At first glance, Lux may look more like a difficult academic examination rather than the latest popular music project by an artist who just had a previous hit featured an international pop icon. Divided into four separate sections and voiced in 13 tongues, we have a head-spinning orchestral-influenced work investigating feminine mystique, spiritual transcendence, and bodily change, frequently by way of the prism of different female saints. The end of a love affair—a topic treated with grounded openness on another major 2025 album—soars skyward on this record, supported by the lush presence of a major orchestra and contributions from an award-winning songwriter within a vast roll call of contributors. Its sheer daring alone renders the work of contemporary pop stars appear quite small.
Rising Above Academic Pretense
The fact that Lux manages to escape dry academic chin-stroking is nearly miraculous, and full credit belonging to Rosalía. Although this is not her first project to blend the past with the present, its ambitions are much greater on Lux, with the tightrope walk more pronounced. What really elevates this fourth album, beyond its multilayered melodies, dense compositions, and engrained theatricality, proves to be an essential sense of playfulness. Similar to the legendary Björk at her height, you find a wondrous quality to the vocalist's voice that pulls the listener up in its whirlwind. Even when she's breaking your heart apart, the listener still want to be right there for the ride.
A Signature Example of Joy
That playful spirit shines clearly on a stunning Italian ballad inspired by a saint. It bathes in a string-drenched whirlpool for more than four minutes. Then, everything falls away, to reveal there's a spontaneous laugh and a declaration prior to a comically over-the-top orchestral crescendo thuds down like cartoonish impact. The track immediately segues to the wild track featuring galloping orchestration, a powerful choral group, and a surprise appearance from none other than herself.
"The charm of Lux is that the listener rarely exactly know—nor want to predict—where it will go next."
Almost every track concludes in a totally different point from where it began. A track examines the fleeting trappings of celebrity with a delicate symphony only to disintegrating in electronic chaos. Another, a song that recalls her earlier trap-infused style begins out dark and brooding, featuring menacing vocals, before sudden traditional rhythms and a heavenly chorus enter to soften the song's rough corners.
The Balance Between Art and Accessibility
A key balancing act of the album involves straddling the line between bold experimentation and broad accessibility. This is little coincidence that the album has become her first release to crack the upper reaches of key charts: its heart contains a collection of truly catchy pop songs. One track performed entirely in English swells on a refrain that feels to gather more and more nagging melodies as it spirals skyward. That feat is echoed by another powerful track that grows and constricts, weaving multiple melodies as a complex tapestry.
- A waltz-like song seduces via its jaunty, theatrical drama and a chant-along chorus.
- In its words, it shares the pop culture impact of contemporary breakup songs, lambasting a former partner labeled an "psychological bully".
- Across the album, the singing carry a sharp smile, like a fairy-tale figure concealing a blade: "Gold medal in acting like a motherfucker / You have won the trophy of disappointment."
An Opulent Feast for the Ears
This album represents popular music on a grand level, a hungry reach for capital-A artistry amid of impending artificial blankness. It rejects self-absorption for sublime elevation, creating a dramatic spectacle that skillfully manages its own built-in ridiculousness. It is a deep well of buried treasure that takes time to completely explore but never seem like hard work. Where other major pop albums of the year felt like a meager meal, Lux offers a sumptuous banquet at which the guests around it, perhaps intoxicated on sacred drink, flutter between discussions about historical saints, the galvanizing feeling of soul-shattering grief, and shared gossip about hopeless partners. In essence, it's a contemporary musical from music's most restlessly creative practitioner.
