At first glance, Lux may look closer to an arduous university challenge rather than the latest pop album by an artist who just had a last hit was a collaboration with a global pop star. Split into four distinct movements and sung in thirteen tongues, this is a breathtaking symphonic work that delves into feminine mystery, spiritual ascent, and physical change, frequently through the lens of various women saints. The dissolution of a romance—a topic handled with grounded honesty elsewhere—soars upwards on this record, supported by the constant sound of a full symphony orchestra and work from a Pulitzer-winning composer among an extensive roll call of collaborators. The pure audacity alone renders the efforts of contemporary artists look quite modest.
Transcending Scholarly Exercise
The fact that this album manages to escape dry academic chin-stroking is nearly a miracle, and full credit going to the artist. Although this is not her first project to alchemize historical sounds and the present, its scale feel much higher here, and the balancing act far more dramatic. The element that truly elevates her fourth album, outside of its multilayered tunes, rich arrangements, and engrained theatricality, is an essential sense of playfulness. Much like the legendary artist during her height, you find a captivating sense to Rosalía's singing that pulls you into its tornado. When she is tearing your heart apart, the listener still want to stay alongside her for the ride.
A Signature Moment of Joy
That playful spirit shines clearly during a stirring piano-led song about Saint Clare. It bathes in a string-drenched melancholy for more than four minutes. Then, all the music falls away, to reveal we hear a spontaneous laugh followed by a declaration before a hilariously over-the-top orchestral crescendo crashes in like comedic impact. The song immediately segues into the frenetic single featuring galloping orchestration, a powerful choir, and a surprise role from none other than herself.
"The charm of Lux lies in you never exactly understand—or even want to know—where it is going next."
Almost every track finishes in a totally distinct point from how it started. A track examines the transient trappings of fame with a featherlight symphony only to disintegrating into digital chaos. Another, a song that recalls the artist's earlier trap-infused work starts out moody and brooding, featuring prowling vocals, before sudden flamenco rhythms and an angelic chorus enter to soften the song's rough corners.
The Bridge Between Art and Pop
A key balancing act of Lux involves navigating the line between radical innovation and broad appeal. It is little surprise that the album has become the artist's highest-charting release to break into the Top 5 of key charts: its heart contains a suite of utterly undeniable pop songs. One track sung entirely in English swells on a refrain that feels to gather increasingly infectious melodies while it spins upward. This feat is repeated on a different expansive ballad that expands and contracts, intertwining layered melodies as a complex tapestry.
- A dance-infused number charms with its jaunty, theatrical flair and an anthemic chorus.
- Lyrically, it aligns the pop culture honesty of contemporary heartbreak songs, eviscerating a former lover labeled an "emotional bully".
- Throughout these tracks, the singing carry a sharp smile, like a fairy-tale character concealing a blade: "Top prize in being a motherfucker / You've the podium of letdown."
A Maximalist Banquet for the Ears
This album is popular music on a maximalist level, an ambitious grasp for capital-A Art in an era of looming AI-generated sameness. It rejects solipsism for glorious elevation, creating a dramatic drama that masterfully controls its own built-in ridiculousness. It is an abundant well of hidden treasure that requires patience to fully mine but never feels like hard work. Where other major releases of the year felt like a meager scraps, Lux is a sumptuous banquet at which the guests around the table, perhaps intoxicated on sacred drink, flutter between discussions about historical saints, the galvanizing feeling of heartbreaking grief, and common stories about hopeless men. In essence, it's a contemporary musical from music's most restlessly inventive practitioner.
