🔗 Share this article

At first glance, Lux could seem more like an arduous university examination rather than the latest popular music album by an artist who just had a last hit was a collaboration with a global K-pop star. Broken into 4 distinct parts and sung in thirteen languages, this is a breathtaking symphonic album exploring feminine mystery, religious transcendence, and bodily transformation, often via the perspective of various female saints. The end of a love affair—a theme handled with grounded honesty elsewhere—soars skyward on this record, carried by the constant sound of a full orchestra and input from a Pulitzer-winning composer among a vast roll call of collaborators. The pure ambition alone renders the work of contemporary artists look rather modest.

Transcending Academic Pretense

That this album succeeds in escape overly academic posturing is nothing short of miraculous, and complete credit belonging to the artist. While it's not the first time project to alchemize the past with modern styles, the stakes feel much higher on Lux, with the tightrope walk far more precarious. The element that truly elevates her fourth album, beyond its multilayered tunes, dense compositions, and engrained theatricality, proves to be a core spirit of playfulness. Similar to the legendary Björk at her height, there is a captivating sense to Rosalía's singing which sweeps you into its tornado. Even when she's breaking hearts apart, you nevertheless desire to be right there through the ride.

A Prime Moment of Joy

That exuberant energy shines clearly during the stirring Italian song inspired by Saint Clare. It luxuriates in a string-drenched melancholy for several moments. Suddenly, everything drops away, and we hear a gleeful giggle followed by a declaration prior to a hilariously exaggerated string surge crashes down like comedic impact. The track then segues to the frenetic single driven by galloping orchestration, a powerful choir, and a surprise role from none other than herself.

"The magic with Lux is that you rarely quite understand—or even want to know—where you is going to next."

Nearly each song finishes at a completely distinct place than where it began. One moment explores the fleeting nature of celebrity with a delicate orchestration before collapsing into electronic chaos. Elsewhere, a song echoing her earlier trap-infused work starts off dark and brooding, featuring menacing beats, before fluttering traditional handclaps and an angelic choir arrive to smooth the song's rough edges.

The Bridge Between Art & Accessibility

Another crucial achievement on Lux is straddling the gap of bold experimentation and broad accessibility. This is no coincidence that it has become her highest-charting work to break into the upper reaches of major markets: at its core a suite of utterly catchy pop songs. A song performed primarily in English builds on a chorus that feels to collect more and more infectious hooks as it spins skyward. This trick gets echoed by another expansive track that grows and contracts, intertwining multiple tunes as an intricate tapestry.

• A waltz-like song seduces via its jaunty, Disney-adjacent drama and a chant-along hook.
• Lyrically, it shares with pop culture honesty of other breakup anthems, lambasting a former partner labeled an "psychological terrorist".
• Across these tracks, the vocals carry a sharp edge, like a fairy-tale character concealing a knife: "Gold medal in being a motherfucker / You have the podium of disappointment."

A Maximalist Banquet for the Soul

Lux represents pop on a maximalist scale, an ambitious grasp for capital-A artistry in an era of looming AI-generated blankness. It rejects solipsism for sublime transcendence, creating a dramatic spectacle that masterfully manages its inherent ridiculousness. It is a deep well of buried gems that takes time to completely mine but never seem like a chore. While other major pop albums of 2025 seemed like a meager meal, Lux offers a sumptuous banquet at which the characters around it, perhaps tipsy on holy wine, flutter between conversations about historical figures, the galvanizing feeling of soul-shattering sadness, and shared gossip about hopeless partners. It is a contemporary musical from music's most endlessly inventive practitioner.