On the surface, this album could seem closer to a challenging university quiz rather than a new pop record by a musician who just had a last single featured an international pop star. Broken into four distinct sections and performed in thirteen tongues, we have a head-spinning orchestral-influenced album that delves into female mystique, religious transcendence, and bodily change, often via the perspective of various women saints. The end of a romance—a theme treated with grounded honesty on another major 2025 album—soars skyward on this record, buoyed by the constant sound of a major symphony orchestra and contributions from an award-winning songwriter among an extensive roll call of collaborators. The pure audacity alone makes the work of contemporary artists seem rather small.
Rising Above Scholarly Exercise
The fact that Lux succeeds in avoid overly academic posturing feels nothing short of miraculous, and sole credit belonging to the artist. While it's not the first time album to alchemize historical sounds and the present, its stakes are much greater on Lux, with the tightrope walk far more pronounced. The element that truly raises this fourth release, beyond its complex tunes, dense compositions, and engrained theatricality, proves to be an essential sense of fun. Similar to the iconic artist at her peak, you find a wondrous quality to Rosalía's voice that pulls you into its whirlwind. Even when she's tearing hearts in two, you nevertheless desire to be right there for the ride.
A Prime Moment of Joy
That exuberant spirit comes forth brightly on a stunning Italian song about a saint. It bathes in a sorrowful melancholy over more than four minutes. Suddenly, all the music falls away, to reveal we hear a gleeful giggle followed by a comment prior to a hilariously exaggerated orchestral crescendo crashes down like cartoonish force. The track immediately segues into the frenetic single featuring galloping strings, a powerful choir, and a cameo appearance from none other than Björk.
"The magic of Lux is that the listener rarely quite know—or even want to know—what it is going next."
Almost every song concludes at a totally different point than where it began. One moment examines the transient nature of celebrity over a featherlight symphony before collapsing in electronic chaos. Elsewhere, a cut that recalls the artist's previous rhythmic work starts out moody and sinister, featuring prowling vocals, before sudden flamenco handclaps and an angelic chorus enter to soften the song's jagged edges.
The Bridge Between Experiment & Pop
Another crucial balancing act of Lux involves straddling the gap between bold innovation and broad accessibility. It is little surprise that the album has become the artist's first release to break into the Top 5 of major charts: its heart contains a suite of truly undeniable hits. A song performed entirely in the English language swells on a refrain that feels to collect increasingly nagging hooks while it spirals upward. That feat gets echoed by a different powerful track that grows and constricts, intertwining layered melodies like an intricate tapestry.
- A waltz-like song charms with its playful, Disney-adjacent flair and an anthemic hook.
- Lyrically, it shares the pop culture honesty of contemporary heartbreak anthems, eviscerating an ex- partner described as an "psychological bully".
- Throughout these tracks, the vocals have a sharp edge, akin to a storybook figure hiding a knife: "Top prize in being a scoundrel / You've won the trophy of disappointment."
A Maximalist Banquet for the Soul
This album is popular music on a maximalist level, a hungry grasp for capital-A artistry amid of looming AI-generated blankness. It rejects self-absorption in favor of sublime transcendence, crafting a dramatic spectacle that skillfully controls its own built-in excess. It is an abundant source of hidden gems that takes patience to fully explore but never feels like a chore. While other big pop albums of 2025 felt like feasting on scraps, Lux is a sumptuous banquet where the characters at the table, perhaps intoxicated on holy wine, flutter between discussions about historical saints, the profound feeling of soul-shattering sadness, and shared gossip about hopeless partners. It is a contemporary theatrical production from pop's most endlessly inventive practitioner.
