🔗 Share this article

On the surface, this album may look more like a challenging academic examination than the latest pop project from a musician whose previous single featured a global K-pop icon. Broken into four distinct movements and sung in 13 tongues, we have a breathtaking orchestral-influenced album exploring female mystique, spiritual ascent, and physical change, frequently by way of the perspective of different female saints. The end of a love affair—a theme treated with grounded honesty elsewhere—soars heavenward here, carried by the constant presence of a full orchestra and contributions from an award-winning songwriter among an extensive roll call of collaborators. The pure audacity alone makes the efforts of contemporary pop stars look rather small.

Rising Above Academic Exercise

The fact that Lux succeeds in avoid overly intellectual chin-stroking feels nothing short of miraculous, and full credit belonging to the artist. While this is not the first time album to blend the past with modern styles, its scale are far greater on Lux, and the tightrope walk more pronounced. What really raises her fourth release, outside of its complex tunes, rich arrangements, and inherent drama, is an essential sense of joy. Similar to the legendary Björk at her peak, you find a wondrous quality to Rosalía's voice which sweeps you into its tornado. Even when she's breaking your heart in two, the listener still desire to be alongside her through the ride.

A Signature Example of Joy

That exuberant energy comes forth clearly during a stunning Italian ballad about a saint. It luxuriates in a string-drenched whirlpool over more than four minutes. Then, everything drops silent, to reveal there's a gleeful giggle and a comment before a comically over-the-top orchestral crescendo crashes in like comedic impact. The song then segues to the wild single driven by racing orchestration, a powerful choral group, and a surprise appearance from none other than Björk.

"The charm with this album is that the listener rarely exactly know—nor wish to know—where it will go to next."

Almost each song ends in a completely distinct place from how it began. A track examines the transient trappings of celebrity over a featherlight symphony only to collapsing into digital cacophony. Another, a cut echoing her previous rhythmic work begins out moody and sinister, featuring prowling beats, until sudden traditional handclaps and a heavenly choir enter to soften its rough edges.

The Bridge Of Art & Accessibility

Another crucial achievement of the album is straddling the line of radical experimentation and mainstream accessibility. It is little coincidence that it has achieved the artist's first work to break into the upper reaches of key charts: its heart contains a suite of truly catchy hits. A song sung entirely in the English language builds on a chorus that seems to collect increasingly infectious hooks as it spins upward. That trick is echoed by a different expansive track that expands and constricts, intertwining layered tunes like an intricate weave.

• A waltz-like number charms via its jaunty, theatrical flair and a chant-along hook.
• In its words, it shares the pop culture impact of other heartbreak songs, lambasting a former partner described as an "psychological terrorist".
• Throughout these tracks, the vocals have a painted-on smile, like a fairy-tale character hiding a knife: "Top prize in acting like a motherfucker / You have won the trophy of letdown."

An Opulent Banquet for the Ears

Lux is pop on a grand scale, a hungry reach for capital-A Art amid of impending AI-generated blankness. It eschews solipsism for glorious transcendence, creating a dramatic spectacle that skillfully controls its built-in ridiculousness. It is a deep source of buried gems that requires time to fully explore but never feels like a chore. While other big pop albums of 2025 felt like feasting on scraps, this record offers a lavish feast at which the guests around it, perhaps tipsy on sacred wine, flutter from discussions about ancient figures, the galvanizing sensation of heartbreaking sadness, and shared gossip about hopeless men. It is a contemporary theatrical production from pop's most endlessly inventive visionary.