On the surface, this album may look closer to an arduous university challenge rather than a new popular music album from a musician whose last hit featured a global pop star. Divided across 4 different sections and sung in thirteen tongues, we have a head-spinning classical-tinged album exploring female mystique, spiritual transcendence, and corporal change, frequently via the lens of various saintly figures. The dissolution of a love affair—a theme handled with grounded openness on another major 2025 album—is shot upwards on this record, supported by the lush presence of a major orchestra and work from a Pulitzer-winning composer within a vast list of collaborators. The pure audacity alone renders the efforts of contemporary pop stars seem quite small.
Transcending Scholarly Pretense
That this album succeeds in escape dry academic posturing feels nearly a miracle, and sole praise belonging to Rosalía. While this is not her first album to alchemize the past and modern styles, the scale feel much higher on Lux, and the tightrope walk far more pronounced. The element that really raises this fourth release, outside of its multilayered tunes, dense compositions, and engrained drama, is a core sense of fun. Similar to the legendary artist during her height, there is a wondrous sense to the vocalist's voice that pulls the listener into its tornado. When she's breaking your heart apart, the listener still desire to stay alongside her through the journey.
A Prime Moment of Joy
That playful spirit comes forth brightly on the stunning Italian ballad inspired by a saint. It luxuriates in a string-drenched melancholy over more than four minutes. Suddenly, all the music falls silent, to reveal there's a gleeful giggle followed by a comment prior to a comically exaggerated orchestral crescendo crashes down with cartoonish impact. The track immediately shifts into the wild single driven by racing orchestration, a powerful choir, and a cameo appearance from none other than Björk.
"The magic with this album lies in you rarely exactly know—nor wish to predict—where it is going next."
Almost each song concludes at a completely different place than how it began. One moment examines the fleeting nature of fame over a delicate orchestration only to collapsing in electronic chaos. Another, a cut echoing the artist's previous trap-infused work starts out dark and sinister, with menacing beats, before sudden traditional rhythms and a heavenly chorus arrive to smooth the song's jagged edges.
The Balance Between Art & Accessibility
Another crucial balancing act on the album is straddling the gap between radical experimentation and broad appeal. It is no surprise that it has become the artist's first release to break into the upper reaches of major markets: at its core a suite of utterly undeniable pop songs. A song performed entirely in English builds on a refrain that feels to gather more and more nagging melodies as it spins skyward. This feat is echoed by another powerful track that expands and contracts, intertwining multiple tunes as an intricate tapestry.
- A waltz-like song charms with its jaunty, Disney-adjacent flair and an anthemic hook.
- In its words, it shares the cultural impact of other breakup anthems, lambasting a former partner labeled an "psychological terrorist".
- Throughout these tracks, the vocals carry a painted-on edge, like a storybook character hiding a blade: "Gold medal in acting like a motherfucker / You have the podium of disappointment."
A Maximalist Banquet for the Soul
This album is pop on a maximalist scale, a hungry reach for capital-A artistry amid of looming AI-generated blankness. It rejects solipsism for sublime elevation, creating an over-the-top spectacle that skillfully controls its own built-in ridiculousness. It is an abundant well of buried treasure that takes patience to fully mine but doesn't feels like hard work. Where other major pop albums of 2025 felt like a meager meal, Lux offers a lavish feast where the guests at the table, perhaps intoxicated on sacred drink, flutter from conversations about historical figures, the galvanizing feeling of heartbreaking grief, and shared gossip about hopeless men. It is a contemporary musical from music's most restlessly inventive visionary.
