On the surface, this work might appear more like an arduous academic challenge than the latest popular music project by an artist who just had a previous single featured a global pop star. Divided across 4 different parts and performed in thirteen languages, this is a head-spinning classical-tinged opus that delves into female mystery, religious ascent, and physical transformation, frequently by way of the perspective of different female saints. The dissolution of a relationship—a theme handled with raw openness elsewhere—is launched upwards here, carried by the lush presence of a full orchestra and contributions from an award-winning songwriter within a long roll call of contributors. Its sheer audacity alone makes the work of other artists appear quite modest.
Rising Above Academic Exercise
That Lux manages to escape overly academic posturing is nothing short of a miracle, with full praise belonging to Rosalía. While it's not her first project to blend the past with modern styles, its ambitions feel much greater here, with the tightrope walk far more precarious. The element that really raises this fourth album, outside of its multilayered melodies, dense arrangements, and inherent drama, is a core sense of playfulness. Much like the legendary artist during her height, there is a captivating quality to the vocalist's singing which sweeps the listener up in its whirlwind. When she's tearing your heart apart, you nevertheless desire to be right there through the journey.
A Signature Example of Joy
That exuberant energy shines brightly on a stunning piano-led ballad inspired by Saint Clare. It luxuriates in a string-drenched whirlpool for several minutes. Suddenly, everything falls away, and there's a gleeful giggle followed by a declaration before a hilariously exaggerated string surge thuds in with cartoonish force. The song then segues into the frenetic track featuring galloping strings, a powerful choral group, and a cameo appearance from none other than herself.
"The charm with Lux lies in the listener never exactly know—or even want to predict—where it is going to next."
Almost every track concludes in a totally distinct place than where it started. A track explores the fleeting trappings of fame with a featherlight orchestration only to collapsing into digital chaos. Another, a song that recalls the artist's previous rhythmic style begins out dark and sinister, with menacing vocals, before sudden flamenco rhythms and a heavenly choir enter to soften the song's jagged corners.
The Bridge Between Experiment & Accessibility
Another crucial achievement on Lux involves straddling the line of bold experimentation and mainstream accessibility. It is little coincidence that it has become the artist's first release to crack the Top 5 of major charts: its heart contains a suite of utterly undeniable pop songs. One track sung primarily in English swells around a refrain that seems to gather more and more nagging melodies as it spins skyward. This feat is repeated on another powerful track that grows and contracts, weaving layered melodies like a complex tapestry.
- A waltz-like song seduces with its jaunty, Disney-adjacent drama and a chant-along hook.
- Lyrically, it shares the cultural honesty of other heartbreak songs, eviscerating a former lover labeled an "emotional terrorist".
- Across the album, the vocals carry a sharp edge, akin to a storybook character hiding a knife: "Top prize in being a motherfucker / You have won the trophy of disappointment."
A Maximalist Feast for the Soul
This album represents pop on a maximalist scale, a hungry reach for high Art amid of impending artificial blankness. It rejects solipsism for glorious transcendence, crafting an over-the-top drama that skillfully controls its built-in excess. This is an abundant source of buried gems that requires patience to fully mine but doesn't seem like hard work. While other major releases of the year seemed like feasting on scraps, Lux is a sumptuous banquet at which the guests around it, some tipsy on sacred drink, flit from conversations about ancient figures, the profound feeling of heartbreaking sadness, and common gossip about useless men. In essence, it's a contemporary theatrical production from music's truly restlessly inventive visionary.
