xxxxx-album-review/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musical works and recordings › Albums and recorded releases › Studio albums › Experimental and avant-garde albums*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license