At first glance, Lux may look closer to a difficult scholarly quiz than the latest popular music project by an artist whose previous single was a collaboration with an international pop icon. Split into 4 separate parts and sung in 13 languages, it is a dizzying orchestral-influenced work that delves into feminine mystique, religious transcendence, and corporal change, frequently via the perspective of different saintly figures. The dissolution of a romance—a theme treated with raw openness elsewhere—soars heavenward here, carried by the lush sound of a major orchestra and input from a Pulitzer-winning composer among a long roll call of collaborators. The pure ambition alone renders the efforts of contemporary artists seem quite small.
Transcending Scholarly Pretense
That this album manages to escape dry intellectual chin-stroking is almost a miracle, and complete credit going to Rosalía. Although this is not her first project to fuse historical sounds with the present, its scale feel far greater on Lux, and the tightrope walk more dramatic. What really raises this fourth album, beyond its complex melodies, dense arrangements, and engrained theatricality, is an essential spirit of fun. Much like the iconic Björk during her height, you find a captivating quality to the vocalist's singing that pulls you into its whirlwind. Even when she is tearing your heart apart, the listener still want to stay right there for the journey.
A Prime Example of Joy
That exuberant energy comes forth clearly on the stirring piano-led song inspired by a saint. It bathes in a string-drenched melancholy for more than four moments. Then, everything drops silent, to reveal there's a spontaneous laugh followed by a declaration before a comically exaggerated string crescendo crashes in with cartoonish force. The song then shifts into the frenetic single driven by racing orchestration, an imposing choir, and a surprise appearance from the artist herself.
"The charm with Lux is that you never quite know—nor want to know—where it is going next."
Nearly each track ends at a completely distinct point from where it began. A track explores the transient trappings of celebrity with a featherlight symphony before disintegrating into digital chaos. Another, a cut echoing her earlier rhythmic work begins out moody and sinister, featuring prowling beats, before sudden flamenco handclaps and a heavenly choir arrive to soften the song's rough corners.
The Bridge Between Experiment & Accessibility
A key balancing act on the album involves straddling the line between radical experimentation and mainstream appeal. It is no coincidence that it has achieved her highest-charting work to crack the Top 5 of major markets: at its core a collection of utterly undeniable hits. One track performed entirely in the English language swells around a refrain that seems to gather increasingly infectious melodies while it spirals upward. That trick gets echoed by another expansive track that grows and constricts, intertwining layered tunes as an intricate weave.
- A dance-infused number seduces with its playful, Disney-adjacent drama and a chant-along chorus.
- In its words, it aligns the pop culture impact of other breakup songs, lambasting an ex- partner labeled an "psychological terrorist".
- Across the album, the vocals carry a sharp edge, akin to a storybook figure hiding a blade: "Top prize in acting like a motherfucker / You have won the trophy of disappointment."
A Maximalist Banquet for the Ears
This album represents popular music on a grand level, a hungry reach for high Art in an era of impending AI-generated blankness. It rejects solipsism for sublime transcendence, creating a dramatic drama that skillfully controls its own built-in ridiculousness. It is a deep well of buried treasure that takes time to completely mine but doesn't seem like hard work. While other major pop albums of the year seemed like feasting on scraps, this record is a sumptuous banquet at which the characters at it, some intoxicated on sacred drink, flit between discussions about ancient saints, the profound feeling of heartbreaking grief, and shared stories about hopeless men. It is a modern-day musical from pop's most restlessly inventive practitioner.
