At first glance, this album could seem more like a challenging academic challenge rather than a new pop project from an artist whose previous single was a collaboration with a global pop star. Divided into four separate parts and performed in thirteen languages, we have a dizzying orchestral-influenced work investigating feminine mystique, spiritual transcendence, and bodily transformation, frequently by way of the prism of various saintly figures. The dissolution of a romance—a theme treated with grounded honesty elsewhere—is shot heavenward here, carried by the constant sound of a full orchestra and work from a Pulitzer-winning songwriter within an extensive roll call of contributors. Its sheer audacity alone renders the work of other pop stars seem quite small.
Transcending Academic Pretense
That Lux manages to transcend dry academic posturing is almost a miracle, with sole praise going to the artist. While this is not her first album to alchemize the past with modern styles, its ambitions feel much higher on Lux, and the balancing act more precarious. The element that truly elevates her fourth release, beyond its multilayered melodies, dense compositions, and engrained drama, is a core sense of fun. Much like the legendary artist at her height, there is a captivating sense to Rosalía's voice which sweeps you into its tornado. When she's tearing hearts apart, you still want to stay right there through the ride.
A Prime Moment of Joy
That playful energy shines brightly during the stirring Italian song about Saint Clare. It luxuriates in a string-drenched whirlpool for several minutes. Then, all the music falls away, to reveal there's a spontaneous laugh followed by a declaration prior to a comically exaggerated orchestral crescendo crashes down with cartoonish impact. The track immediately shifts to the frenetic track driven by galloping strings, a powerful choir, and a surprise role from the artist Björk.
"The charm with this album is that you never exactly understand—nor wish to know—what you is going next."
Almost each song ends at a totally different place than how it began. A track explores the fleeting nature of celebrity over a featherlight orchestration only to disintegrating into electronic cacophony. Elsewhere, a cut that recalls the artist's earlier trap-infused style starts off dark and brooding, featuring menacing beats, until fluttering traditional rhythms and a heavenly choir arrive to smooth its jagged edges.
The Balance Of Art & Pop
A key achievement on the album is straddling the line of radical experimentation and broad appeal. It is no surprise that the album has achieved the artist's first release to crack the Top 5 of key charts: its heart contains a collection of utterly catchy hits. A song sung entirely in English swells around a chorus that feels to collect increasingly infectious hooks while it spins upward. This feat is echoed by a different expansive track that grows and contracts, intertwining multiple tunes like an intricate weave.
- A waltz-like number charms with its jaunty, Disney-adjacent drama and a chant-along chorus.
- Lyrically, it aligns the cultural impact of other heartbreak anthems, lambasting a former lover described as an "emotional terrorist".
- Throughout the album, the singing have a sharp edge, akin to a storybook figure concealing a knife: "Gold medal in acting like a motherfucker / You've the podium of letdown."
An Opulent Banquet for the Ears
Lux is pop on a maximalist level, a hungry grasp for high Art amid of looming artificial sameness. It rejects solipsism for sublime transcendence, crafting a dramatic drama that skillfully manages its inherent ridiculousness. This is a deep source of buried treasure that requires time to fully mine but never seem like a chore. Where other big releases of the year seemed like a meager scraps, Lux is a lavish feast at which the guests around it, perhaps intoxicated on sacred drink, flutter from discussions about ancient figures, the galvanizing feeling of heartbreaking grief, and shared stories about useless partners. In essence, it's a contemporary theatrical production from music's most restlessly inventive practitioner.
