At first glance, this album might appear closer to a difficult university challenge rather than the latest pop record from a musician who just had a last hit featured a global K-pop icon. Broken into 4 distinct parts and sung in 13 languages, we have a dizzying classical-tinged opus exploring feminine mystique, religious ascent, and corporal transformation, frequently by way of the lens of different female saints. The dissolution of a relationship—a topic treated with raw openness on another major 2025 album—is shot skyward on this record, carried by the constant presence of a major orchestra and contributions from an award-winning songwriter among a long roll call of collaborators. The pure ambition alone renders the efforts of contemporary artists seem rather laughable.
Rising Above Academic Exercise
The fact that Lux manages to escape dry academic posturing is almost a miracle, and complete praise going to the artist. Although it's not her first album to alchemize historical sounds and modern styles, its ambitions are much higher on Lux, with the tightrope walk far more pronounced. What really raises this fourth release, beyond its complex melodies, dense compositions, and engrained drama, proves to be a core spirit of joy. Much like the legendary artist during her height, there is a captivating quality to Rosalía's singing which sweeps you into its tornado. When she's breaking hearts apart, the listener nevertheless want to stay alongside her through the journey.
A Signature Example of Exuberance
This playful energy comes forth brightly on the stunning piano-led ballad inspired by a saint. It bathes in a sorrowful melancholy for more than four minutes. Suddenly, everything drops away, and there's a gleeful giggle followed by a declaration prior to a hilariously over-the-top orchestral crescendo crashes in like cartoonish force. The song then shifts into the wild single featuring racing orchestration, an imposing choral group, and a surprise appearance from none other than Björk.
"The charm with this album is that you rarely exactly know—nor wish to predict—where it is going next."
Almost each song concludes in a totally different place from where it started. A track explores the fleeting trappings of fame over a delicate orchestration only to disintegrating into electronic chaos. Elsewhere, a cut echoing the artist's earlier trap-infused style starts out moody and brooding, with prowling beats, until fluttering traditional rhythms and a heavenly chorus enter to soften its rough corners.
The Balance Of Experiment & Accessibility
A key achievement of the album is navigating the line of radical experimentation and broad appeal. It is no surprise that it has become the artist's first work to crack the Top 5 of key charts: its heart contains a collection of utterly catchy pop songs. A song performed entirely in the English language builds around a refrain that seems to collect increasingly nagging melodies as it spirals upward. That feat gets repeated by another powerful track that expands and contracts, weaving multiple melodies as a complex tapestry.
- A waltz-like song seduces with its playful, theatrical drama and an anthemic chorus.
- In its words, it shares with pop culture impact of contemporary breakup anthems, lambasting an ex- lover described as an "emotional terrorist".
- Across the album, the vocals carry a sharp edge, akin to a storybook character hiding a knife: "Top prize in being a scoundrel / You have won the trophy of disappointment."
An Opulent Feast for the Soul
This album represents popular music on a grand scale, a hungry reach for capital-A artistry in an era of looming AI-generated blankness. It rejects solipsism for sublime transcendence, crafting an over-the-top drama that skillfully controls its inherent ridiculousness. This is a deep well of buried gems that requires time to fully mine but never seem like hard work. Where some major pop albums of the year seemed like a meager meal, this record offers a lavish banquet at which the guests around it, some intoxicated on sacred wine, flit between conversations about ancient saints, the galvanizing feeling of heartbreaking grief, and common stories about hopeless partners. In essence, it's a modern-day musical from music's most restlessly inventive visionary.
