🔗 Share this article

At first glance, this album could seem more like a challenging academic examination rather than a new pop project by an artist whose previous single featured an international pop icon. Divided into 4 separate parts and sung in 13 languages, we have a head-spinning symphonic opus exploring feminine mystery, religious ascent, and corporal change, often via the prism of different women saints. The end of a romance—a theme handled with raw openness on another major 2025 album—is launched heavenward on this record, carried by the lush sound of a full orchestra and input from a Pulitzer-winning songwriter within a long list of collaborators. Its sheer daring alone makes the efforts of contemporary artists appear rather small.

Rising Above Scholarly Pretense

The fact that Lux manages to escape overly intellectual chin-stroking feels nothing short of miraculous, and sole praise belonging to Rosalía. Although it's not her first album to blend historical sounds and modern styles, the ambitions feel much higher on Lux, and the balancing act more dramatic. What truly raises this fourth album, outside of its multilayered melodies, dense arrangements, and engrained drama, is a core sense of joy. Much like the legendary Björk during her height, you find a captivating sense to the vocalist's voice which sweeps you into its tornado. Even when she is breaking your heart apart, the listener nevertheless desire to be right there through the ride.

A Prime Moment of Joy

This playful energy shines brightly on the stirring piano-led song about a saint. It bathes in a sorrowful whirlpool over more than four moments. Then, all the music falls silent, to reveal we hear a gleeful laugh and a declaration prior to a hilariously over-the-top orchestral surge crashes in with cartoonish force. The song immediately shifts into the wild single driven by racing orchestration, an imposing choral group, and a cameo appearance from the artist Björk.

"The charm with Lux lies in you rarely exactly know—or even want to predict—where it is going next."

Nearly each track finishes at a completely different place from where it started. One moment explores the fleeting trappings of fame with a delicate orchestration only to disintegrating into digital chaos. Another, a cut echoing her earlier trap-infused work starts out dark and sinister, with menacing beats, until sudden traditional rhythms and a heavenly choir arrive to soften the song's jagged edges.

The Bridge Between Experiment and Pop

A key balancing act of Lux is straddling the gap between bold experimentation and mainstream appeal. It is no surprise that it has achieved the artist's highest-charting release to crack the Top 5 of key charts: its heart contains a collection of truly catchy pop songs. One track performed primarily in English swells around a refrain that seems to gather more and more nagging melodies while it spins upward. This feat is echoed on another expansive track that grows and contracts, weaving layered melodies like a complex weave.

• A dance-infused song charms with its jaunty, Disney-adjacent flair and a chant-along hook.
• In its words, it aligns with cultural honesty of other heartbreak songs, lambasting an ex- lover labeled an "emotional bully".
• Throughout these tracks, the vocals have a sharp smile, akin to a fairy-tale character hiding a blade: "Top prize in acting like a motherfucker / You have won the trophy of letdown."

A Maximalist Feast for the Ears

This album represents popular music on a maximalist level, a hungry reach for capital-A Art in an era of impending artificial blankness. It rejects solipsism for glorious transcendence, creating a dramatic spectacle that masterfully manages its built-in ridiculousness. It is an abundant source of buried treasure that requires time to completely mine but never feels like a chore. While other big releases of 2025 felt like feasting on meal, this record is a lavish banquet where the characters around the table, some tipsy on sacred wine, flutter between conversations about ancient saints, the profound sensation of heartbreaking sadness, and common stories about useless partners. In essence, it's a contemporary musical from pop's most endlessly creative visionary.