At first glance, Lux may look more like a challenging scholarly quiz than a new popular music record from a musician whose last hit was a collaboration with an international pop star. Split across 4 separate parts and performed in 13 languages, we have a breathtaking symphonic opus investigating female mystery, religious transcendence, and bodily transformation, often by way of the lens of various women saints. The end of a love affair—a topic handled with raw honesty on another major 2025 album—soars heavenward on this record, carried by the lush presence of a major symphony orchestra and input from an award-winning songwriter within a vast list of contributors. The pure audacity by itself renders the efforts of other artists look rather modest.
Rising Above Academic Exercise
The fact that this album manages to escape overly academic chin-stroking feels nearly miraculous, and full credit going to Rosalía. Although it's not her first album to alchemize the past and the present, its stakes feel far greater here, with the balancing act more precarious. What really raises this fourth release, beyond its complex melodies, dense compositions, and inherent theatricality, is a core sense of playfulness. Similar to the legendary artist at her height, you find a captivating quality to the vocalist's voice that pulls you into its whirlwind. Even when she's breaking hearts apart, the listener still want to stay alongside her through the journey.
A Prime Example of Joy
This playful energy comes forth brightly during the stunning piano-led ballad about a saint. It bathes in a sorrowful whirlpool for more than four moments. Then, everything falls away, and we hear a spontaneous giggle followed by a comment before a hilariously exaggerated orchestral surge thuds down with cartoonish force. The song then segues to the frenetic track driven by galloping orchestration, a powerful choir, and a surprise appearance from the artist Björk.
"The magic with Lux lies in you never quite understand—nor wish to know—what it will go next."
Nearly each song finishes in a totally distinct place than where it started. A track explores the fleeting nature of fame over a featherlight symphony before disintegrating in electronic chaos. Another, a song echoing the artist's earlier trap-infused work starts out moody and sinister, with menacing beats, before sudden flamenco rhythms and an angelic choir enter to soften its jagged corners.
The Bridge Of Experiment and Pop
A key achievement on the album involves straddling the gap of radical innovation and broad appeal. It is little surprise that the album has achieved her first release to crack the upper reaches of major markets: its heart contains a suite of utterly catchy hits. A song sung primarily in the English language builds around a refrain that feels to collect increasingly nagging melodies while it spins upward. This trick gets repeated on another expansive track that grows and contracts, weaving multiple melodies as a complex weave.
- A waltz-like number seduces with its jaunty, theatrical flair and a chant-along chorus.
- In its words, it aligns the pop culture impact of other heartbreak anthems, lambasting an ex- lover described as an "psychological bully".
- Across the album, the vocals have a painted-on edge, like a storybook character hiding a knife: "Gold medal in acting like a motherfucker / You've won the trophy of letdown."
A Maximalist Banquet for the Soul
Lux is pop on a grand scale, a hungry reach for high artistry amid of looming AI-generated sameness. It eschews self-absorption for sublime elevation, crafting a dramatic drama that masterfully manages its own built-in excess. It is a deep well of buried gems that takes time to fully explore but doesn't seem like hard work. While other major pop albums of the year felt like feasting on meal, this record is a sumptuous feast at which the characters at it, some intoxicated on sacred drink, flutter from discussions about ancient figures, the profound sensation of soul-shattering grief, and common stories about hopeless men. It is a contemporary theatrical production from pop's truly endlessly creative visionary.
