At first glance, this work may look closer to a challenging academic challenge than the latest popular music album from an artist whose last single was a collaboration with an international pop icon. Broken into 4 different movements and sung in 13 languages, this is a head-spinning classical-tinged album exploring female mystery, religious ascent, and corporal transformation, frequently via the lens of various saintly figures. The end of a romance—a topic handled with raw honesty on another major 2025 album—is launched heavenward here, buoyed by the lush sound of a major symphony orchestra and contributions from an award-winning composer among a vast list of contributors. The pure daring alone renders the efforts of contemporary pop stars seem rather small.
Transcending Scholarly Pretense
The fact that this album manages to escape dry intellectual posturing is nearly a miracle, with full credit belonging to Rosalía. Although this is not the first time album to alchemize the past and modern styles, its stakes feel much greater on Lux, and the tightrope walk more pronounced. What truly raises this fourth release, beyond its complex melodies, rich compositions, and inherent theatricality, proves to be an essential sense of fun. Much like the legendary artist at her height, you find a wondrous quality to the vocalist's voice that pulls the listener into its whirlwind. Even when she's tearing hearts in two, you nevertheless desire to stay alongside her through the journey.
A Signature Example of Exuberance
This exuberant spirit comes forth brightly during the stunning piano-led ballad inspired by a saint. It luxuriates in a sorrowful melancholy over more than four minutes. Suddenly, everything falls silent, to reveal we hear a gleeful laugh and a declaration prior to a comically exaggerated orchestral surge crashes in like comedic impact. The track immediately shifts to the wild single featuring racing orchestration, a powerful choir, and a cameo role from none other than herself.
"The magic with this album is that you never quite know—or even want to know—what it will go next."
Almost every song concludes at a completely distinct place from where it began. One moment explores the transient nature of fame with a delicate orchestration only to collapsing in digital chaos. Another, a song that recalls her earlier rhythmic work starts out dark and sinister, with prowling vocals, before sudden flamenco rhythms and a heavenly chorus enter to soften the song's rough corners.
The Balance Of Experiment and Accessibility
A key achievement on Lux involves navigating the line between bold experimentation and broad accessibility. It is little coincidence that the album has become the artist's first work to crack the Top 5 of key charts: at its core a suite of truly catchy hits. One track performed entirely in the English language builds on a chorus that seems to gather more and more infectious melodies as it spins skyward. This feat gets repeated by another expansive track that expands and contracts, weaving layered tunes as a complex tapestry.
- A waltz-like number charms via its jaunty, Disney-adjacent drama and an anthemic hook.
- Lyrically, it shares the pop culture honesty of contemporary breakup anthems, eviscerating a former partner labeled an "emotional bully".
- Across the album, the vocals carry a painted-on edge, akin to a storybook character hiding a knife: "Gold medal in being a scoundrel / You've the podium of letdown."
An Opulent Banquet for the Soul
Lux is popular music on a grand scale, an ambitious grasp for high artistry in an era of looming artificial blankness. It eschews self-absorption in favor of sublime elevation, crafting a dramatic drama that skillfully controls its built-in ridiculousness. It is an abundant well of buried gems that requires time to fully mine but never feels like hard work. While other big pop albums of the year seemed like feasting on scraps, Lux is a lavish banquet where the characters at it, some tipsy on sacred drink, flutter from discussions about ancient saints, the profound feeling of heartbreaking sadness, and common stories about hopeless men. It is a modern-day musical from music's most endlessly inventive visionary.
