At first glance, this work might appear closer to a difficult university examination than a new popular music record by a musician who just had a last single was a collaboration with a global pop star. Broken into 4 separate sections and voiced in thirteen languages, we have a head-spinning orchestral-influenced work investigating female mystique, religious ascent, and corporal transformation, frequently via the perspective of different women saints. The end of a love affair—a theme handled with raw openness on another major 2025 album—is shot upwards on this record, supported by the constant sound of a full symphony orchestra and input from an award-winning songwriter within an extensive list of contributors. The pure daring alone makes the efforts of other pop stars look rather modest.
Transcending Academic Pretense
That Lux manages to escape overly academic chin-stroking feels nothing short of a miracle, with complete credit going to Rosalía. While it's not her first project to alchemize the past and the present, its ambitions are much greater here, with the balancing act more pronounced. The element that really raises this fourth release, outside of its complex tunes, rich compositions, and engrained drama, is a core sense of joy. Much like the legendary Björk during her height, there is a captivating quality to the vocalist's singing that pulls you up in its whirlwind. When she is breaking your heart apart, the listener still want to be right there for the journey.
A Prime Moment of Joy
This exuberant energy shines clearly during the stirring piano-led ballad about a saint. It luxuriates in a string-drenched melancholy over more than four moments. Suddenly, everything falls silent, to reveal there's a spontaneous giggle and a declaration before a comically over-the-top string surge thuds in like comedic force. The track immediately segues into the wild single driven by galloping orchestration, a powerful choral group, and a cameo role from the artist herself.
"The charm with this album is that the listener rarely exactly know—nor wish to know—what it is going to next."
Almost each song finishes at a totally distinct point than how it started. One moment examines the fleeting trappings of celebrity with a featherlight symphony before disintegrating into digital chaos. Another, a cut that recalls her earlier rhythmic style starts out moody and brooding, with prowling vocals, before fluttering traditional handclaps and an angelic chorus arrive to smooth the song's rough edges.
The Balance Between Art & Pop
A key achievement on the album involves straddling the line between bold experimentation and broad accessibility. It is little coincidence that it has achieved her highest-charting release to break into the upper reaches of key charts: at its core a collection of truly catchy hits. A song performed entirely in English swells on a refrain that feels to collect more and more infectious hooks while it spirals upward. This feat gets echoed on a different expansive track that expands and constricts, intertwining multiple melodies as an intricate tapestry.
- A waltz-like number charms with its jaunty, Disney-adjacent flair and a chant-along hook.
- In its words, it shares with cultural honesty of contemporary heartbreak songs, lambasting an ex- partner labeled an "emotional bully".
- Throughout the album, the singing have a sharp edge, akin to a fairy-tale figure hiding a knife: "Top prize in acting like a motherfucker / You've won the trophy of disappointment."
An Opulent Feast for the Ears
This album represents popular music on a grand level, an ambitious reach for capital-A Art amid of looming artificial blankness. It eschews self-absorption for glorious elevation, crafting an over-the-top spectacle that masterfully controls its own built-in ridiculousness. It is an abundant well of buried gems that requires patience to completely mine but never feels like hard work. While some major releases of the year felt like a meager scraps, Lux is a lavish feast where the characters at the table, some tipsy on holy drink, flutter from discussions about ancient figures, the profound sensation of soul-shattering sadness, and common stories about hopeless men. It is a contemporary musical from pop's most endlessly inventive visionary.
