On the surface, this album could seem more like an arduous scholarly quiz rather than a new popular music project by an artist whose last single was a collaboration with a global pop star. Broken across 4 different movements and performed in 13 languages, it is a head-spinning classical-tinged opus exploring feminine mystique, religious ascent, and bodily change, often via the prism of different female saints. The end of a relationship—a theme treated with grounded honesty elsewhere—is launched heavenward on this record, supported by the lush presence of a full symphony orchestra and work from an award-winning composer among a vast roll call of collaborators. Its sheer ambition alone makes the work of contemporary pop stars look quite small.
Rising Above Scholarly Exercise
That Lux manages to avoid overly academic posturing feels almost miraculous, and sole credit going to Rosalía. While it's not her first album to blend the past with the present, the stakes are much higher on Lux, and the balancing act more precarious. The element that really raises this fourth album, outside of its complex tunes, rich arrangements, and engrained drama, proves to be an essential spirit of joy. Much like the iconic artist at her height, you find a captivating sense to the vocalist's singing which sweeps you into its tornado. Even when she is breaking hearts in two, you still want to stay alongside her through the ride.
A Signature Moment of Joy
That exuberant energy comes forth clearly during the stirring Italian song about Saint Clare. It bathes in a string-drenched whirlpool for more than four minutes. Then, everything drops silent, to reveal we hear a gleeful laugh followed by a comment before a comically over-the-top orchestral crescendo thuds in like cartoonish force. The track then segues into the wild track driven by racing orchestration, a powerful choral group, and a cameo role from the artist herself.
"The magic with this album is that the listener never quite know—nor want to predict—what you is going next."
Nearly every song finishes in a completely different point from how it began. One moment explores the transient nature of celebrity over a delicate orchestration before disintegrating in digital chaos. Another, a cut that recalls her previous rhythmic style starts off dark and sinister, featuring menacing vocals, until fluttering traditional handclaps and a heavenly choir enter to smooth the song's rough corners.
The Bridge Between Experiment & Accessibility
Another crucial achievement on Lux is straddling the gap between bold innovation and broad accessibility. This is no coincidence that the album has become the artist's highest-charting release to crack the Top 5 of key charts: at its core a collection of utterly catchy pop songs. One track sung primarily in English swells around a refrain that seems to collect more and more nagging hooks while it spins upward. That trick gets echoed on a different powerful ballad that grows and constricts, weaving multiple tunes as a complex tapestry.
- A waltz-like song seduces with its playful, Disney-adjacent drama and a chant-along chorus.
- Lyrically, it aligns with cultural impact of contemporary heartbreak songs, lambasting a former lover described as an "emotional terrorist".
- Throughout these tracks, the vocals have a painted-on edge, akin to a storybook figure concealing a blade: "Top prize in being a scoundrel / You've the podium of disappointment."
A Maximalist Banquet for the Soul
This album is popular music on a grand scale, an ambitious grasp for high Art amid of looming artificial sameness. It rejects self-absorption in favor of glorious transcendence, crafting an over-the-top spectacle that masterfully controls its own built-in ridiculousness. This is a deep source of hidden treasure that requires patience to completely mine but never feels like hard work. While some big pop albums of the year seemed like feasting on scraps, Lux is a lavish banquet at which the characters around the table, some tipsy on sacred wine, flit between conversations about ancient saints, the profound sensation of soul-shattering sadness, and shared gossip about hopeless men. It is a modern-day musical from music's most endlessly creative practitioner.
