Initially, this album may look more like a challenging scholarly examination than the latest pop record from an artist whose last hit featured an international pop icon. Split into four separate movements and voiced in 13 languages, it is a breathtaking symphonic album exploring feminine mystique, spiritual transcendence, and bodily change, often via the lens of different women saints. The end of a relationship—a theme treated with grounded openness elsewhere—is shot heavenward on this record, buoyed by the constant presence of a major orchestra and work from a Pulitzer-winning composer among a vast list of contributors. The pure ambition by itself makes the efforts of contemporary artists appear rather laughable.
Rising Above Scholarly Pretense
The fact that this album manages to transcend dry academic chin-stroking is nothing short of a miracle, and sole credit going to Rosalía. While it's not her first album to alchemize historical sounds with the present, its scale feel much higher here, and the balancing act far more precarious. The element that really raises her fourth album, beyond its complex melodies, dense arrangements, and inherent theatricality, proves to be a core sense of playfulness. Much like the iconic artist at her peak, you find a wondrous quality to Rosalía's voice that pulls the listener into its whirlwind. Even when she's breaking hearts apart, you still want to stay right there for the ride.
A Signature Moment of Exuberance
This exuberant spirit shines brightly during the stunning Italian ballad about Saint Clare. It bathes in a string-drenched melancholy over several moments. Then, everything drops away, to reveal there's a spontaneous laugh followed by a declaration prior to a comically exaggerated orchestral crescendo crashes down like cartoonish impact. The track immediately segues into the wild single driven by galloping orchestration, an imposing choral group, and a cameo role from the artist herself.
"The magic of Lux lies in the listener never exactly know—or even wish to predict—what it is going to next."
Almost each song ends in a totally different place from where it started. A track examines the transient nature of celebrity with a featherlight symphony before disintegrating into digital chaos. Another, a song that recalls her earlier trap-infused work begins off moody and brooding, with prowling vocals, until fluttering flamenco rhythms and an angelic choir enter to soften its jagged edges.
The Bridge Of Art & Pop
Another crucial balancing act of Lux is straddling the line of radical innovation and mainstream appeal. It is little coincidence that it has become her highest-charting work to crack the Top 5 of major markets: at its core a collection of truly undeniable pop songs. A song performed entirely in English builds on a chorus that seems to gather increasingly nagging hooks while it spins skyward. That feat gets repeated on another powerful track that expands and constricts, intertwining multiple tunes like a complex weave.
- A dance-infused song charms via its jaunty, theatrical drama and a chant-along chorus.
- In its words, it aligns the pop culture impact of other heartbreak anthems, eviscerating a former lover described as an "emotional terrorist".
- Across the album, the vocals carry a sharp edge, like a storybook figure hiding a knife: "Gold medal in being a motherfucker / You have the podium of letdown."
An Opulent Banquet for the Ears
This album represents pop on a grand level, a hungry reach for high Art in an era of impending artificial blankness. It rejects solipsism for sublime elevation, crafting an over-the-top spectacle that skillfully manages its built-in excess. It is a deep source of hidden gems that takes time to fully explore but doesn't seem like a chore. Where other big releases of the year seemed like feasting on meal, Lux offers a sumptuous feast where the characters around it, perhaps tipsy on sacred wine, flit from conversations about historical figures, the galvanizing sensation of heartbreaking grief, and common gossip about useless partners. It is a contemporary theatrical production from pop's most restlessly creative practitioner.
