At first glance, this work could seem closer to an arduous academic examination than a new popular music project by an artist who just had a last single featured an international K-pop star. Divided into 4 distinct movements and performed in thirteen tongues, this is a dizzying orchestral-influenced album exploring feminine mystique, spiritual ascent, and physical change, frequently by way of the lens of various women saints. The end of a love affair—a topic treated with grounded honesty on another major 2025 album—soars skyward on this record, buoyed by the lush presence of a major symphony orchestra and input from an award-winning songwriter within a long list of collaborators. Its sheer daring by itself renders the efforts of contemporary pop stars seem rather laughable.
Rising Above Academic Pretense
The fact that this album succeeds in transcend overly intellectual chin-stroking feels nothing short of a miracle, and complete credit belonging to Rosalía. While it's not her first album to alchemize historical sounds with modern styles, its stakes feel much higher on Lux, and the tightrope walk more precarious. What truly elevates her fourth album, beyond its multilayered melodies, dense compositions, and engrained drama, proves to be a core sense of playfulness. Similar to the legendary Björk during her height, you find a wondrous quality to the vocalist's singing which sweeps you up in its whirlwind. When she's tearing hearts in two, the listener still desire to be right there for the ride.
A Signature Moment of Exuberance
That exuberant energy comes forth brightly during a stunning piano-led ballad inspired by a saint. It luxuriates in a string-drenched melancholy over more than four minutes. Then, everything falls silent, and there's a gleeful giggle and a comment before a comically exaggerated string surge thuds down like cartoonish force. The track then shifts to the frenetic single featuring racing orchestration, a powerful choral group, and a cameo appearance from the artist Björk.
"The magic of this album is that the listener never quite know—nor wish to predict—what it is going next."
Almost each track concludes at a totally different place from where it started. A track examines the fleeting nature of celebrity over a featherlight orchestration before disintegrating into digital chaos. Another, a cut echoing the artist's previous rhythmic style begins off dark and brooding, with menacing beats, until fluttering flamenco rhythms and a heavenly chorus arrive to soften its jagged corners.
The Bridge Of Art & Accessibility
Another crucial achievement of the album involves navigating the gap of radical innovation and mainstream appeal. This is little surprise that it has achieved her first release to crack the upper reaches of major markets: its heart contains a collection of truly catchy hits. A song sung entirely in the English language builds on a chorus that feels to collect more and more infectious melodies as it spirals upward. That trick is echoed by a different powerful ballad that expands and contracts, intertwining layered tunes as a complex weave.
- A waltz-like song charms with its jaunty, Disney-adjacent flair and a chant-along chorus.
- In its words, it aligns the pop culture impact of contemporary breakup songs, lambasting a former lover labeled an "emotional bully".
- Throughout these tracks, the vocals carry a painted-on smile, akin to a storybook figure hiding a knife: "Gold medal in acting like a motherfucker / You have the podium of disappointment."
A Maximalist Banquet for the Soul
Lux represents popular music on a grand scale, a hungry reach for capital-A artistry in an era of impending artificial blankness. It eschews solipsism for glorious elevation, creating an over-the-top spectacle that masterfully manages its built-in excess. It is a deep well of buried gems that takes patience to fully mine but doesn't seem like hard work. Where some big releases of 2025 felt like feasting on meal, this record is a lavish banquet at which the characters around it, perhaps tipsy on holy wine, flit from discussions about ancient figures, the galvanizing sensation of soul-shattering sadness, and shared stories about hopeless men. It is a contemporary musical from music's truly restlessly inventive visionary.
