On the surface, Lux might appear closer to a challenging scholarly examination than the latest pop project from an artist who just had a last hit featured a global K-pop star. Broken across four distinct parts and performed in 13 languages, this is a breathtaking classical-tinged album exploring feminine mystique, religious transcendence, and physical change, frequently through the perspective of different women saints. The dissolution of a love affair—a theme treated with grounded honesty elsewhere—is shot skyward on this record, buoyed by the constant presence of a major symphony orchestra and input from an award-winning songwriter among a vast roll call of collaborators. Its sheer ambition alone renders the efforts of other artists look rather modest.
Rising Above Academic Exercise
The fact that Lux manages to avoid dry intellectual posturing feels almost miraculous, and sole credit going to the artist. While it's not her first album to alchemize the past and the present, the stakes are much higher on Lux, and the tightrope walk more pronounced. The element that truly elevates this fourth release, outside of its complex melodies, rich compositions, and engrained drama, is an essential spirit of playfulness. Similar to the legendary artist at her peak, you find a captivating sense to Rosalía's singing that pulls the listener into its whirlwind. When she is tearing your heart in two, you still desire to stay alongside her for the ride.
A Signature Moment of Exuberance
This playful spirit comes forth clearly during a stirring Italian ballad inspired by a saint. It bathes in a string-drenched whirlpool over several moments. Then, all the music drops silent, and there's a gleeful laugh and a declaration prior to a hilariously over-the-top string surge thuds in with cartoonish impact. The track immediately shifts into the frenetic track driven by galloping orchestration, an imposing choir, and a cameo role from none other than Björk.
"The magic of this album is that you rarely quite know—nor wish to know—what you will go next."
Almost each track finishes at a completely different point than how it started. One moment examines the fleeting trappings of fame with a delicate orchestration before collapsing into digital cacophony. Elsewhere, a song echoing the artist's earlier trap-infused work begins out dark and sinister, with menacing beats, before fluttering flamenco rhythms and a heavenly chorus arrive to soften the song's rough corners.
The Balance Of Art & Accessibility
A key balancing act of Lux is navigating the line of bold innovation and broad appeal. It is little coincidence that the album has achieved her first release to break into the Top 5 of major markets: at its core a suite of truly undeniable pop songs. A song sung entirely in the English language swells around a refrain that seems to gather more and more infectious melodies as it spins upward. That trick is echoed on another powerful ballad that expands and constricts, weaving layered tunes as an intricate tapestry.
- A dance-infused number seduces with its jaunty, Disney-adjacent flair and an anthemic chorus.
- In its words, it aligns with pop culture honesty of contemporary heartbreak anthems, eviscerating a former lover labeled an "psychological terrorist".
- Throughout these tracks, the singing have a sharp edge, like a fairy-tale figure hiding a knife: "Gold medal in being a scoundrel / You've won the trophy of letdown."
A Maximalist Feast for the Soul
This album represents popular music on a maximalist level, a hungry grasp for capital-A artistry in an era of impending AI-generated blankness. It rejects self-absorption for glorious transcendence, crafting a dramatic drama that masterfully controls its own built-in ridiculousness. It is an abundant well of hidden gems that requires patience to fully explore but doesn't seem like hard work. While some big pop albums of the year felt like feasting on scraps, this record offers a lavish banquet where the characters around it, perhaps tipsy on sacred drink, flutter between conversations about ancient saints, the galvanizing feeling of soul-shattering grief, and common stories about useless men. It is a modern-day theatrical production from pop's most endlessly creative visionary.
