At first glance, this album might appear closer to a challenging university quiz rather than a new popular music record by a musician whose last hit was a collaboration with a global K-pop star. Broken across four separate sections and sung in thirteen tongues, we have a dizzying classical-tinged opus that delves into female mystery, spiritual transcendence, and physical transformation, frequently through the perspective of different female saints. The dissolution of a romance—a theme handled with raw openness on another major 2025 album—is launched skyward on this record, supported by the constant sound of a full symphony orchestra and contributions from an award-winning composer within a long roll call of contributors. Its sheer ambition alone makes the work of other artists look rather laughable.
Rising Above Scholarly Pretense
That Lux manages to avoid dry academic chin-stroking is nothing short of a miracle, and complete praise going to the artist. Although this is not the first time album to blend the past and modern styles, its stakes are much higher on Lux, with the balancing act more pronounced. The element that truly raises her fourth release, outside of its multilayered melodies, rich compositions, and engrained drama, is an essential spirit of playfulness. Similar to the iconic Björk during her height, you find a wondrous quality to Rosalía's singing that pulls the listener up in its tornado. When she is breaking your heart apart, the listener still want to be right there through the journey.
A Signature Moment of Exuberance
This exuberant spirit comes forth clearly during a stirring piano-led ballad about a saint. It luxuriates in a string-drenched melancholy over several moments. Suddenly, everything drops silent, to reveal there's a gleeful laugh and a comment before a comically exaggerated orchestral surge crashes down with comedic impact. The track immediately shifts into the wild track featuring galloping orchestration, a powerful choir, and a cameo appearance from the artist Björk.
"The charm of Lux lies in you rarely quite know—or even want to know—where it will go next."
Almost each track ends in a completely different place than where it began. A track explores the fleeting trappings of fame over a delicate orchestration before disintegrating into digital cacophony. Elsewhere, a song echoing her previous trap-infused style begins off dark and sinister, with menacing beats, before fluttering traditional rhythms and an angelic choir arrive to smooth the song's rough corners.
The Balance Between Art & Pop
A key balancing act of the album is straddling the line between radical innovation and broad accessibility. This is little coincidence that it has become the artist's highest-charting release to crack the Top 5 of major charts: its heart contains a suite of truly undeniable hits. One track sung primarily in English builds on a chorus that seems to gather more and more nagging hooks as it spirals skyward. This trick is repeated on a different expansive track that expands and constricts, weaving multiple tunes as a complex weave.
- A dance-infused number charms via its jaunty, Disney-adjacent drama and a chant-along chorus.
- In its words, it shares with pop culture impact of contemporary heartbreak anthems, lambasting an ex- lover described as an "emotional terrorist".
- Across the album, the vocals have a painted-on edge, like a fairy-tale character concealing a knife: "Gold medal in acting like a motherfucker / You have the podium of letdown."
An Opulent Banquet for the Ears
This album represents pop on a maximalist level, a hungry reach for capital-A Art in an era of impending AI-generated sameness. It eschews solipsism for glorious elevation, crafting a dramatic drama that skillfully manages its own built-in excess. This is an abundant source of hidden gems that takes patience to completely mine but doesn't feels like a chore. Where some big pop albums of 2025 felt like feasting on scraps, Lux offers a lavish banquet at which the guests around it, perhaps intoxicated on holy wine, flutter from conversations about ancient figures, the galvanizing sensation of heartbreaking grief, and shared gossip about useless men. It is a modern-day theatrical production from pop's truly restlessly creative practitioner.
