At first glance, this album may look more like a challenging university challenge than the latest pop album by a musician whose previous hit featured a global pop icon. Split across 4 separate sections and performed in 13 languages, this is a head-spinning symphonic album exploring feminine mystery, religious ascent, and physical change, often via the lens of various female saints. The end of a romance—a topic treated with raw honesty on another major 2025 album—is launched upwards on this record, supported by the lush sound of a full symphony orchestra and work from a Pulitzer-winning composer within a long roll call of contributors. The pure audacity by itself renders the efforts of other artists appear quite modest.
Rising Above Scholarly Exercise
That this album manages to avoid overly intellectual posturing feels nearly miraculous, and full praise belonging to Rosalía. While this is not her first project to alchemize the past with the present, the ambitions are far higher here, with the tightrope walk far more dramatic. What really raises her fourth album, outside of its complex tunes, rich compositions, and engrained theatricality, is an essential sense of joy. Similar to the legendary Björk during her peak, you find a wondrous sense to Rosalía's voice which sweeps the listener up in its whirlwind. Even when she is breaking hearts apart, the listener nevertheless want to stay alongside her for the journey.
A Signature Example of Joy
This exuberant spirit comes forth clearly during the stirring piano-led ballad about a saint. It bathes in a sorrowful melancholy for more than four minutes. Then, everything falls silent, and there's a gleeful giggle and a declaration before a comically over-the-top string crescendo crashes down with comedic impact. The track then segues to the frenetic track driven by racing strings, an imposing choir, and a cameo role from none other than herself.
"The magic with Lux is that the listener rarely exactly understand—or even want to know—where it will go to next."
Nearly each song concludes in a completely different place than where it began. A track explores the transient trappings of celebrity with a featherlight orchestration before collapsing in electronic cacophony. Another, a song echoing the artist's earlier trap-infused style starts out moody and sinister, featuring prowling beats, until fluttering traditional rhythms and an angelic chorus enter to soften its rough edges.
The Balance Of Experiment and Accessibility
A key balancing act of the album involves straddling the line of bold innovation and broad accessibility. It is no surprise that it has achieved her first work to break into the Top 5 of key charts: at its core a collection of utterly catchy pop songs. One track performed entirely in the English language swells around a chorus that seems to collect more and more infectious hooks while it spirals skyward. This feat gets repeated by another expansive track that expands and contracts, weaving multiple tunes as a complex weave.
- A dance-infused song seduces via its jaunty, Disney-adjacent flair and an anthemic hook.
- In its words, it shares with cultural impact of other heartbreak songs, eviscerating a former partner described as an "psychological terrorist".
- Across these tracks, the singing have a painted-on smile, like a fairy-tale character hiding a knife: "Top prize in acting like a scoundrel / You have won the trophy of disappointment."
A Maximalist Banquet for the Soul
Lux represents popular music on a grand level, a hungry reach for capital-A artistry amid of impending AI-generated sameness. It rejects self-absorption for glorious elevation, creating an over-the-top spectacle that skillfully controls its built-in excess. It is a deep well of buried gems that takes patience to completely explore but never seem like hard work. While other big pop albums of 2025 seemed like feasting on scraps, Lux offers a sumptuous feast where the characters around the table, perhaps tipsy on sacred wine, flutter between conversations about historical figures, the galvanizing sensation of soul-shattering sadness, and common gossip about useless partners. In essence, it's a modern-day theatrical production from music's truly endlessly creative visionary.
