At first glance, this work could seem closer to a challenging scholarly challenge than a new pop project from an artist who just had a previous hit featured a global pop icon. Split into four different parts and sung in thirteen languages, we have a head-spinning orchestral-influenced opus that delves into feminine mystique, religious transcendence, and physical change, often through the prism of different saintly figures. The end of a relationship—a topic treated with raw honesty on another major 2025 album—soars heavenward here, carried by the lush sound of a major symphony orchestra and contributions from a Pulitzer-winning composer among a vast roll call of collaborators. The pure daring alone renders the work of contemporary artists appear rather small.
Rising Above Academic Exercise
The fact that this album manages to transcend overly intellectual chin-stroking is nothing short of a miracle, and complete praise going to Rosalía. While it's not her first album to alchemize the past and modern styles, the scale are far higher here, with the balancing act more precarious. What really raises this fourth album, outside of its multilayered melodies, dense arrangements, and engrained drama, proves to be a core sense of playfulness. Similar to the legendary Björk at her peak, you find a wondrous quality to Rosalía's singing which sweeps you into its tornado. Even when she's tearing hearts apart, the listener nevertheless desire to be alongside her through the journey.
A Prime Moment of Exuberance
That playful energy comes forth brightly during the stunning Italian ballad inspired by Saint Clare. It luxuriates in a string-drenched whirlpool over more than four minutes. Suddenly, all the music drops away, and we hear a gleeful laugh followed by a comment prior to a comically over-the-top orchestral crescendo crashes in like cartoonish force. The track then segues into the frenetic track featuring racing strings, a powerful choir, and a cameo appearance from the artist Björk.
"The magic of this album lies in you never quite know—or even wish to know—where you will go to next."
Nearly each song finishes in a totally different point from where it started. A track examines the fleeting nature of celebrity over a featherlight symphony before collapsing in digital cacophony. Elsewhere, a song echoing the artist's earlier rhythmic work begins off moody and brooding, with menacing beats, before sudden flamenco rhythms and an angelic chorus enter to soften the song's rough corners.
The Balance Of Art & Pop
A key achievement on Lux involves straddling the line of radical innovation and mainstream accessibility. It is no surprise that it has become the artist's first work to crack the upper reaches of major charts: at its core a collection of utterly catchy hits. A song sung entirely in the English language builds around a chorus that seems to gather more and more nagging hooks as it spins skyward. That trick gets repeated on a different powerful ballad that expands and constricts, intertwining layered melodies as a complex weave.
- A waltz-like song charms with its jaunty, Disney-adjacent drama and an anthemic chorus.
- Lyrically, it aligns the cultural honesty of other heartbreak anthems, eviscerating an ex- partner labeled an "psychological bully".
- Across these tracks, the vocals carry a sharp smile, like a fairy-tale character concealing a knife: "Gold medal in being a motherfucker / You've the podium of letdown."
An Opulent Feast for the Ears
Lux is popular music on a maximalist scale, a hungry grasp for capital-A artistry in an era of looming artificial blankness. It eschews self-absorption in favor of sublime elevation, crafting an over-the-top drama that skillfully manages its own built-in ridiculousness. It is an abundant well of hidden treasure that requires time to fully mine but never seem like a chore. While some big pop albums of the year seemed like a meager meal, Lux is a sumptuous banquet where the characters around it, perhaps intoxicated on holy wine, flutter between discussions about historical saints, the profound sensation of heartbreaking sadness, and shared stories about hopeless partners. In essence, it's a contemporary musical from pop's truly restlessly inventive practitioner.
