On the surface, this album might appear more like a challenging academic challenge than the latest popular music album by a musician who just had a last single featured an international pop icon. Broken into 4 different parts and voiced in 13 languages, it is a dizzying classical-tinged work exploring female mystery, religious ascent, and corporal change, frequently through the prism of different female saints. The dissolution of a romance—a theme handled with raw honesty elsewhere—soars upwards on this record, carried by the lush presence of a major symphony orchestra and contributions from a Pulitzer-winning composer among an extensive list of collaborators. Its sheer daring by itself renders the efforts of other pop stars seem quite small.
Rising Above Academic Pretense
That this album manages to avoid dry academic posturing feels nearly miraculous, and full praise going to Rosalía. Although it's not her first album to blend the past and modern styles, the ambitions feel far higher here, and the balancing act more precarious. What really raises her fourth album, outside of its complex tunes, dense arrangements, and inherent theatricality, proves to be an essential spirit of joy. Much like the iconic Björk during her height, you find a wondrous sense to Rosalía's voice which sweeps the listener into its tornado. When she's breaking your heart apart, the listener nevertheless desire to stay alongside her through the journey.
A Prime Moment of Exuberance
That playful spirit comes forth brightly on the stirring piano-led ballad inspired by a saint. It luxuriates in a sorrowful melancholy for more than four minutes. Suddenly, everything falls away, to reveal we hear a spontaneous laugh and a comment prior to a hilariously over-the-top string crescendo thuds in like comedic impact. The track immediately shifts to the frenetic track featuring galloping orchestration, a powerful choir, and a cameo role from the artist herself.
"The charm with this album is that the listener rarely quite know—or even wish to know—what you will go to next."
Nearly every song ends in a completely different point than where it began. One moment explores the fleeting trappings of fame over a delicate symphony before collapsing in electronic cacophony. Another, a cut echoing the artist's previous trap-infused work starts out moody and sinister, featuring prowling vocals, before fluttering flamenco handclaps and a heavenly choir arrive to smooth its rough corners.
The Balance Of Experiment & Accessibility
A key achievement of the album is straddling the gap of radical experimentation and broad accessibility. This is no coincidence that it has become the artist's highest-charting work to crack the upper reaches of major charts: at its core a suite of utterly undeniable hits. One track performed primarily in the English language builds on a chorus that seems to collect more and more infectious hooks as it spins upward. This trick is echoed on a different powerful track that expands and constricts, weaving layered tunes as a complex weave.
- A dance-infused number seduces via its jaunty, Disney-adjacent flair and a chant-along chorus.
- Lyrically, it shares the pop culture impact of other breakup songs, eviscerating an ex- partner labeled an "emotional terrorist".
- Across these tracks, the singing have a sharp smile, like a storybook character hiding a blade: "Top prize in being a scoundrel / You have the podium of disappointment."
An Opulent Feast for the Ears
Lux represents pop on a maximalist scale, a hungry grasp for capital-A Art in an era of looming AI-generated sameness. It rejects solipsism in favor of glorious transcendence, crafting a dramatic drama that skillfully manages its built-in ridiculousness. This is a deep source of hidden gems that requires time to fully explore but doesn't seem like hard work. While some major pop albums of the year seemed like a meager scraps, this record is a sumptuous banquet at which the characters at it, perhaps tipsy on holy wine, flit from conversations about historical saints, the profound feeling of heartbreaking grief, and common gossip about hopeless partners. It is a modern-day musical from music's truly endlessly inventive visionary.
