At first glance, this album might appear more like a challenging university quiz than a new popular music project from a musician who just had a previous single featured a global K-pop icon. Split across 4 different sections and voiced in thirteen tongues, we have a dizzying symphonic work exploring female mystery, religious ascent, and corporal transformation, often by way of the perspective of different women saints. The dissolution of a relationship—a theme treated with grounded openness on another major 2025 album—is shot heavenward here, buoyed by the lush sound of a major orchestra and contributions from a Pulitzer-winning songwriter among a vast list of collaborators. Its sheer audacity by itself renders the work of contemporary pop stars seem rather small.
Transcending Academic Pretense
That Lux succeeds in escape overly academic chin-stroking feels nothing short of miraculous, with full praise belonging to the artist. While this is not the first time project to fuse the past with modern styles, its stakes feel far greater here, and the balancing act far more pronounced. What really raises this fourth album, outside of its multilayered tunes, dense arrangements, and engrained drama, is an essential spirit of fun. Much like the legendary artist at her peak, you find a wondrous quality to Rosalía's voice that pulls you up in its whirlwind. Even when she is tearing your heart in two, you still desire to stay alongside her for the ride.
A Prime Example of Joy
This exuberant energy comes forth clearly during the stirring Italian ballad about a saint. It luxuriates in a sorrowful melancholy for more than four moments. Then, everything drops silent, and there's a spontaneous giggle and a comment before a hilariously exaggerated string surge thuds in like cartoonish impact. The song immediately segues to the wild track driven by galloping strings, a powerful choir, and a cameo appearance from the artist herself.
"The magic with this album lies in you never exactly know—or even want to know—what you is going to next."
Almost every track concludes in a totally distinct point than where it started. A track explores the fleeting nature of celebrity with a featherlight orchestration before collapsing into digital chaos. Elsewhere, a song echoing the artist's previous rhythmic style starts off dark and brooding, with prowling vocals, before fluttering traditional rhythms and an angelic chorus enter to smooth the song's jagged corners.
The Balance Between Experiment and Accessibility
A key achievement of Lux involves straddling the gap between bold innovation and mainstream appeal. This is no surprise that it has achieved the artist's highest-charting release to break into the upper reaches of key markets: at its core a collection of truly catchy hits. A song performed primarily in the English language swells around a refrain that seems to collect more and more nagging hooks as it spirals skyward. That trick gets repeated on another expansive track that grows and constricts, intertwining multiple melodies like a complex tapestry.
- A waltz-like number seduces via its playful, theatrical flair and a chant-along chorus.
- In its words, it shares with cultural honesty of contemporary breakup songs, eviscerating an ex- lover labeled an "emotional terrorist".
- Across these tracks, the singing carry a painted-on smile, like a storybook figure concealing a knife: "Gold medal in acting like a motherfucker / You have the podium of letdown."
A Maximalist Feast for the Soul
This album is pop on a maximalist scale, a hungry grasp for high Art in an era of impending AI-generated blankness. It eschews self-absorption for sublime transcendence, crafting a dramatic spectacle that skillfully controls its own inherent excess. This is an abundant well of hidden treasure that takes time to completely explore but never feels like hard work. Where some major pop albums of the year felt like a meager scraps, this record is a sumptuous feast where the characters at it, some tipsy on holy wine, flutter between conversations about historical saints, the profound sensation of heartbreaking grief, and shared stories about useless men. It is a contemporary theatrical production from pop's truly endlessly inventive visionary.
