Initially, Lux may look more like a challenging academic challenge rather than the latest popular music album from an artist whose last single featured a global K-pop star. Broken across four different sections and performed in 13 languages, it is a breathtaking orchestral-influenced album that delves into female mystique, spiritual ascent, and bodily change, frequently via the prism of various female saints. The end of a romance—a topic treated with raw openness elsewhere—soars heavenward on this record, buoyed by the constant presence of a major symphony orchestra and work from an award-winning songwriter among a vast list of collaborators. The pure ambition alone renders the work of contemporary pop stars seem quite modest.
Rising Above Academic Exercise
That this album succeeds in escape overly intellectual chin-stroking is nothing short of a miracle, and complete praise going to the artist. While it's not her first album to blend historical sounds with modern styles, the stakes feel much higher on Lux, and the balancing act more pronounced. What really elevates her fourth album, outside of its complex melodies, dense arrangements, and engrained theatricality, is a core sense of joy. Much like the legendary Björk at her peak, you find a wondrous quality to Rosalía's voice which sweeps you into its whirlwind. When she is tearing your heart in two, you still desire to be right there through the ride.
A Signature Moment of Joy
That playful spirit shines brightly on the stunning Italian song about a saint. It bathes in a sorrowful melancholy over more than four minutes. Suddenly, all the music falls silent, to reveal we hear a spontaneous giggle and a declaration before a hilariously exaggerated orchestral crescendo crashes in like comedic force. The track then shifts into the frenetic single driven by racing strings, a powerful choir, and a cameo appearance from none other than herself.
"The charm with this album is that you rarely exactly understand—or even want to know—what it is going to next."
Almost each track finishes in a totally different point than how it started. A track examines the transient trappings of celebrity with a delicate orchestration before collapsing in digital chaos. Another, a song that recalls her earlier trap-infused work begins out dark and brooding, with menacing beats, before sudden flamenco rhythms and an angelic chorus enter to smooth its rough edges.
The Balance Of Experiment & Pop
Another crucial achievement of the album is straddling the line of bold innovation and mainstream accessibility. This is no surprise that the album has become her highest-charting release to crack the Top 5 of key markets: at its core a suite of utterly catchy pop songs. A song performed primarily in English builds around a refrain that seems to collect increasingly nagging hooks while it spins skyward. This trick is echoed by a different expansive ballad that grows and contracts, weaving multiple tunes as a complex tapestry.
- A waltz-like song seduces with its playful, Disney-adjacent flair and a chant-along hook.
- In its words, it aligns with pop culture impact of contemporary heartbreak songs, eviscerating an ex- lover labeled an "psychological terrorist".
- Throughout the album, the vocals have a painted-on smile, like a fairy-tale character hiding a blade: "Gold medal in acting like a motherfucker / You've the podium of letdown."
A Maximalist Banquet for the Soul
Lux is pop on a grand level, an ambitious reach for high Art in an era of impending artificial blankness. It eschews solipsism for glorious elevation, crafting an over-the-top spectacle that masterfully controls its inherent ridiculousness. It is an abundant source of buried gems that requires time to fully mine but doesn't feels like hard work. Where other big pop albums of the year felt like a meager scraps, this record offers a sumptuous banquet at which the characters around the table, perhaps tipsy on sacred wine, flit between discussions about ancient saints, the galvanizing sensation of heartbreaking grief, and common stories about hopeless men. It is a modern-day theatrical production from music's truly endlessly inventive visionary.
