Initially, this album may look closer to an arduous university quiz than a new popular music record from an artist who just had a last hit was a collaboration with an international K-pop star. Split across 4 separate movements and performed in 13 tongues, this is a dizzying classical-tinged album exploring feminine mystery, spiritual ascent, and bodily change, frequently via the perspective of different saintly figures. The end of a romance—a theme treated with raw honesty elsewhere—is launched upwards on this record, supported by the constant sound of a full orchestra and work from an award-winning songwriter among an extensive list of collaborators. Its sheer audacity by itself makes the efforts of other artists seem rather small.
Transcending Scholarly Pretense
That this album succeeds in transcend dry intellectual chin-stroking is almost miraculous, and complete praise belonging to Rosalía. Although this is not the first time project to fuse the past with the present, the stakes are much higher on Lux, with the tightrope walk far more dramatic. The element that truly raises this fourth album, beyond its multilayered melodies, dense arrangements, and engrained drama, proves to be a core sense of joy. Similar to the legendary Björk during her height, there is a wondrous sense to the vocalist's singing which sweeps you into its whirlwind. Even when she's tearing your heart apart, you still want to be alongside her for the ride.
A Signature Example of Joy
That exuberant energy comes forth clearly on the stirring piano-led song inspired by a saint. It luxuriates in a string-drenched whirlpool over more than four moments. Suddenly, everything drops away, to reveal we hear a spontaneous giggle and a comment prior to a comically over-the-top string surge crashes in with cartoonish impact. The track immediately shifts to the wild track driven by galloping orchestration, an imposing choral group, and a surprise appearance from none other than Björk.
"The magic with Lux lies in the listener never exactly understand—nor wish to predict—where it will go to next."
Nearly each track ends at a totally distinct place from how it began. A track explores the fleeting nature of celebrity over a delicate orchestration only to disintegrating into electronic cacophony. Another, a song echoing the artist's previous trap-infused style begins off moody and sinister, with prowling vocals, until sudden flamenco handclaps and a heavenly choir enter to soften the song's jagged edges.
The Balance Between Art and Accessibility
A key balancing act on the album is straddling the line of radical experimentation and mainstream accessibility. It is little coincidence that it has become the artist's first release to break into the Top 5 of major charts: its heart contains a suite of truly catchy hits. A song sung entirely in the English language builds on a chorus that seems to collect more and more infectious melodies while it spirals skyward. That trick gets echoed on another powerful track that expands and constricts, weaving layered melodies like an intricate tapestry.
- A dance-infused song seduces via its jaunty, Disney-adjacent drama and an anthemic chorus.
- Lyrically, it aligns the pop culture honesty of other breakup anthems, lambasting a former partner labeled an "emotional terrorist".
- Throughout these tracks, the singing carry a sharp edge, akin to a storybook character hiding a blade: "Top prize in acting like a motherfucker / You've the podium of disappointment."
A Maximalist Banquet for the Ears
Lux is popular music on a grand level, a hungry reach for capital-A artistry in an era of impending AI-generated blankness. It rejects self-absorption in favor of glorious transcendence, creating a dramatic spectacle that skillfully controls its inherent ridiculousness. This is an abundant source of hidden treasure that takes time to fully explore but doesn't seem like a chore. Where some major pop albums of 2025 felt like a meager scraps, this record is a lavish banquet where the characters at it, some tipsy on sacred drink, flutter from conversations about historical saints, the profound feeling of heartbreaking sadness, and shared stories about useless partners. In essence, it's a modern-day theatrical production from pop's most restlessly creative visionary.
