🔗 Share this article

At first glance, Lux could seem more like an arduous university examination than a new popular music project from an artist whose last single featured an international pop icon. Broken into 4 separate sections and voiced in thirteen tongues, it is a head-spinning classical-tinged work exploring female mystique, religious transcendence, and bodily transformation, frequently by way of the prism of different saintly figures. The dissolution of a relationship—a theme treated with raw honesty on another major 2025 album—is shot upwards here, buoyed by the lush presence of a full symphony orchestra and work from an award-winning songwriter among a long roll call of collaborators. Its sheer audacity by itself makes the work of contemporary artists appear quite small.

Rising Above Scholarly Pretense

The fact that Lux succeeds in escape dry intellectual posturing feels nothing short of miraculous, and sole credit belonging to Rosalía. Although it's not her first album to fuse historical sounds with modern styles, the ambitions are far higher on Lux, with the tightrope walk far more dramatic. The element that truly elevates this fourth release, outside of its multilayered tunes, rich arrangements, and inherent drama, proves to be an essential sense of playfulness. Much like the iconic Björk at her height, you find a wondrous quality to the vocalist's voice that pulls you into its tornado. When she's breaking your heart in two, you nevertheless desire to be right there through the journey.

A Prime Example of Exuberance

This playful spirit shines clearly during the stirring Italian ballad about Saint Clare. It luxuriates in a sorrowful melancholy over several minutes. Suddenly, everything drops away, and there's a spontaneous giggle followed by a comment before a comically exaggerated orchestral crescendo thuds in with cartoonish force. The track immediately segues to the wild single driven by racing strings, a powerful choir, and a surprise role from the artist herself.

"The charm of this album lies in the listener never exactly know—or even wish to predict—where it is going next."

Almost each song ends in a completely different point from where it began. One moment explores the transient nature of fame with a featherlight orchestration before disintegrating in digital chaos. Another, a song that recalls the artist's previous rhythmic work starts out dark and brooding, featuring prowling vocals, before fluttering flamenco handclaps and an angelic chorus enter to soften its rough edges.

The Bridge Between Experiment and Pop

A key achievement on Lux is navigating the line of radical innovation and mainstream appeal. This is no surprise that the album has achieved her highest-charting release to break into the Top 5 of major markets: at its core a suite of truly undeniable pop songs. A song sung entirely in English builds around a refrain that feels to gather more and more nagging hooks while it spins upward. That trick gets repeated by a different powerful ballad that expands and constricts, intertwining layered melodies as a complex tapestry.

• A waltz-like song charms with its playful, Disney-adjacent flair and an anthemic hook.
• In its words, it aligns the cultural impact of contemporary heartbreak songs, eviscerating a former partner labeled an "emotional terrorist".
• Across these tracks, the singing have a painted-on smile, like a fairy-tale character concealing a knife: "Top prize in being a scoundrel / You've the podium of letdown."

An Opulent Feast for the Soul

Lux is pop on a maximalist level, an ambitious reach for high Art amid of looming artificial sameness. It eschews self-absorption in favor of sublime transcendence, creating an over-the-top spectacle that masterfully controls its inherent excess. It is an abundant well of buried gems that takes time to fully explore but doesn't feels like a chore. While other big releases of 2025 felt like feasting on scraps, this record offers a lavish feast at which the guests around the table, some tipsy on holy wine, flutter between discussions about historical saints, the profound feeling of heartbreaking sadness, and common stories about hopeless partners. In essence, it's a modern-day musical from pop's most restlessly inventive visionary.