At first glance, this album could seem more like a difficult scholarly quiz than a new pop record from a musician whose last hit featured a global pop star. Divided across four different sections and voiced in 13 tongues, we have a head-spinning classical-tinged album investigating female mystery, religious ascent, and corporal transformation, frequently via the prism of different saintly figures. The dissolution of a love affair—a topic handled with grounded openness elsewhere—is launched heavenward on this record, carried by the lush sound of a major symphony orchestra and input from an award-winning songwriter within an extensive roll call of collaborators. The pure audacity alone renders the work of contemporary artists look rather modest.
Rising Above Scholarly Exercise
That this album manages to escape overly academic posturing is nearly a miracle, with sole praise going to the artist. While this is not her first project to alchemize the past with modern styles, its ambitions feel far greater here, with the tightrope walk far more pronounced. The element that truly elevates her fourth release, beyond its complex tunes, rich compositions, and engrained theatricality, is an essential sense of playfulness. Much like the iconic artist during her peak, there is a captivating sense to Rosalía's singing that pulls the listener up in its tornado. When she's tearing hearts in two, the listener nevertheless desire to stay alongside her through the journey.
A Signature Moment of Exuberance
This playful spirit comes forth clearly during the stirring Italian song about Saint Clare. It luxuriates in a string-drenched melancholy over more than four minutes. Suddenly, all the music falls silent, to reveal we hear a gleeful laugh followed by a comment prior to a comically exaggerated orchestral surge crashes in like cartoonish force. The track then shifts to the wild track driven by racing strings, a powerful choral group, and a surprise role from the artist herself.
"The magic of this album is that the listener rarely exactly know—or even wish to predict—where you will go next."
Nearly every track ends in a completely distinct place than how it started. A track explores the fleeting nature of celebrity over a featherlight symphony before collapsing in digital cacophony. Elsewhere, a song that recalls the artist's previous trap-infused work starts out moody and brooding, with menacing vocals, until sudden flamenco handclaps and an angelic choir arrive to soften the song's rough corners.
The Bridge Of Experiment & Pop
A key balancing act on Lux is straddling the gap of bold innovation and broad accessibility. This is little surprise that the album has achieved the artist's first release to break into the upper reaches of key markets: its heart contains a collection of truly catchy pop songs. A song sung primarily in the English language builds on a refrain that seems to gather more and more nagging melodies while it spins upward. That trick is repeated on another expansive track that grows and contracts, intertwining multiple tunes as a complex weave.
- A waltz-like number charms with its jaunty, Disney-adjacent flair and an anthemic hook.
- Lyrically, it shares the pop culture honesty of other breakup anthems, eviscerating a former partner described as an "psychological terrorist".
- Throughout the album, the vocals carry a sharp smile, like a storybook character hiding a knife: "Top prize in being a motherfucker / You have the podium of letdown."
An Opulent Feast for the Soul
This album represents popular music on a maximalist level, a hungry grasp for capital-A artistry amid of looming AI-generated blankness. It eschews self-absorption for glorious transcendence, crafting an over-the-top spectacle that skillfully controls its inherent ridiculousness. It is an abundant source of buried gems that takes patience to fully mine but doesn't seem like a chore. Where some major releases of the year felt like feasting on meal, this record is a sumptuous feast where the guests at the table, some intoxicated on holy drink, flutter between conversations about ancient figures, the galvanizing sensation of soul-shattering sadness, and shared stories about useless men. In essence, it's a contemporary musical from music's truly restlessly creative practitioner.
