🔗 Share this article

At first glance, this album might appear more like an arduous academic examination rather than a new popular music album from a musician whose last single featured an international K-pop icon. Broken across 4 separate movements and performed in 13 tongues, this is a head-spinning classical-tinged album that delves into female mystery, spiritual ascent, and bodily change, often through the perspective of various women saints. The dissolution of a love affair—a topic handled with raw honesty elsewhere—is shot upwards here, supported by the lush presence of a major orchestra and work from an award-winning composer within an extensive list of collaborators. Its sheer ambition alone renders the efforts of other artists seem rather modest.

Rising Above Scholarly Pretense

The fact that Lux succeeds in avoid dry intellectual chin-stroking is nearly miraculous, and sole credit going to Rosalía. Although this is not the first time album to alchemize the past and modern styles, the stakes feel much higher on Lux, with the tightrope walk more precarious. What truly raises her fourth album, outside of its complex tunes, rich arrangements, and engrained drama, proves to be an essential spirit of playfulness. Much like the iconic Björk at her peak, you find a captivating sense to the vocalist's voice that pulls the listener up in its tornado. Even when she's breaking hearts apart, the listener still want to be alongside her for the journey.

A Signature Moment of Joy

This exuberant energy comes forth brightly during a stirring Italian song about a saint. It bathes in a string-drenched melancholy over more than four minutes. Suddenly, all the music falls silent, to reveal there's a spontaneous giggle followed by a comment before a comically over-the-top orchestral crescendo crashes down like comedic impact. The song then segues into the wild single driven by racing strings, an imposing choir, and a surprise role from the artist Björk.

"The charm with this album is that the listener never exactly know—or even wish to know—where it will go next."

Almost each track concludes at a completely different point from how it began. A track explores the transient trappings of celebrity over a featherlight orchestration only to disintegrating in electronic cacophony. Another, a cut echoing her earlier trap-infused work begins out moody and sinister, featuring prowling beats, until sudden traditional rhythms and an angelic choir enter to smooth the song's jagged corners.

The Balance Of Experiment and Pop

A key achievement on Lux is straddling the line of bold experimentation and mainstream appeal. This is no coincidence that it has become the artist's first release to break into the upper reaches of key markets: at its core a collection of utterly catchy pop songs. A song sung entirely in English swells on a refrain that feels to collect more and more nagging hooks while it spins upward. That trick is repeated on a different powerful ballad that grows and contracts, intertwining layered melodies like an intricate weave.

• A waltz-like number seduces via its playful, theatrical drama and an anthemic hook.
• In its words, it shares with cultural impact of other breakup songs, eviscerating an ex- lover labeled an "psychological bully".
• Across the album, the singing have a sharp edge, akin to a storybook figure concealing a knife: "Gold medal in being a scoundrel / You've won the trophy of letdown."

A Maximalist Banquet for the Ears

This album represents popular music on a grand scale, a hungry reach for capital-A Art in an era of impending AI-generated blankness. It rejects solipsism in favor of glorious transcendence, crafting a dramatic drama that masterfully manages its own built-in ridiculousness. It is an abundant source of buried treasure that takes patience to completely explore but doesn't seem like a chore. While other big releases of the year felt like feasting on meal, Lux is a lavish feast where the characters around the table, perhaps intoxicated on holy wine, flutter from discussions about historical saints, the profound sensation of soul-shattering grief, and common gossip about hopeless partners. In essence, it's a contemporary musical from pop's truly restlessly creative visionary.