Initially, Lux could seem closer to a difficult university challenge than a new popular music project by an artist whose previous hit was a collaboration with an international K-pop icon. Divided across 4 separate movements and voiced in thirteen tongues, this is a head-spinning symphonic album exploring female mystique, spiritual transcendence, and corporal transformation, frequently by way of the prism of various saintly figures. The dissolution of a love affair—a topic treated with grounded honesty elsewhere—soars upwards here, carried by the constant presence of a full symphony orchestra and contributions from an award-winning songwriter among an extensive roll call of collaborators. The pure daring alone makes the work of contemporary pop stars seem rather modest.
Rising Above Scholarly Exercise
The fact that Lux manages to transcend overly academic chin-stroking is almost a miracle, and full credit going to the artist. While it's not the first time project to fuse the past with the present, the scale feel much higher on Lux, and the balancing act far more pronounced. What really raises her fourth release, outside of its multilayered tunes, rich arrangements, and engrained drama, proves to be a core spirit of fun. Much like the legendary artist at her peak, you find a captivating quality to Rosalía's singing that pulls the listener up in its whirlwind. Even when she is tearing your heart in two, you still desire to be alongside her through the ride.
A Signature Example of Joy
This playful spirit comes forth clearly on the stirring Italian ballad inspired by Saint Clare. It bathes in a sorrowful melancholy for more than four moments. Then, everything drops silent, and there's a spontaneous giggle and a comment prior to a comically over-the-top orchestral crescendo crashes down with cartoonish force. The song immediately segues to the frenetic single featuring racing strings, an imposing choir, and a cameo role from none other than herself.
"The magic with Lux is that the listener rarely quite know—or even wish to predict—where it will go next."
Nearly every track finishes at a completely different point from how it began. A track explores the fleeting nature of celebrity over a delicate symphony only to collapsing into digital cacophony. Elsewhere, a song that recalls the artist's earlier trap-infused style starts off dark and brooding, with menacing beats, before sudden traditional handclaps and a heavenly choir enter to soften the song's rough corners.
The Balance Between Experiment and Accessibility
Another crucial balancing act of the album is straddling the gap of bold experimentation and mainstream appeal. It is no surprise that the album has become the artist's first work to crack the Top 5 of key charts: its heart contains a suite of truly catchy hits. One track performed primarily in the English language builds on a refrain that feels to gather increasingly nagging melodies while it spins skyward. This trick is echoed by another powerful track that expands and constricts, weaving multiple melodies as a complex tapestry.
- A dance-infused song seduces with its playful, theatrical drama and a chant-along hook.
- Lyrically, it shares the cultural honesty of other heartbreak anthems, eviscerating a former partner labeled an "psychological terrorist".
- Across these tracks, the singing have a painted-on smile, like a fairy-tale figure concealing a knife: "Top prize in acting like a motherfucker / You have won the trophy of disappointment."
A Maximalist Banquet for the Ears
Lux is popular music on a maximalist level, an ambitious reach for capital-A artistry in an era of impending AI-generated sameness. It eschews solipsism in favor of glorious elevation, crafting an over-the-top drama that masterfully manages its own inherent excess. This is an abundant source of hidden treasure that takes time to fully explore but doesn't seem like a chore. Where some big pop albums of the year seemed like feasting on scraps, Lux offers a lavish banquet where the characters at the table, some tipsy on holy wine, flit between conversations about historical saints, the galvanizing sensation of heartbreaking grief, and shared gossip about useless men. It is a modern-day theatrical production from pop's truly endlessly creative practitioner.
