On the surface, Lux might appear more like a challenging university challenge than the latest pop project by a musician who just had a last hit featured a global K-pop icon. Split into 4 separate sections and performed in thirteen tongues, this is a head-spinning orchestral-influenced album exploring feminine mystery, religious transcendence, and physical transformation, often through the lens of different saintly figures. The dissolution of a romance—a topic handled with grounded honesty elsewhere—is launched heavenward on this record, supported by the constant presence of a major symphony orchestra and contributions from an award-winning songwriter among an extensive list of collaborators. The pure audacity by itself renders the work of contemporary artists appear quite modest.
Rising Above Scholarly Exercise
The fact that this album succeeds in avoid dry academic chin-stroking is nothing short of miraculous, with full praise going to Rosalía. While this is not the first time project to fuse historical sounds with the present, its stakes feel much higher here, and the balancing act more dramatic. What truly raises this fourth album, outside of its multilayered tunes, rich compositions, and engrained drama, proves to be a core sense of joy. Similar to the legendary artist at her height, you find a captivating sense to Rosalía's singing which sweeps the listener into its whirlwind. Even when she's breaking your heart apart, you nevertheless desire to stay alongside her for the journey.
A Prime Moment of Exuberance
This exuberant spirit shines clearly on a stirring piano-led song inspired by a saint. It luxuriates in a sorrowful melancholy for more than four moments. Suddenly, everything drops away, to reveal we hear a spontaneous laugh followed by a declaration prior to a comically exaggerated string surge thuds down like cartoonish force. The track immediately shifts to the wild single driven by racing strings, a powerful choir, and a surprise appearance from the artist Björk.
"The magic with this album is that you never quite know—nor wish to know—what it is going next."
Nearly every song finishes at a totally different place from where it began. One moment explores the fleeting nature of celebrity with a delicate symphony only to collapsing into digital chaos. Another, a cut that recalls the artist's earlier trap-infused work begins out dark and sinister, with prowling beats, until sudden traditional rhythms and a heavenly chorus enter to soften the song's jagged corners.
The Balance Between Art & Accessibility
Another crucial balancing act on the album is navigating the line of radical innovation and mainstream appeal. This is little coincidence that the album has become the artist's first work to crack the Top 5 of key markets: its heart contains a suite of utterly catchy hits. One track sung entirely in English swells on a chorus that seems to gather increasingly infectious hooks as it spins upward. This trick is echoed on another expansive ballad that grows and contracts, intertwining multiple melodies as an intricate weave.
- A waltz-like song seduces via its playful, Disney-adjacent drama and an anthemic hook.
- In its words, it aligns with cultural impact of other heartbreak songs, lambasting a former partner described as an "emotional terrorist".
- Throughout the album, the vocals carry a painted-on smile, like a storybook character hiding a blade: "Gold medal in acting like a motherfucker / You have won the trophy of disappointment."
An Opulent Banquet for the Soul
Lux represents popular music on a maximalist scale, a hungry reach for high artistry in an era of looming artificial sameness. It eschews self-absorption in favor of sublime elevation, creating a dramatic drama that skillfully manages its own inherent excess. It is an abundant well of buried treasure that takes time to fully mine but doesn't feels like hard work. Where some big pop albums of the year seemed like feasting on meal, Lux is a sumptuous banquet at which the guests at the table, some intoxicated on sacred wine, flutter from conversations about historical figures, the profound feeling of heartbreaking grief, and common gossip about hopeless men. In essence, it's a contemporary theatrical production from music's most restlessly inventive visionary.
