Initially, Lux may look more like a difficult academic examination than a new pop record by a musician who just had a last single featured an international K-pop star. Split into four separate sections and sung in 13 tongues, it is a breathtaking orchestral-influenced opus that delves into feminine mystique, spiritual transcendence, and bodily change, often via the perspective of various female saints. The dissolution of a love affair—a topic handled with grounded honesty elsewhere—is shot upwards here, buoyed by the lush presence of a full orchestra and work from a Pulitzer-winning songwriter among a long roll call of contributors. Its sheer ambition alone makes the efforts of other pop stars look quite laughable.
Rising Above Academic Exercise
The fact that this album manages to avoid overly intellectual posturing is almost miraculous, and full credit going to Rosalía. Although this is not her first project to alchemize historical sounds with modern styles, its ambitions are much higher on Lux, and the tightrope walk more dramatic. What really elevates her fourth album, beyond its multilayered tunes, rich arrangements, and inherent drama, is a core spirit of joy. Similar to the iconic Björk at her height, you find a captivating sense to Rosalía's singing which sweeps the listener up in its tornado. Even when she's breaking hearts apart, you still want to be right there through the journey.
A Signature Moment of Joy
That exuberant energy shines clearly during a stunning Italian song about a saint. It bathes in a sorrowful melancholy over more than four moments. Then, everything falls away, to reveal there's a spontaneous giggle and a declaration before a comically over-the-top orchestral surge thuds in like comedic force. The song immediately segues to the frenetic single driven by racing orchestration, a powerful choir, and a surprise appearance from the artist Björk.
"The charm of this album is that you never exactly know—nor want to know—where it will go to next."
Nearly every song finishes in a completely distinct point from where it started. A track explores the transient trappings of celebrity over a featherlight orchestration only to disintegrating in digital cacophony. Elsewhere, a cut echoing her earlier rhythmic style starts out moody and sinister, with menacing vocals, until sudden flamenco rhythms and a heavenly choir arrive to smooth the song's rough corners.
The Bridge Of Art & Pop
A key balancing act on Lux is navigating the gap between radical innovation and mainstream appeal. This is little surprise that the album has achieved the artist's highest-charting work to break into the Top 5 of key markets: at its core a suite of truly undeniable pop songs. One track performed primarily in English swells around a refrain that feels to gather increasingly infectious hooks while it spirals skyward. That trick gets echoed on a different expansive track that expands and contracts, intertwining multiple melodies like a complex tapestry.
- A dance-infused number seduces via its jaunty, theatrical drama and a chant-along chorus.
- In its words, it aligns the pop culture honesty of other breakup songs, eviscerating a former partner labeled an "psychological bully".
- Across the album, the vocals carry a painted-on smile, like a storybook figure concealing a blade: "Top prize in being a motherfucker / You have the podium of disappointment."
An Opulent Banquet for the Soul
Lux is popular music on a maximalist level, a hungry grasp for high artistry amid of impending AI-generated blankness. It rejects solipsism in favor of sublime transcendence, crafting a dramatic drama that masterfully manages its own inherent ridiculousness. It is an abundant source of buried gems that takes patience to fully mine but never seem like a chore. While some major pop albums of the year seemed like feasting on meal, this record is a sumptuous banquet at which the guests at it, some intoxicated on sacred wine, flutter between conversations about historical saints, the profound sensation of soul-shattering grief, and shared gossip about useless partners. In essence, it's a contemporary theatrical production from music's truly endlessly inventive visionary.
