Initially, this album could seem more like an arduous scholarly examination than a new popular music project by an artist whose previous single was a collaboration with a global pop star. Split across 4 distinct parts and voiced in thirteen tongues, we have a breathtaking orchestral-influenced opus exploring feminine mystery, religious transcendence, and bodily transformation, frequently via the lens of various saintly figures. The end of a relationship—a topic handled with raw openness elsewhere—soars skyward on this record, buoyed by the lush sound of a major symphony orchestra and input from a Pulitzer-winning composer among a vast roll call of contributors. Its sheer ambition alone makes the work of other artists seem quite laughable.
Rising Above Scholarly Pretense
That Lux manages to escape dry intellectual posturing is nothing short of miraculous, and full praise going to Rosalía. While it's not the first time album to alchemize historical sounds and the present, the stakes feel much higher on Lux, and the balancing act far more pronounced. What really elevates her fourth album, beyond its multilayered melodies, rich compositions, and inherent drama, is an essential sense of fun. Much like the legendary Björk at her peak, there is a wondrous sense to the vocalist's voice that pulls you up in its tornado. Even when she's breaking your heart apart, the listener still desire to stay alongside her for the ride.
A Prime Moment of Exuberance
This playful energy comes forth clearly during a stunning piano-led ballad inspired by a saint. It bathes in a sorrowful melancholy over more than four moments. Then, everything falls away, and there's a gleeful laugh followed by a comment prior to a comically exaggerated orchestral surge crashes down with cartoonish impact. The song then segues into the wild track driven by galloping orchestration, an imposing choir, and a surprise role from the artist herself.
"The charm of Lux is that you never exactly understand—or even want to know—what you is going next."
Nearly every track ends in a completely different point than where it began. One moment explores the transient trappings of celebrity with a featherlight orchestration before disintegrating into electronic cacophony. Elsewhere, a song that recalls her earlier trap-infused work begins off moody and brooding, with menacing vocals, before sudden flamenco rhythms and a heavenly choir enter to soften the song's jagged edges.
The Bridge Between Experiment & Pop
Another crucial achievement on the album is navigating the gap of radical experimentation and broad accessibility. This is no coincidence that the album has achieved the artist's first release to break into the upper reaches of key charts: its heart contains a suite of utterly undeniable pop songs. A song sung entirely in English builds around a chorus that feels to gather more and more nagging hooks while it spins skyward. This feat is echoed by a different powerful ballad that expands and contracts, intertwining multiple melodies like a complex weave.
- A dance-infused number seduces with its jaunty, Disney-adjacent flair and a chant-along chorus.
- In its words, it aligns the pop culture honesty of other breakup anthems, lambasting a former partner described as an "emotional terrorist".
- Throughout the album, the vocals have a painted-on edge, like a storybook character concealing a blade: "Gold medal in being a scoundrel / You've won the trophy of disappointment."
An Opulent Feast for the Soul
This album represents pop on a grand level, an ambitious reach for high Art in an era of looming AI-generated blankness. It eschews self-absorption in favor of sublime transcendence, creating a dramatic spectacle that masterfully manages its built-in ridiculousness. This is an abundant source of hidden gems that requires time to completely explore but never seem like hard work. Where some big releases of the year seemed like a meager scraps, this record offers a sumptuous banquet at which the characters around the table, some tipsy on sacred drink, flit from discussions about ancient figures, the profound feeling of soul-shattering sadness, and shared gossip about hopeless men. In essence, it's a contemporary theatrical production from pop's truly restlessly creative practitioner.
