At first glance, this work may look more like a challenging university challenge than a new pop record from an artist whose last single featured an international K-pop icon. Split into four distinct movements and sung in 13 tongues, it is a breathtaking classical-tinged opus that delves into feminine mystery, religious transcendence, and corporal transformation, often via the perspective of different women saints. The end of a love affair—a theme treated with raw openness on another major 2025 album—is launched upwards here, carried by the constant presence of a major symphony orchestra and input from an award-winning songwriter within a vast roll call of collaborators. Its sheer daring alone makes the efforts of contemporary pop stars seem quite small.
Rising Above Academic Exercise
That this album succeeds in escape dry intellectual posturing is almost a miracle, with sole credit belonging to the artist. While it's not her first project to alchemize historical sounds with the present, its ambitions are far greater here, and the balancing act more pronounced. The element that really elevates this fourth release, beyond its multilayered tunes, rich arrangements, and engrained drama, proves to be a core sense of fun. Similar to the iconic Björk at her peak, there is a captivating sense to Rosalía's singing that pulls the listener up in its whirlwind. Even when she's tearing hearts apart, the listener nevertheless want to stay right there for the ride.
A Prime Moment of Joy
This playful spirit shines clearly during the stirring piano-led ballad inspired by a saint. It luxuriates in a sorrowful whirlpool for more than four moments. Then, all the music drops silent, and there's a gleeful giggle followed by a comment before a hilariously exaggerated string surge crashes in with comedic force. The song immediately shifts to the wild single driven by galloping orchestration, a powerful choral group, and a surprise appearance from the artist herself.
"The charm of Lux is that the listener rarely exactly know—nor wish to know—where it is going next."
Almost every track finishes in a completely different point than how it began. A track explores the fleeting nature of fame with a delicate symphony before disintegrating into electronic cacophony. Elsewhere, a cut that recalls the artist's earlier trap-infused work begins off moody and sinister, featuring prowling vocals, before sudden traditional handclaps and a heavenly chorus enter to soften the song's rough corners.
The Balance Of Experiment & Accessibility
A key achievement on the album is straddling the gap between radical innovation and mainstream accessibility. This is little surprise that it has become the artist's first work to break into the Top 5 of key charts: its heart contains a collection of truly catchy pop songs. One track performed entirely in the English language builds around a chorus that feels to collect increasingly nagging hooks as it spins skyward. This trick is echoed by another powerful ballad that expands and contracts, intertwining multiple melodies like a complex tapestry.
- A dance-infused song charms via its jaunty, Disney-adjacent drama and an anthemic chorus.
- In its words, it shares the cultural honesty of other heartbreak songs, lambasting a former lover labeled an "emotional terrorist".
- Across these tracks, the vocals have a sharp edge, akin to a fairy-tale character hiding a knife: "Top prize in being a scoundrel / You have the podium of disappointment."
An Opulent Feast for the Soul
This album represents popular music on a maximalist scale, an ambitious grasp for high Art amid of impending artificial blankness. It eschews solipsism in favor of glorious elevation, crafting a dramatic spectacle that skillfully manages its own built-in ridiculousness. It is a deep source of hidden treasure that takes patience to fully mine but never feels like a chore. Where other big pop albums of the year felt like a meager meal, this record offers a lavish banquet at which the characters at the table, perhaps intoxicated on holy wine, flit from conversations about historical saints, the profound sensation of heartbreaking sadness, and common gossip about hopeless men. In essence, it's a modern-day musical from music's truly endlessly inventive visionary.
