On the surface, this album could seem more like a challenging university quiz than the latest pop project from a musician who just had a last single featured an international pop star. Broken across four distinct sections and performed in 13 tongues, this is a head-spinning orchestral-influenced work investigating feminine mystery, religious ascent, and physical change, often by way of the lens of various women saints. The end of a romance—a theme treated with grounded honesty on another major 2025 album—soars heavenward on this record, supported by the constant presence of a major orchestra and work from a Pulitzer-winning songwriter within a long roll call of collaborators. The pure audacity alone makes the work of contemporary pop stars look quite laughable.
Transcending Academic Pretense
The fact that this album succeeds in avoid dry intellectual posturing is almost miraculous, with sole praise belonging to Rosalía. Although it's not her first album to fuse historical sounds and modern styles, the scale are far higher here, and the balancing act more dramatic. What really raises this fourth release, beyond its complex melodies, rich compositions, and engrained drama, is a core spirit of fun. Similar to the legendary artist at her height, there is a wondrous quality to Rosalía's voice which sweeps the listener up in its tornado. Even when she's tearing hearts in two, the listener nevertheless desire to be alongside her for the journey.
A Prime Moment of Exuberance
This exuberant energy comes forth clearly on the stirring Italian song inspired by a saint. It bathes in a string-drenched melancholy over more than four minutes. Suddenly, all the music drops silent, to reveal there's a gleeful laugh followed by a declaration before a hilariously exaggerated string crescendo thuds in like comedic impact. The track immediately shifts into the wild track featuring racing strings, a powerful choir, and a cameo appearance from the artist herself.
"The charm of Lux lies in you rarely exactly understand—nor want to predict—what it will go next."
Nearly every song ends in a totally different point from where it began. One moment explores the fleeting trappings of celebrity with a featherlight orchestration only to collapsing into digital chaos. Elsewhere, a cut echoing the artist's previous trap-infused style begins off dark and sinister, with menacing vocals, until fluttering flamenco handclaps and a heavenly chorus enter to soften the song's rough corners.
The Balance Of Experiment and Pop
A key achievement of the album involves navigating the gap of bold innovation and mainstream accessibility. It is no surprise that the album has become the artist's first work to crack the upper reaches of major charts: at its core a collection of utterly catchy hits. One track performed entirely in the English language swells around a chorus that feels to gather more and more infectious hooks while it spins upward. This feat is repeated on a different powerful ballad that expands and constricts, intertwining layered melodies as a complex weave.
- A dance-infused number seduces via its jaunty, Disney-adjacent flair and an anthemic chorus.
- Lyrically, it aligns the cultural honesty of contemporary heartbreak anthems, eviscerating a former lover described as an "emotional terrorist".
- Across the album, the vocals carry a painted-on smile, akin to a storybook figure concealing a blade: "Gold medal in acting like a scoundrel / You have the podium of disappointment."
An Opulent Banquet for the Soul
Lux is pop on a grand level, a hungry reach for capital-A Art in an era of impending AI-generated sameness. It eschews solipsism in favor of glorious elevation, creating a dramatic spectacle that skillfully controls its own inherent ridiculousness. This is an abundant source of buried gems that requires time to fully mine but never seem like a chore. While other major releases of the year seemed like a meager scraps, Lux is a lavish banquet at which the characters around the table, perhaps intoxicated on sacred drink, flutter between discussions about historical figures, the profound sensation of heartbreaking grief, and shared stories about hopeless partners. In essence, it's a modern-day theatrical production from pop's most endlessly inventive visionary.
