🔗 Share this article

Initially, this work may look closer to a challenging academic quiz rather than a new popular music project by a musician whose previous single featured a global pop star. Split into four distinct movements and performed in thirteen languages, we have a head-spinning classical-tinged album that delves into feminine mystery, religious ascent, and bodily transformation, often via the perspective of various women saints. The end of a romance—a theme treated with grounded openness on another major 2025 album—is launched skyward on this record, supported by the lush presence of a major orchestra and input from an award-winning songwriter within an extensive roll call of contributors. The pure daring by itself renders the efforts of other artists seem rather laughable.

Rising Above Academic Pretense

The fact that Lux succeeds in transcend dry intellectual chin-stroking is nearly miraculous, and full credit going to Rosalía. While it's not her first project to alchemize the past and modern styles, its stakes feel much higher here, and the balancing act far more dramatic. What really raises this fourth album, outside of its complex tunes, dense arrangements, and engrained drama, is an essential sense of joy. Much like the iconic Björk during her height, there is a captivating quality to Rosalía's singing which sweeps the listener up in its tornado. When she is breaking your heart apart, the listener nevertheless desire to be alongside her for the ride.

A Signature Moment of Joy

This exuberant energy comes forth clearly on the stirring Italian song inspired by a saint. It luxuriates in a sorrowful melancholy over several moments. Then, all the music drops away, and there's a gleeful giggle and a comment before a hilariously exaggerated string crescendo thuds down with cartoonish force. The song then segues into the wild single driven by racing strings, an imposing choral group, and a surprise appearance from the artist herself.

"The charm of Lux lies in the listener never exactly know—or even want to know—where it is going next."

Nearly each track ends in a completely distinct point than where it began. One moment examines the fleeting nature of fame over a delicate orchestration only to disintegrating into digital cacophony. Elsewhere, a song echoing the artist's previous trap-infused style begins off dark and brooding, featuring prowling vocals, until sudden flamenco handclaps and an angelic chorus arrive to soften the song's jagged corners.

The Bridge Of Experiment & Accessibility

A key achievement of the album is straddling the gap between radical experimentation and mainstream appeal. It is little coincidence that it has become the artist's highest-charting work to break into the Top 5 of key charts: its heart contains a collection of truly undeniable hits. A song performed entirely in English swells around a refrain that feels to collect more and more infectious melodies as it spirals upward. That trick is repeated on another powerful ballad that grows and contracts, intertwining layered melodies as an intricate weave.

• A dance-infused song seduces with its playful, Disney-adjacent flair and a chant-along chorus.
• Lyrically, it aligns with pop culture honesty of contemporary breakup songs, lambasting a former lover labeled an "emotional bully".
• Across these tracks, the vocals carry a sharp edge, like a storybook character concealing a knife: "Gold medal in acting like a scoundrel / You've won the trophy of disappointment."

A Maximalist Feast for the Soul

Lux is popular music on a maximalist level, a hungry reach for high Art amid of looming artificial blankness. It eschews solipsism in favor of glorious elevation, crafting an over-the-top spectacle that skillfully controls its own built-in ridiculousness. It is a deep source of buried treasure that takes patience to completely mine but doesn't feels like hard work. While some major releases of 2025 seemed like feasting on scraps, Lux is a sumptuous banquet where the characters at the table, some intoxicated on holy drink, flit from discussions about historical figures, the profound sensation of soul-shattering sadness, and shared stories about hopeless partners. It is a modern-day musical from pop's most endlessly inventive visionary.