On the surface, this album might appear closer to a difficult academic challenge rather than a new pop album by a musician whose previous single featured an international pop star. Split into four distinct parts and voiced in thirteen tongues, this is a breathtaking symphonic work investigating female mystique, religious transcendence, and physical transformation, often through the prism of various female saints. The end of a relationship—a theme treated with raw honesty elsewhere—is launched upwards here, buoyed by the lush presence of a major symphony orchestra and work from an award-winning composer within an extensive list of contributors. Its sheer ambition alone makes the efforts of other pop stars look quite small.
Transcending Academic Exercise
The fact that this album succeeds in escape dry intellectual posturing feels almost miraculous, and full credit going to Rosalía. Although it's not the first time album to alchemize historical sounds and modern styles, its ambitions are much greater here, and the balancing act far more dramatic. What truly elevates her fourth release, outside of its multilayered tunes, rich arrangements, and inherent theatricality, proves to be a core sense of joy. Much like the legendary artist during her peak, you find a wondrous sense to the vocalist's singing that pulls you up in its whirlwind. Even when she is tearing your heart in two, you still desire to be right there for the journey.
A Prime Moment of Exuberance
That exuberant spirit comes forth brightly during the stirring piano-led song inspired by Saint Clare. It bathes in a string-drenched whirlpool for more than four minutes. Then, all the music falls away, to reveal we hear a gleeful giggle and a comment before a comically over-the-top string surge crashes in with cartoonish impact. The track immediately shifts into the wild track driven by racing strings, a powerful choral group, and a cameo role from the artist Björk.
"The magic with this album is that you rarely quite understand—nor want to know—where it will go to next."
Almost each track concludes in a completely distinct point than how it started. One moment examines the transient trappings of celebrity with a featherlight symphony only to collapsing into electronic cacophony. Another, a cut that recalls her previous rhythmic work begins out moody and brooding, featuring menacing vocals, before sudden traditional handclaps and a heavenly chorus enter to smooth its rough edges.
The Balance Of Art & Pop
Another crucial achievement on the album is straddling the line between bold experimentation and mainstream accessibility. This is little coincidence that the album has become her highest-charting release to crack the upper reaches of key markets: its heart contains a collection of truly undeniable pop songs. A song sung entirely in English swells around a chorus that seems to collect increasingly nagging melodies as it spirals upward. That feat gets echoed by another expansive ballad that expands and constricts, weaving multiple melodies as a complex tapestry.
- A waltz-like number seduces via its playful, Disney-adjacent flair and a chant-along hook.
- In its words, it aligns the pop culture honesty of contemporary heartbreak songs, lambasting an ex- partner labeled an "emotional terrorist".
- Throughout these tracks, the singing carry a painted-on edge, 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
This album represents popular music on a maximalist scale, a hungry reach for high Art in an era of impending AI-generated sameness. It eschews solipsism in favor of glorious transcendence, creating an over-the-top spectacle that masterfully controls its own built-in excess. This is an abundant source of buried treasure that requires patience to completely explore but doesn't seem like a chore. Where other major releases of the year seemed like feasting on scraps, Lux is a lavish feast at which the characters around it, perhaps intoxicated on holy wine, flit between discussions about historical figures, the galvanizing sensation of soul-shattering grief, and common gossip about useless partners. In essence, it's a contemporary musical from music's truly restlessly creative visionary.
