Initially, this album could seem closer to a difficult scholarly challenge rather than a new pop record from a musician who just had a last single was a collaboration with a global pop icon. Split across four separate sections and sung in thirteen languages, this is a dizzying classical-tinged album exploring feminine mystery, religious ascent, and corporal transformation, often by way of the perspective of different female saints. The dissolution of a romance—a topic handled with grounded openness elsewhere—is launched skyward on this record, carried by the lush presence of a major symphony orchestra and contributions from an award-winning composer among a vast list of contributors. Its sheer daring by itself renders the work of other artists look quite small.
Rising Above Scholarly Exercise
The fact that Lux manages to avoid dry intellectual posturing is nearly miraculous, with complete credit going to Rosalía. While it's not her first album to alchemize historical sounds and the present, the stakes are much higher on Lux, and the tightrope walk more precarious. What truly elevates this fourth album, outside of its multilayered melodies, dense compositions, and engrained theatricality, proves to be an essential sense of playfulness. Much like the iconic Björk at her height, you find a wondrous sense to Rosalía's singing which sweeps the listener into its tornado. Even when she's breaking hearts apart, you still desire to stay alongside her for the ride.
A Prime Moment of Exuberance
That exuberant energy shines brightly on a stunning piano-led ballad inspired by a saint. It bathes in a string-drenched melancholy over more than four minutes. Then, all the music drops silent, and we hear a spontaneous laugh followed by a comment before a comically exaggerated string crescendo thuds in like cartoonish force. The song immediately shifts into the wild single driven by galloping strings, an imposing choral group, and a surprise role from none other than Björk.
"The charm with Lux lies in you rarely exactly understand—nor wish to know—where you will go next."
Nearly each track concludes in a totally distinct place than where it started. One moment examines the fleeting nature of celebrity with a delicate orchestration only to disintegrating in electronic cacophony. Elsewhere, a song that recalls the artist's earlier rhythmic work begins off dark and brooding, with prowling vocals, before sudden flamenco handclaps and an angelic chorus enter to smooth its jagged corners.
The Balance Of Experiment & Pop
A key balancing act of Lux is navigating the gap between radical experimentation and broad appeal. This is no surprise that it has become the artist's highest-charting work to crack the Top 5 of key charts: at its core a suite of truly catchy pop songs. One track performed entirely in the English language swells around a chorus that feels to collect more and more infectious melodies while it spins upward. That feat is repeated on another expansive track that grows and contracts, intertwining layered melodies like a complex weave.
- A waltz-like number seduces via its jaunty, Disney-adjacent flair and a chant-along hook.
- Lyrically, it aligns the pop culture honesty of other heartbreak anthems, lambasting an ex- lover described as an "psychological bully".
- Across the album, the singing have a sharp edge, like a storybook character concealing a knife: "Gold medal in acting like a motherfucker / You have the podium of disappointment."
An Opulent Feast for the Soul
Lux represents popular music on a grand level, a hungry reach for capital-A artistry in an era of looming AI-generated sameness. It rejects solipsism for sublime transcendence, creating an over-the-top drama that skillfully manages its own built-in ridiculousness. It is an abundant source of buried treasure that requires patience to completely explore but never feels like a chore. While some major releases of the year felt like feasting on scraps, this record offers a lavish banquet at which the guests around the table, perhaps intoxicated on sacred drink, flit between conversations about historical figures, the profound sensation of heartbreaking sadness, and shared gossip about hopeless partners. In essence, it's a contemporary theatrical production from music's most restlessly creative visionary.
