🔗 Share this article

Initially, Lux could seem closer to a difficult scholarly challenge than the latest pop album by an artist whose previous single was a collaboration with an international K-pop star. Divided into 4 different sections and voiced in thirteen tongues, this is a breathtaking symphonic album that delves into female mystique, religious transcendence, and physical change, often through the perspective of various women saints. The dissolution of a love affair—a topic treated with grounded honesty elsewhere—is launched skyward here, buoyed by the lush sound of a major symphony orchestra and input from a Pulitzer-winning songwriter among a vast roll call of collaborators. Its sheer daring by itself makes the efforts of contemporary artists seem quite modest.

Rising Above Scholarly Pretense

That this album manages to avoid dry academic posturing is almost miraculous, with sole praise going to Rosalía. Although this is not the first time album to alchemize historical sounds with the present, its ambitions feel far higher on Lux, and the balancing act far more precarious. What really elevates this fourth release, beyond its multilayered melodies, rich arrangements, and inherent drama, proves to be an essential sense of fun. Similar to the iconic artist during her peak, there is a captivating quality to the vocalist's singing which sweeps you into its whirlwind. Even when she's breaking hearts in two, the listener still want to be alongside her for the ride.

A Signature Moment of Joy

This playful energy shines brightly during a stirring Italian ballad about a saint. It luxuriates in a sorrowful melancholy for more than four minutes. Suddenly, everything drops away, to reveal we hear a gleeful laugh followed by a declaration before a hilariously over-the-top string surge thuds down with cartoonish force. The song immediately shifts to the frenetic track featuring galloping orchestration, an imposing choir, and a cameo appearance from the artist herself.

"The magic with Lux is that you never quite understand—or even want to predict—what you will go to next."

Nearly every track finishes at a totally different point than where it began. One moment explores the fleeting trappings of celebrity with a delicate symphony only to disintegrating in electronic cacophony. Another, a song echoing her previous trap-infused work starts off moody and sinister, featuring menacing vocals, before fluttering traditional handclaps and a heavenly chorus enter to smooth the song's jagged corners.

The Balance Between Art and Accessibility

A key achievement of the album involves straddling the line between radical innovation and mainstream appeal. This is no coincidence that it has become the artist's first work to break into the Top 5 of major charts: its heart contains a suite of truly catchy pop songs. A song sung primarily in English swells around a chorus that seems to collect increasingly nagging hooks as it spirals skyward. This trick gets echoed by a different expansive track that expands and contracts, weaving multiple melodies as a complex tapestry.

• A waltz-like song charms with its playful, theatrical flair and an anthemic chorus.
• Lyrically, it shares with pop culture honesty of other heartbreak songs, lambasting an ex- partner described as an "emotional terrorist".
• Throughout the album, the vocals have a sharp smile, like a fairy-tale figure concealing a knife: "Gold medal in being a scoundrel / You have the podium of letdown."

A Maximalist Feast for the Ears

This album is popular music on a maximalist level, an ambitious grasp for high Art in an era of impending artificial sameness. It rejects solipsism in favor of sublime elevation, crafting a dramatic spectacle that masterfully controls its inherent ridiculousness. This is a deep source of hidden treasure that requires patience to completely mine but never seem like a chore. While some big pop albums of the year felt like a meager meal, Lux offers a lavish banquet at which the characters at the table, perhaps tipsy on sacred drink, flit from discussions about ancient figures, the galvanizing sensation of soul-shattering grief, and common stories about hopeless men. It is a contemporary musical from music's truly endlessly inventive practitioner.