“I was really interested in exploring just how elastic ’80s pop could be,” Girl Ultra tells Apple Music. “It can hold such a wide range of sounds and narratives. One thing I’ve always loved about that era is its sense of eroticism. All those little gimmicks that hint at the act without ever becoming the act itself.” That constant flirtation with eroticism, along with countless nods to the ’80s, runs throughout RRROMEO. Mexico City-born singer-songwriter Mariana de Miguel never experienced the decade firsthand, but her musical vocabulary draws from influences as varied as Cyndi Lauper, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Clash, and Tom Tom Club. On “Mentirasmentiras,” featuring Buscabulla, she pays tribute to the fascination with Indian influences that surfaced in some of Britain’s more progressive dark wave bands, while the melody of “Denisse” blends the innocence of an early drum machine with Andean flute samples and touches of Spanish-language rock. On the album’s title track, she channels the same sensuality and elegance that defined earlier standouts in her catalog, including 2022’s “BOMBAY.” An important collaborator throughout the project was the Los Angeles electro-funk duo Chromeo, who co-produced the album’s initial sessions from their Burbank studio. Below, Mariana de Miguel walks Apple Music through the eight songs on RRROMEO. “¡El groove de Romeo!” “I love the power that comes with saying someone’s name. Everyone has called me Nan my whole life, but now I introduce myself as Mariana. I wanted this almost sensual mantra of repeating someone’s name while emphasizing the rolling R.” “Te Caigo” “It captures the essence of a pop song. Even the chorus has these very Cyndi Lauper-esque chords. Sonically, there are slamming doors, something slightly eerie, very synth-driven and rooted in New Wave, but without ever losing its pop core. There’s something disruptive about saying, ‘I’m coming over.’ Like, I show up at your house, throw rocks at your window, and someone comes out in their underwear to open the door. That whole image lives inside the song.” “Mentirasmentiras” (feat. Buscabulla) “The whole album starts from this dark, ’80s-inspired universe I was trying to create. Back then, many of my favorite bands, like Siouxsie & The Banshees, had this fascination with sitars and Eastern sounds. My father’s family is Lebanese and Jordanian, so it felt like the perfect excuse to bring those two worlds together. I love long songs with instrumental bridges and Brian Eno-style piano passages. Those pop universes that used to show up on Moby and Madonna records—little gifts for listeners who obsess over every hidden detail.” “RRRomeo” “The idea came from this guy I was dating who always wore leather pants. There’s something so profane and so obscene about a man wearing leather pants. The lyrics gave me the freedom to talk about saliva and all these little things that exist around the act itself. I love how unapologetic the female desire is. It had been a long time since I’d heard a contemporary song express desire for a man so openly.” “Denisse” “It came from wanting to keep exploring this whole ’80s palette. Part of that naturally includes dub reggae colliding with The Clash. I spent so much time making this album that I eventually had to package all those influences together. Then I had the idea of writing a song for a friend from high school—an archetype that has stayed with me my whole life. That friend who’s always breaking free from a relationship and taking off again. With all these sounds coming together, I thought, ‘This one should lean even more into dub reggae.’” “Ironía” (feat. Chromeo) “I’m especially excited about this one because I grew up listening to Chromeo when I first started going out in Mexico City. Bands like Klaxons and Bloc Party were everywhere, and I used to save money just to go to festivals and see them live. I think we’ve become a little afraid of making five-minute songs with a minute-and-a-half instrumental section. That’s exactly what I wanted here—to descend into the underworld and bring back that high-energy feeling that’s still very much alive in Mexico. It was so much fun hearing Dave 1 paint those images in his verse.” “Ramera” (feat. Jean Tonique) “This was the last song added to the album. I was touring in Paris and met up with a producer friend I’ve known for years. It was incredibly sunny, and we were sweating inside this tiny little studio. We started working on the song, and Jean Tonique recorded this guitar part that immediately reminded me of Hot Chip, with those heavily overdriven guitars. At the time, I was living a very ‘ramera’ phase of my life, and I’ve always loved that word. I have a very foul mouth—I love swearing, like any good Mexican. Reclaiming that word for myself felt incredibly empowering.” “Tomás” (feat. Empress Of) “I probably discovered Empress Of about 10 years ago through a Blood Orange song, and now we’re friends. She has such an unpredictable approach to melody. Every idea she comes up with catches me completely off guard, and when we were in the studio, she had these little vocal nuances that never would have occurred to me. At one point, we said, ‘Let’s write a diss track, but let’s pick a name neither of us actually knows,’ and that’s how Tomás was born.”