On the surface, this album may look more like an arduous university examination rather than the latest pop project by a musician who just had a previous single featured a global pop star. Split across four different movements and voiced in 13 tongues, it is a head-spinning orchestral-influenced opus exploring female mystery, religious ascent, and corporal change, often through the perspective of different saintly figures. The end of a love affair—a theme treated with raw openness elsewhere—is shot upwards here, buoyed by the lush presence of a major orchestra and contributions from an award-winning composer among a vast roll call of collaborators. Its sheer audacity alone makes the efforts of other pop stars look quite small.
Transcending Scholarly Pretense
That this album manages to avoid dry intellectual posturing is nothing short of a miracle, and sole credit belonging to Rosalía. Although it's not her first album to alchemize historical sounds with modern styles, its ambitions are much greater here, and the tightrope walk more pronounced. What really elevates this fourth release, outside of its complex melodies, rich compositions, and engrained theatricality, is an essential sense of playfulness. Much like the legendary artist during her height, there is a wondrous sense to Rosalía's voice which sweeps you up in its tornado. When she is tearing hearts in two, the listener nevertheless want to be alongside her through the ride.
A Prime Moment of Exuberance
That playful spirit comes forth brightly on the stunning piano-led song inspired by Saint Clare. It luxuriates in a string-drenched whirlpool over several minutes. Suddenly, everything drops silent, and there's a gleeful laugh followed by a declaration before a comically exaggerated orchestral crescendo thuds down with cartoonish force. The track immediately shifts into the wild track driven by racing strings, a powerful choir, and a surprise role from the artist Björk.
"The magic with Lux is that the listener rarely exactly know—or even want to predict—where you will go to next."
Nearly every song ends in a totally distinct place from how it began. A track explores the transient trappings of celebrity over a featherlight orchestration only to disintegrating into digital cacophony. Another, a song echoing the artist's previous trap-infused work begins off dark and sinister, featuring prowling beats, until sudden traditional rhythms and an angelic chorus arrive to soften its jagged edges.
The Balance Between Experiment and Pop
A key achievement of the album is straddling the line between bold experimentation and broad accessibility. This is no surprise that the album has achieved her highest-charting release to break into the upper reaches of key markets: at its core a collection of truly undeniable hits. A song performed entirely in English builds around a chorus that seems to collect more and more nagging melodies while it spirals upward. This feat gets repeated on a different expansive ballad that expands and constricts, weaving multiple tunes as an intricate tapestry.
- A dance-infused song seduces with its playful, Disney-adjacent flair and an anthemic hook.
- Lyrically, it aligns the cultural honesty of contemporary breakup anthems, eviscerating a former partner described as an "psychological terrorist".
- Across these tracks, the singing carry a painted-on edge, like a fairy-tale character concealing a knife: "Top prize in being a scoundrel / You have the podium of disappointment."
An Opulent Banquet for the Ears
Lux is pop on a grand scale, an ambitious reach for high Art amid of looming AI-generated blankness. It eschews self-absorption in favor of sublime transcendence, crafting an over-the-top spectacle that masterfully manages its own built-in excess. This is a deep well of buried treasure that requires patience to completely explore but never seem like a chore. While other big pop albums of the year felt like feasting on meal, this record offers a sumptuous banquet at which the guests around it, some intoxicated on holy wine, flutter between discussions about ancient figures, the profound sensation of heartbreaking grief, and shared stories about useless partners. It is a contemporary theatrical production from pop's most endlessly inventive practitioner.
