At first glance, this album may look more like a challenging scholarly quiz than a new pop record from a musician whose last single was a collaboration with a global K-pop icon. Divided across 4 separate movements and sung in 13 tongues, we have a dizzying orchestral-influenced opus exploring female mystique, religious transcendence, and physical transformation, often via the prism of different women saints. The end of a romance—a theme treated with grounded honesty on another major 2025 album—soars upwards here, buoyed by the constant sound of a full orchestra and work from a Pulitzer-winning songwriter among an extensive roll call of contributors. Its sheer audacity alone makes the work of contemporary artists seem quite small.
Transcending Scholarly Exercise
That this album succeeds in transcend overly intellectual chin-stroking is nearly a miracle, and full praise belonging to Rosalía. Although it's not the first time project to alchemize historical sounds and the present, its scale feel much greater on Lux, and the tightrope walk more precarious. The element that truly raises her fourth release, outside of its multilayered melodies, dense compositions, and engrained drama, proves to be an essential spirit of playfulness. Much like the iconic artist at her height, you find a captivating quality to Rosalía's voice which sweeps you up in its whirlwind. When she is tearing your heart in two, the listener nevertheless desire to stay alongside her through the journey.
A Signature Example of Joy
This playful energy comes forth clearly during the stirring piano-led song inspired by a saint. It bathes in a sorrowful melancholy over more than four moments. Suddenly, everything falls silent, to reveal we hear a spontaneous laugh followed by a declaration before a hilariously exaggerated orchestral crescendo crashes down with comedic impact. The song then shifts into the wild single featuring galloping orchestration, an imposing choir, and a surprise appearance from the artist herself.
"The magic of this album is that you never quite understand—nor wish to know—where you is going next."
Nearly each song ends at a completely different place from where it began. A track examines the fleeting nature of celebrity over a featherlight orchestration only to disintegrating in digital chaos. Elsewhere, a song echoing her earlier rhythmic style begins out dark and brooding, featuring prowling beats, until sudden flamenco rhythms and a heavenly chorus enter to smooth the song's rough edges.
The Balance Of Art and Pop
Another crucial balancing act of Lux involves straddling the gap of radical experimentation and broad appeal. This is little surprise that it has become her highest-charting work to crack the upper reaches of major charts: at its core a suite of utterly undeniable pop songs. A song sung primarily in the English language swells on a chorus that feels to collect increasingly nagging melodies as it spins upward. That trick gets repeated by another powerful ballad that expands and contracts, intertwining layered melodies as a complex tapestry.
- A dance-infused song seduces with its playful, Disney-adjacent drama and a chant-along hook.
- In its words, it aligns the cultural honesty of other heartbreak songs, lambasting a former lover described as an "emotional bully".
- Throughout the album, the vocals have a painted-on smile, akin to a storybook character hiding a knife: "Top prize in acting like a scoundrel / You've won the trophy of disappointment."
An Opulent Banquet for the Soul
Lux represents pop on a grand level, an ambitious reach for high artistry in an era of impending AI-generated blankness. It eschews solipsism in favor of glorious elevation, crafting an over-the-top drama that masterfully controls its inherent ridiculousness. This is an abundant source of buried treasure that requires patience to completely mine but never feels like a chore. Where other big releases of the year felt like a meager meal, Lux offers a sumptuous banquet where the guests around the table, some tipsy on sacred drink, flit between discussions about historical saints, the profound sensation of soul-shattering sadness, and shared stories about hopeless men. In essence, it's a modern-day musical from music's most endlessly creative visionary.
