At first glance, Lux might appear closer to a difficult scholarly examination rather than the latest popular music album by an artist who just had a previous hit was a collaboration with a global K-pop icon. Divided across 4 different movements and sung in 13 tongues, it is a breathtaking orchestral-influenced album investigating feminine mystery, religious ascent, and physical transformation, frequently via the perspective of different women saints. The dissolution of a romance—a topic handled with raw honesty elsewhere—soars skyward on this record, carried by the lush presence of a full orchestra and work from a Pulitzer-winning songwriter among an extensive list of collaborators. The pure audacity by itself makes the efforts of other artists look quite small.
Transcending Scholarly Pretense
The fact that Lux manages to escape dry academic posturing is almost miraculous, and full credit going to the artist. Although it's not her first album to fuse historical sounds and the present, its ambitions are much greater on Lux, with the tightrope walk more dramatic. What truly raises her fourth release, beyond its complex melodies, dense compositions, and inherent drama, is an essential spirit of joy. Similar to the legendary artist at her peak, there is a wondrous sense to Rosalía's singing that pulls you up in its tornado. When she's breaking your heart apart, the listener nevertheless want to be alongside her through the ride.
A Signature Example of Exuberance
This exuberant spirit comes forth clearly on a stirring Italian song inspired by a saint. It luxuriates in a sorrowful melancholy over more than four minutes. Then, all the music drops away, and we hear a gleeful giggle followed by a declaration prior to a comically over-the-top string crescendo thuds down like cartoonish force. The track immediately shifts to the wild single featuring galloping orchestration, an imposing choir, and a cameo role from the artist herself.
"The charm with this album is that the listener never quite know—nor wish to know—where it is going next."
Almost every track finishes in a completely distinct place than how it began. A track explores the fleeting trappings of fame with a delicate orchestration before collapsing in electronic chaos. Elsewhere, a song that recalls the artist's earlier rhythmic style begins out moody and brooding, with menacing beats, until sudden traditional rhythms and a heavenly chorus enter to smooth the song's jagged edges.
The Balance Of Art & Pop
A key balancing act of the album is navigating the gap between radical innovation and mainstream appeal. It is little surprise that the album has become her highest-charting release to break into the Top 5 of key charts: at its core a suite of utterly undeniable pop songs. One track sung entirely in English builds around a chorus that seems to gather more and more nagging hooks while it spins skyward. That trick is echoed on a different expansive ballad that expands and constricts, weaving layered melodies like an intricate tapestry.
- A waltz-like song seduces via its playful, Disney-adjacent drama and a chant-along hook.
- Lyrically, it shares with cultural honesty of contemporary breakup anthems, lambasting a former partner labeled an "emotional terrorist".
- Throughout these tracks, the singing have a painted-on edge, akin to a storybook figure concealing a knife: "Gold medal in being a motherfucker / You've the podium of letdown."
A Maximalist Banquet for the Soul
Lux is pop on a maximalist scale, an ambitious grasp for high artistry in an era of impending AI-generated blankness. It rejects self-absorption for sublime transcendence, crafting a dramatic drama that masterfully controls its own inherent excess. This is an abundant source of hidden treasure that requires patience to fully mine but never seem like hard work. Where other big pop albums of the year seemed like feasting on scraps, Lux is a sumptuous feast where the guests at it, some intoxicated on sacred drink, flutter between discussions about historical figures, the galvanizing feeling of heartbreaking grief, and common stories about useless partners. It is a modern-day theatrical production from pop's truly endlessly creative visionary.
