🔗 Share this article

Initially, this album may look more like a challenging university quiz than the latest popular music album from an artist whose previous hit featured an international K-pop icon. Divided into four separate movements and performed in thirteen languages, this is a head-spinning symphonic opus that delves into female mystique, spiritual ascent, and bodily transformation, often via the perspective of various saintly figures. The dissolution of a romance—a topic handled with grounded openness elsewhere—soars heavenward on this record, carried by the lush presence of a full orchestra and work from a Pulitzer-winning songwriter within a vast list of collaborators. Its sheer audacity alone renders the efforts of other artists seem rather laughable.

Transcending Academic Exercise

That Lux succeeds in avoid dry intellectual posturing feels nearly a miracle, and full praise going to Rosalía. Although this is not the first time album to blend the past and the present, the scale are much greater on Lux, with the tightrope walk more precarious. The element that truly elevates her fourth release, outside of its multilayered tunes, dense compositions, and engrained drama, proves to be a core spirit of playfulness. Much like the legendary artist at her height, there is a wondrous sense to Rosalía's singing that pulls the listener up in its tornado. Even when she's tearing your heart in two, you still want to be alongside her for the ride.

A Prime Moment of Exuberance

This playful energy comes forth clearly during a stirring Italian ballad about a saint. It luxuriates in a sorrowful whirlpool for more than four minutes. Then, all the music falls silent, and we hear a gleeful giggle followed by a declaration before a hilariously over-the-top orchestral surge crashes in like cartoonish force. The track then shifts into the wild track featuring galloping orchestration, a powerful choral group, and a surprise appearance from none other than herself.

"The charm with this album is that you never quite understand—or even want to know—where you will go to next."

Nearly each song ends at a totally different point from how it started. A track examines the transient trappings of celebrity with a delicate symphony only to disintegrating into electronic cacophony. Another, a cut that recalls her previous trap-infused style begins off dark and sinister, featuring menacing beats, until sudden traditional rhythms and an angelic chorus enter to soften the song's rough corners.

The Balance Between Art and Pop

A key achievement on Lux involves navigating the line between radical experimentation and mainstream appeal. It is no coincidence that it has become her first work to crack the upper reaches of major markets: its heart contains a collection of utterly catchy hits. A song performed primarily in English builds on a refrain that feels to gather increasingly infectious melodies as it spins upward. That trick gets repeated on another expansive track that grows and constricts, weaving layered melodies like an intricate weave.

• A waltz-like number charms with its jaunty, theatrical flair and a chant-along chorus.
• In its words, it aligns with pop culture impact of other heartbreak anthems, eviscerating an ex- partner described as an "emotional bully".
• Across these tracks, the singing have a painted-on edge, like a storybook character hiding a blade: "Top prize in acting like a scoundrel / You've won the trophy of disappointment."

A Maximalist Feast for the Ears

Lux represents pop on a maximalist scale, a hungry reach for high artistry in an era of looming AI-generated blankness. It rejects solipsism in favor of sublime elevation, crafting a dramatic spectacle that skillfully controls its built-in excess. This is an abundant source of buried gems that requires time to completely mine but never feels like a chore. Where some big releases of the year seemed like a meager scraps, this record offers a lavish feast where the characters around the table, some intoxicated on holy wine, flutter from discussions about historical saints, the profound feeling of soul-shattering grief, and shared gossip about useless partners. It is a contemporary theatrical production from music's truly restlessly inventive visionary.