Initially, Lux may look more like a difficult academic examination rather than the latest popular music album from an artist who just had a previous single featured a global K-pop icon. Divided across four separate sections and sung in thirteen languages, it is a head-spinning classical-tinged opus investigating female mystery, spiritual ascent, and bodily transformation, frequently through the perspective of various women saints. The end of a romance—a theme treated with grounded openness elsewhere—is shot heavenward on this record, carried by the constant sound of a major symphony orchestra and contributions from an award-winning songwriter among a vast list of contributors. The pure ambition by itself renders the work of contemporary artists appear quite small.
Transcending Scholarly Pretense
The fact that this album manages to transcend overly academic chin-stroking feels nearly a miracle, and complete credit belonging to the artist. While it's not the first time album to fuse historical sounds with modern styles, the stakes are much higher on Lux, and the tightrope walk far more precarious. What truly elevates her fourth release, outside of its complex tunes, rich compositions, and inherent theatricality, proves to be an essential sense of playfulness. Similar to the iconic artist during her height, there is a captivating sense to Rosalía's voice that pulls you into its tornado. Even when she is tearing your heart apart, the listener nevertheless want to be right there through the journey.
A Prime Moment of Exuberance
This exuberant spirit shines brightly on the stirring Italian song about Saint Clare. It luxuriates in a string-drenched melancholy for more than four minutes. Suddenly, all the music drops away, to reveal there's a gleeful laugh followed by a comment prior to a comically exaggerated string surge crashes down like cartoonish force. The track then shifts into the frenetic track driven by galloping strings, an imposing choral group, and a cameo appearance from the artist Björk.
"The magic of this album is that you never exactly know—or even want to know—where you is going to next."
Almost each track ends in a completely different point from where it began. A track explores the fleeting nature of celebrity with a delicate orchestration before disintegrating in electronic cacophony. Elsewhere, a song that recalls her previous rhythmic work begins out moody and sinister, with prowling vocals, before sudden flamenco handclaps and an angelic chorus arrive to smooth the song's rough edges.
The Bridge Of Experiment & Pop
A key achievement of the album is straddling the line between bold experimentation and mainstream appeal. It is little surprise that it has become the artist's first release to break into the upper reaches of key markets: at its core a suite of utterly undeniable hits. One track sung entirely in English builds around a refrain that feels to collect increasingly infectious melodies as it spirals upward. That feat gets repeated by another expansive track that expands and constricts, intertwining multiple melodies like a complex tapestry.
- A waltz-like song seduces via its jaunty, Disney-adjacent drama and a chant-along hook.
- Lyrically, it aligns the cultural impact of contemporary breakup anthems, lambasting an ex- partner labeled an "psychological bully".
- Throughout the album, the vocals carry a painted-on edge, like a fairy-tale figure hiding a blade: "Top prize in being a scoundrel / You have the podium of disappointment."
An Opulent Feast for the Ears
Lux is popular music on a grand scale, a hungry reach for capital-A Art in an era of looming artificial sameness. It eschews solipsism for glorious transcendence, creating a dramatic drama that masterfully manages its own built-in excess. This is an abundant source of hidden treasure that requires patience to completely mine but doesn't feels like hard work. Where some major releases of the year seemed like a meager meal, this record offers a sumptuous feast where the characters around it, some tipsy on holy wine, flutter between conversations about historical figures, the galvanizing feeling of soul-shattering grief, and common gossip about hopeless partners. It is a modern-day musical from pop's truly restlessly inventive practitioner.