On the surface, Lux could seem closer to a challenging university examination rather than the latest popular music album from a musician who just had a previous single was a collaboration with an international pop icon. Split into four different parts and voiced in thirteen languages, we have a head-spinning orchestral-influenced album that delves into feminine mystique, spiritual transcendence, and bodily change, frequently through the lens of various women saints. The dissolution of a relationship—a topic treated with raw honesty elsewhere—is shot skyward on this record, carried by the constant sound of a full orchestra and contributions from an award-winning songwriter within a vast list of contributors. Its sheer audacity by itself makes the efforts of contemporary artists look rather small.
Transcending Scholarly Pretense
That this album succeeds in transcend dry academic posturing is almost a miracle, and complete praise going to the artist. Although it's not her first album to fuse historical sounds and the present, its ambitions are much higher here, and the tightrope walk more pronounced. The element that truly elevates her fourth album, outside of its multilayered tunes, dense arrangements, and inherent drama, is an essential spirit of playfulness. Similar to the legendary Björk at her peak, you find a wondrous quality to Rosalía's voice which sweeps you into its whirlwind. Even when she is tearing your heart in two, you still desire to be right there through the journey.
A Prime Example of Joy
This playful spirit comes forth clearly on a stunning Italian ballad about Saint Clare. It luxuriates in a sorrowful melancholy for more than four minutes. Suddenly, everything falls silent, and there's a spontaneous laugh and a declaration prior to a hilariously over-the-top orchestral crescendo thuds in with cartoonish impact. The track then segues into the frenetic single driven by galloping orchestration, an imposing choral group, and a cameo appearance from none other than Björk.
"The magic of Lux is that you rarely quite understand—nor want to predict—what it will go next."
Almost each song ends in a totally distinct point than where it started. A track explores the transient nature of celebrity over a featherlight orchestration only to disintegrating in electronic chaos. Another, a song echoing her earlier trap-infused work begins off moody and sinister, featuring menacing vocals, before fluttering flamenco rhythms and an angelic choir arrive to smooth the song's jagged edges.
The Bridge Between Experiment and Pop
Another crucial achievement of Lux is navigating the gap of radical experimentation and broad accessibility. This is no coincidence that it has become the artist's first release to crack the upper reaches of key markets: at its core a suite of truly catchy pop songs. A song performed primarily in the English language swells around a refrain that seems to gather increasingly nagging melodies as it spirals upward. That trick gets repeated by another powerful ballad that expands and constricts, weaving layered tunes like an intricate tapestry.
- A waltz-like song seduces with its jaunty, Disney-adjacent flair and a chant-along hook.
- Lyrically, it aligns with pop culture honesty of other breakup songs, eviscerating a former lover described as an "emotional bully".
- Throughout the album, the vocals have a sharp smile, like a fairy-tale character concealing a knife: "Top prize in being a motherfucker / You've the podium of disappointment."
An Opulent Banquet for the Soul
Lux represents pop on a maximalist level, an ambitious reach for high Art amid of looming artificial blankness. It eschews self-absorption in favor of glorious transcendence, crafting an over-the-top spectacle that masterfully manages its inherent ridiculousness. It is an abundant well of buried gems that takes patience to completely explore but never feels like a chore. Where some major releases of 2025 seemed like a meager scraps, Lux is a sumptuous feast at which the guests around it, perhaps intoxicated on sacred drink, flutter from conversations about historical saints, the galvanizing sensation of soul-shattering grief, and common stories about hopeless men. It is a contemporary theatrical production from pop's truly endlessly inventive practitioner.
