On the surface, this work may look more like an arduous university examination than the latest popular music record by a musician who just had a previous hit was a collaboration with a global pop icon. Split across 4 distinct sections and performed in thirteen languages, we have a head-spinning classical-tinged work investigating female mystery, spiritual ascent, and bodily change, often by way of the lens of various women saints. The end of a relationship—a theme treated with grounded openness on another major 2025 album—soars heavenward here, carried by the lush presence of a full symphony orchestra and contributions from an award-winning songwriter within a vast roll call of collaborators. Its sheer daring alone renders the efforts of other artists look rather laughable.
Transcending Academic Pretense
That Lux succeeds in avoid dry intellectual posturing feels almost a miracle, with sole credit going to the artist. While it's not the first time album to alchemize the past and the present, its scale feel much greater here, with the balancing act far more dramatic. What truly raises this fourth release, beyond its complex melodies, rich arrangements, and engrained drama, is an essential sense of joy. Similar to the iconic artist during her peak, you find a wondrous sense to Rosalía's voice that pulls you up in its tornado. When she's breaking your heart apart, you nevertheless desire to stay alongside her for the journey.
A Prime Moment of Exuberance
This playful energy comes forth clearly on the stirring piano-led song about a saint. It bathes in a string-drenched whirlpool over several minutes. Suddenly, everything drops away, and there's a gleeful giggle followed by a comment before a comically over-the-top orchestral surge thuds in with cartoonish impact. The song immediately shifts into the wild single driven by racing strings, a powerful choir, and a surprise appearance from the artist herself.
"The charm of Lux is that the listener rarely quite know—nor want to know—where it will go next."
Nearly every track ends at a completely different point than where it started. A track examines the fleeting trappings of fame over a delicate symphony before collapsing in digital chaos. Another, a song echoing her earlier rhythmic work starts out moody and brooding, with prowling vocals, until fluttering traditional rhythms and a heavenly choir enter to smooth the song's rough corners.
The Balance Of Experiment and Pop
Another crucial balancing act of the album is straddling the gap of bold innovation and broad accessibility. This is little coincidence that it has achieved the artist's highest-charting work to crack the Top 5 of key markets: its heart contains a suite of truly catchy pop songs. One track performed primarily in English builds on a chorus that feels to gather increasingly nagging hooks as it spirals skyward. This feat is echoed on a different powerful track that grows and constricts, intertwining layered melodies as an intricate tapestry.
- A waltz-like number charms via its playful, Disney-adjacent drama and an anthemic chorus.
- Lyrically, it aligns with pop culture impact of other heartbreak songs, lambasting an ex- lover labeled an "emotional bully".
- Throughout these tracks, the vocals carry a sharp edge, like a storybook figure hiding a knife: "Gold medal in acting like a motherfucker / You have won the trophy of disappointment."
A Maximalist Banquet for the Soul
Lux is popular music on a grand scale, an ambitious reach for high artistry in an era of impending AI-generated sameness. It rejects solipsism in favor of sublime transcendence, creating an over-the-top spectacle that skillfully controls its own built-in excess. It is an abundant well of buried gems that requires time to completely mine but never feels like hard work. While some major pop albums of the year felt like a meager scraps, this record is a lavish feast at which the characters around the table, some tipsy on sacred wine, flutter between discussions about ancient saints, the galvanizing sensation of heartbreaking grief, and common gossip about hopeless men. It is a contemporary theatrical production from music's most restlessly inventive visionary.
