Initially, this work could seem more like a difficult scholarly challenge than the latest pop album from an artist whose last hit was a collaboration with an international pop star. Split into four separate movements and voiced in 13 tongues, we have a head-spinning symphonic opus that delves into female mystique, religious transcendence, and corporal transformation, often by way of the lens of various female saints. The dissolution of a love affair—a theme treated with grounded openness elsewhere—is launched skyward here, carried by the constant presence of a full orchestra and input from an award-winning songwriter among a vast list of collaborators. The pure audacity alone makes the work of contemporary pop stars seem quite modest.
Transcending Academic Pretense
That Lux succeeds in escape dry academic chin-stroking feels nothing short of a miracle, with sole credit belonging to the artist. Although it's not her first album to alchemize the past and modern styles, its ambitions feel far greater here, with the tightrope walk more precarious. What truly raises this fourth album, outside of its complex tunes, dense arrangements, and inherent theatricality, proves to be an essential sense of playfulness. Similar to the iconic Björk during her peak, there is a captivating quality to Rosalía's voice that pulls the listener into its whirlwind. When she is tearing your heart apart, you nevertheless desire to stay right there for the ride.
A Prime Example of Joy
This exuberant spirit shines brightly during the stirring piano-led ballad about Saint Clare. It bathes in a string-drenched whirlpool over more than four minutes. Suddenly, all the music falls away, to reveal there's a spontaneous laugh followed by a comment prior to a hilariously over-the-top orchestral surge thuds in like comedic impact. The song immediately segues into the frenetic track featuring racing strings, a powerful choir, and a surprise appearance from the artist herself.
"The charm with this album is that the listener never exactly understand—nor want to predict—where it will go next."
Almost every song finishes in a totally different place from how it started. A track explores the fleeting trappings of fame over a featherlight orchestration only to collapsing in digital cacophony. Another, a song that recalls the artist's earlier trap-infused style starts off moody and brooding, with menacing beats, until fluttering traditional handclaps and a heavenly choir arrive to soften the song's jagged corners.
The Balance Between Experiment and Accessibility
Another crucial balancing act on Lux is straddling the line of bold innovation and mainstream appeal. It is no surprise that it has become her highest-charting release to crack the upper reaches of major charts: at its core a suite of truly catchy pop songs. One track sung entirely in English swells around a chorus that seems to collect increasingly infectious melodies as it spirals upward. This trick gets echoed by a different expansive track that expands and contracts, weaving layered tunes like an intricate weave.
- A waltz-like song seduces via its playful, Disney-adjacent drama and a chant-along hook.
- In its words, it aligns the pop culture impact of contemporary heartbreak songs, lambasting an ex- partner described as an "emotional bully".
- Throughout the album, the singing carry a painted-on smile, akin to a storybook character hiding a blade: "Top prize in being a scoundrel / You've the podium of letdown."
An Opulent Feast for the Ears
Lux is popular music on a grand scale, a hungry grasp for capital-A Art in an era of impending AI-generated blankness. It eschews self-absorption for sublime transcendence, creating an over-the-top spectacle that skillfully controls its own built-in ridiculousness. This is an abundant well of hidden treasure that requires time to fully mine but never seem like hard work. Where some major pop albums of 2025 seemed like feasting on meal, this record is a lavish banquet where the guests at it, perhaps intoxicated on sacred drink, flit between discussions about historical figures, the profound feeling of heartbreaking grief, and common stories about useless partners. In essence, it's a modern-day musical from pop's most endlessly inventive visionary.
