🔗 Share this article

On the surface, Lux might appear more like a difficult scholarly quiz rather than the latest popular music project from an artist who just had a last single featured an international pop icon. Divided into 4 separate movements and performed in thirteen languages, it is a dizzying symphonic work that delves into female mystery, spiritual transcendence, and bodily change, frequently by way of the prism of different women saints. The end of a love affair—a topic treated with raw honesty on another major 2025 album—is launched heavenward on this record, carried by the constant presence of a major orchestra and contributions from a Pulitzer-winning composer within an extensive list of collaborators. Its sheer audacity alone renders the work of other artists look rather laughable.

Rising Above Scholarly Exercise

The fact that Lux succeeds in avoid dry academic posturing is almost a miracle, and sole credit going to Rosalía. While it's not her first album to alchemize the past with the present, its scale are far higher here, and the tightrope walk far more pronounced. What truly elevates this fourth release, beyond its multilayered tunes, dense compositions, and engrained drama, proves to be an essential sense of fun. Much like the iconic artist at her height, you find a wondrous sense to the vocalist's voice that pulls you into its whirlwind. Even when she is tearing hearts apart, you nevertheless desire to stay alongside her for the ride.

A Prime Example of Joy

This playful energy comes forth brightly during a stunning Italian song about Saint Clare. It bathes in a string-drenched melancholy over several minutes. Then, everything falls away, to reveal there's a spontaneous laugh followed by a comment prior to a comically exaggerated string surge thuds down like cartoonish impact. The song immediately segues to the frenetic single driven by racing orchestration, a powerful choir, and a cameo appearance from none other than herself.

"The charm with this album is that the listener rarely quite understand—or even want to know—what it will go to next."

Nearly each song concludes at a completely different place than how it began. A track explores the transient nature of fame over a featherlight symphony before collapsing into electronic chaos. Elsewhere, a song that recalls her earlier rhythmic style starts off moody and sinister, featuring menacing beats, until fluttering flamenco rhythms and an angelic choir arrive to smooth its rough edges.

The Bridge Of Experiment and Pop

A key balancing act on the album is navigating the line of radical innovation and mainstream accessibility. It is little surprise that the album has become the artist's highest-charting work to crack the upper reaches of major charts: at its core a suite of utterly undeniable hits. A song performed primarily in the English language swells around a refrain that feels to collect increasingly nagging melodies while it spins skyward. This trick gets echoed by another expansive ballad that grows and constricts, intertwining layered tunes as an intricate tapestry.

• A waltz-like song seduces via its playful, theatrical flair and an anthemic chorus.
• Lyrically, it shares the cultural honesty of contemporary heartbreak anthems, eviscerating an ex- lover labeled an "psychological bully".
• Throughout the album, the vocals have a painted-on smile, akin to a fairy-tale character concealing a blade: "Gold medal in acting like a motherfucker / You've the podium of letdown."

An Opulent Feast for the Ears

Lux represents pop on a grand scale, a hungry grasp for high Art in an era of looming artificial blankness. It eschews solipsism in favor of sublime transcendence, crafting an over-the-top spectacle that skillfully manages its own built-in excess. It is an abundant well of hidden gems that takes time to completely explore but never feels like a chore. Where other major releases of 2025 felt like a meager scraps, Lux is a sumptuous feast where the characters at the table, perhaps tipsy on sacred wine, flit from conversations about historical figures, the profound feeling of heartbreaking grief, and shared stories about useless partners. In essence, it's a modern-day theatrical production from music's most endlessly creative visionary.