On the surface, this album may look closer to a challenging scholarly quiz than a new popular music record from an artist whose previous single was a collaboration with a global pop icon. Broken across four separate movements and voiced in 13 tongues, this is a head-spinning symphonic work exploring female mystique, religious ascent, and corporal change, frequently via the prism of different women saints. The end of a love affair—a topic treated with raw openness on another major 2025 album—is shot heavenward here, carried by the constant sound of a major symphony orchestra and contributions from an award-winning composer within an extensive roll call of collaborators. The pure audacity by itself makes the efforts of contemporary artists seem quite laughable.
Transcending Academic Exercise
The fact that this album manages to transcend overly academic posturing is almost a miracle, and sole praise going to the artist. While it's not the first time project to blend the past and the present, its scale feel far higher here, with the tightrope walk more precarious. The element that truly elevates this fourth release, beyond its multilayered tunes, rich arrangements, and inherent drama, is a core sense of playfulness. Much like the iconic Björk at her peak, you find a wondrous quality to Rosalía's singing that pulls you up in its tornado. Even when she's breaking hearts in two, the listener still desire to stay right there through the journey.
A Signature Moment of Joy
This exuberant spirit shines brightly on a stunning Italian song inspired by a saint. It bathes in a sorrowful melancholy for more than four minutes. Suddenly, everything falls silent, to reveal we hear a spontaneous laugh followed by a declaration before a comically exaggerated string crescendo thuds in like cartoonish force. The song immediately segues into the frenetic single driven by racing strings, a powerful choral group, and a cameo appearance from the artist herself.
"The magic of this album lies in the listener rarely quite understand—or even wish to know—where it will go to next."
Almost each song ends in a completely different place from how it began. One moment explores the transient nature of celebrity over a featherlight symphony only to disintegrating in digital chaos. Another, a song echoing her earlier rhythmic work begins off moody and brooding, featuring menacing vocals, until fluttering flamenco handclaps and a heavenly chorus enter to smooth the song's rough corners.
The Bridge Of Experiment & Accessibility
Another crucial achievement on the album is straddling the line between radical innovation and broad accessibility. It is little surprise that the album has achieved the artist's first release to break into the Top 5 of major charts: its heart contains a collection of truly catchy pop songs. A song performed primarily in the English language swells on a refrain that feels to collect more and more nagging hooks while it spirals skyward. That feat gets repeated by a different expansive ballad that grows and constricts, weaving layered tunes like a complex weave.
- A dance-infused song seduces via its playful, theatrical flair and a chant-along hook.
- In its words, it shares the cultural impact of contemporary breakup anthems, eviscerating a former lover described as an "emotional bully".
- Throughout these tracks, the singing have a painted-on edge, like a fairy-tale figure hiding a knife: "Gold medal in being a motherfucker / You have the podium of disappointment."
An Opulent Banquet for the Soul
Lux represents popular music on a grand level, an ambitious reach for high Art in an era of impending AI-generated sameness. It eschews self-absorption in favor of sublime transcendence, crafting an over-the-top spectacle that masterfully controls its own inherent ridiculousness. This is an abundant well of buried treasure that requires time to fully mine but doesn't feels like a chore. While other major releases of 2025 felt like a meager scraps, this record is a lavish banquet where the guests around the table, some intoxicated on holy wine, flutter from conversations about historical figures, the galvanizing sensation of soul-shattering sadness, and shared gossip about useless partners. In essence, it's a modern-day theatrical production from music's most restlessly creative visionary.
