On the surface, this album might appear more like a challenging university challenge than a new popular music album by a musician who just had a previous single featured a global pop icon. Split across 4 different movements and performed in 13 languages, we have a dizzying classical-tinged album that delves into female mystique, spiritual transcendence, and bodily change, often through the prism of different saintly figures. The end of a love affair—a topic handled with grounded honesty on another major 2025 album—is launched heavenward on this record, supported by the lush presence of a major orchestra and input from a Pulitzer-winning songwriter within an extensive roll call of collaborators. Its sheer ambition by itself renders the efforts of other pop stars seem quite laughable.
Rising Above Scholarly Pretense
That this album manages to escape dry intellectual posturing is nothing short of a miracle, with sole credit belonging to Rosalía. Although it's not her first project to fuse historical sounds and the present, the ambitions feel much greater here, and the tightrope walk more precarious. The element that truly raises her fourth album, beyond its complex melodies, dense arrangements, and inherent theatricality, proves to be an essential sense of fun. Similar to the legendary artist during her peak, there is a captivating quality to Rosalía's singing that pulls the listener up in its tornado. When she's tearing hearts in two, you still desire to stay right there for the journey.
A Prime Moment of Exuberance
That playful spirit shines clearly on a stunning Italian ballad inspired by a saint. It bathes in a string-drenched melancholy for several moments. Then, all the music drops silent, to reveal there's a spontaneous laugh and a declaration before a hilariously over-the-top orchestral surge crashes down with cartoonish impact. The track then shifts into the wild single featuring racing strings, an imposing choral group, and a surprise appearance from the artist Björk.
"The charm with this album is that the listener never quite know—or even want to predict—what you is going next."
Almost every track ends at a completely different point from how it started. A track explores the fleeting nature of celebrity over a delicate orchestration before collapsing into digital chaos. Another, a song echoing the artist's earlier trap-infused work begins out dark and sinister, with menacing beats, until sudden flamenco rhythms and a heavenly choir arrive to smooth its rough corners.
The Bridge Of Art and Accessibility
A key achievement on Lux involves straddling the line of bold innovation and mainstream accessibility. It is little surprise that it has become her highest-charting work to crack the upper reaches of key markets: its heart contains a suite of utterly undeniable hits. A song performed entirely in the English language builds around a chorus that seems to gather increasingly infectious melodies while it spirals upward. That trick is echoed by a different expansive ballad that grows and constricts, weaving layered tunes as a complex weave.
- A dance-infused song seduces with its playful, theatrical flair and a chant-along chorus.
- In its words, it shares the pop culture impact of other heartbreak songs, eviscerating a former partner labeled an "emotional terrorist".
- Throughout these tracks, the vocals have a sharp edge, like a storybook character hiding a blade: "Gold medal in acting like a scoundrel / You've the podium of letdown."
An Opulent Banquet for the Ears
Lux is pop on a maximalist scale, a hungry reach for high Art in an era of impending AI-generated sameness. It eschews solipsism for glorious transcendence, creating a dramatic spectacle that masterfully controls its own inherent excess. This is a deep well of hidden gems that requires patience to completely explore but doesn't feels like hard work. While some big releases of 2025 felt like feasting on scraps, Lux offers a sumptuous banquet where the guests around it, some tipsy on sacred drink, flit from discussions about historical saints, the galvanizing feeling of soul-shattering sadness, and shared gossip about useless men. In essence, it's a contemporary theatrical production from music's truly restlessly inventive visionary.
