On the surface, Lux could seem more like a challenging scholarly quiz than the latest popular music project by a musician whose previous hit was a collaboration with an international K-pop icon. Broken into 4 separate movements and voiced in 13 tongues, we have a head-spinning orchestral-influenced album investigating feminine mystery, spiritual ascent, and physical transformation, frequently via the perspective of different female saints. The dissolution of a romance—a theme handled with grounded honesty elsewhere—soars upwards here, supported by the lush presence of a full symphony orchestra and work from a Pulitzer-winning composer among a vast list of collaborators. The pure daring alone renders the work of contemporary pop stars look rather modest.
Rising Above Academic Exercise
That Lux manages to escape dry academic posturing feels almost miraculous, with sole credit going to Rosalía. While this is not the first time album to alchemize the past and the present, the scale feel far greater on Lux, and the tightrope walk far more dramatic. The element that truly raises her fourth album, outside of its multilayered tunes, dense compositions, and inherent drama, proves to be an essential spirit of joy. Much like the legendary Björk during her height, there is a wondrous quality to Rosalía's voice which sweeps you into its tornado. Even when she is tearing your heart in two, the listener nevertheless want to be alongside her through the journey.
A Prime Moment of Exuberance
This exuberant spirit shines brightly during a stirring piano-led song inspired by a saint. It bathes in a string-drenched whirlpool over more than four moments. Suddenly, all the music falls away, to reveal we hear a spontaneous giggle followed by a declaration before a hilariously exaggerated orchestral crescendo crashes down with cartoonish force. The song immediately shifts to the frenetic single featuring racing strings, an imposing choir, and a cameo appearance from none other than herself.
"The magic with Lux lies in the listener never exactly know—or even wish to know—where it is going to next."
Nearly every track ends in a completely distinct point than how it began. A track explores the transient nature of celebrity over a delicate symphony only to disintegrating in electronic chaos. Another, a song echoing her earlier rhythmic work starts out dark and brooding, featuring prowling vocals, before fluttering traditional handclaps and a heavenly chorus enter to soften the song's rough corners.
The Balance Between Art & Pop
Another crucial balancing act on the album is straddling the line between bold experimentation and mainstream appeal. It is little coincidence that it has become the artist's highest-charting work to crack the upper reaches of major charts: at its core a collection of utterly undeniable hits. A song performed primarily in English builds on a refrain that seems to collect more and more infectious melodies while it spirals skyward. This trick gets echoed on another powerful ballad that expands and contracts, intertwining layered tunes like a complex tapestry.
- A waltz-like song charms with its playful, Disney-adjacent drama and a chant-along hook.
- In its words, it aligns with cultural honesty of contemporary breakup anthems, lambasting a former partner labeled an "psychological terrorist".
- Across these tracks, the singing have a painted-on edge, like a fairy-tale figure hiding a knife: "Top prize in being a scoundrel / You've won the trophy of letdown."
An Opulent Feast for the Soul
Lux is pop on a grand scale, a hungry grasp for high Art in an era of impending AI-generated blankness. It eschews solipsism in favor of glorious elevation, creating an over-the-top drama that masterfully manages its built-in ridiculousness. It is a deep well of buried gems that takes patience to fully explore but doesn't seem like hard work. Where some major releases of 2025 seemed like a meager meal, this record offers a lavish banquet at which the characters around the table, perhaps intoxicated on holy wine, flutter from discussions about historical saints, the galvanizing feeling of soul-shattering sadness, and shared gossip about useless men. It is a contemporary theatrical production from pop's most restlessly creative visionary.
