On the surface, this work might appear more like a difficult scholarly quiz than the latest pop project from a musician whose last hit was a collaboration with an international pop star. Broken into four different movements and sung in thirteen tongues, we have a breathtaking symphonic opus exploring female mystery, spiritual ascent, and corporal change, often by way of the perspective of various saintly figures. The dissolution of a love affair—a topic handled with raw openness on another major 2025 album—is shot skyward on this record, carried by the lush sound of a major symphony orchestra and input from a Pulitzer-winning songwriter within an extensive roll call of collaborators. Its sheer ambition alone renders the work of other pop stars look quite modest.
Transcending Academic Exercise
That this album manages to transcend overly intellectual chin-stroking feels almost a miracle, with full praise belonging to the artist. While this is not her first project to blend the past and the present, the ambitions feel far greater on Lux, and the tightrope walk far more pronounced. The element that really raises her fourth release, beyond its complex tunes, dense arrangements, and engrained theatricality, is an essential sense of fun. Similar to the legendary Björk at her peak, you find a captivating sense to Rosalía's singing that pulls the listener up in its tornado. Even when she is breaking your heart in two, you nevertheless desire to be right there through the journey.
A Prime Example of Joy
That playful spirit comes forth brightly during the stirring piano-led ballad about a saint. It bathes in a string-drenched melancholy for several moments. Suddenly, everything falls away, to reveal there's a spontaneous giggle followed by a declaration prior to a comically over-the-top orchestral surge thuds in with comedic force. The song immediately segues into the wild track featuring galloping strings, a powerful choral group, and a cameo role from the artist Björk.
"The magic with this album lies in you never quite know—or even wish to predict—what it will go to next."
Nearly every track ends at a completely different point from where it started. A track explores the transient nature of fame with a featherlight symphony only to disintegrating in electronic cacophony. Elsewhere, a cut that recalls her previous trap-infused work begins out moody and sinister, featuring menacing beats, until sudden flamenco rhythms and a heavenly chorus arrive to smooth its jagged edges.
The Balance Of Experiment & Accessibility
Another crucial achievement on the album involves straddling the line between bold experimentation and mainstream accessibility. This is little surprise that it has become her first release to break into the Top 5 of major charts: its heart contains a collection of truly undeniable hits. A song performed entirely in English swells on a refrain that seems to gather more and more nagging hooks as it spins upward. This trick gets repeated by a different expansive ballad that expands and constricts, intertwining multiple melodies like a complex weave.
- A waltz-like number charms via its playful, Disney-adjacent flair and a chant-along hook.
- In its words, it aligns with cultural honesty of other breakup songs, lambasting a former partner described as an "emotional bully".
- Across the album, the singing carry a painted-on edge, like a fairy-tale character concealing 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 level, an ambitious grasp for capital-A artistry in an era of impending AI-generated blankness. It eschews self-absorption for glorious transcendence, creating a dramatic drama that skillfully controls its own inherent excess. This is an abundant source of hidden treasure that requires patience to completely explore but doesn't seem like hard work. Where some big pop albums of the year seemed like a meager scraps, Lux is a lavish feast where the characters at it, perhaps intoxicated on sacred drink, flutter from conversations about historical figures, the profound feeling of soul-shattering sadness, and common gossip about useless men. It is a contemporary theatrical production from pop's most endlessly inventive practitioner.
