At first glance, this album could seem more like a challenging university challenge rather than a new popular music album by an artist who just had a previous single featured an international pop icon. Split into 4 different sections and sung in thirteen languages, we have a head-spinning symphonic album that delves into feminine mystery, religious ascent, and physical transformation, frequently through the perspective of various saintly figures. The end of a relationship—a theme handled with raw honesty on another major 2025 album—is shot heavenward here, carried by the lush sound of a major symphony orchestra and work from an award-winning composer among a vast roll call of contributors. Its sheer audacity alone makes the work of other artists appear quite laughable.
Transcending Scholarly Exercise
The fact that this album succeeds in avoid overly academic chin-stroking feels nearly a miracle, with full praise belonging to the artist. Although this is not the first time album to blend the past with the present, the stakes are far higher here, with the balancing act far more dramatic. What really raises this fourth release, outside of its multilayered melodies, rich arrangements, and engrained theatricality, is a core sense of fun. Much like the iconic artist during her peak, you find a wondrous quality to Rosalía's singing which sweeps the listener into its tornado. When she's breaking your heart in two, the listener nevertheless desire to be right there for the journey.
A Prime Example of Joy
This playful energy comes forth clearly during a stirring Italian song inspired by a saint. It luxuriates in a string-drenched melancholy for more than four minutes. Suddenly, all the music drops silent, to reveal there's a spontaneous giggle and a declaration prior to a hilariously exaggerated string surge thuds in with comedic force. The song then shifts to the frenetic track featuring galloping strings, an imposing choir, and a cameo appearance from none other than herself.
"The charm with this album is that the listener never quite understand—nor wish to know—what you will go to next."
Nearly every song concludes in a totally different point than how it started. A track examines the transient nature of celebrity with a featherlight symphony only to disintegrating into electronic cacophony. Elsewhere, a cut that recalls the artist's previous rhythmic style begins off dark and sinister, with menacing vocals, before sudden traditional handclaps and an angelic choir enter to soften the song's rough edges.
The Balance Of Experiment & Pop
Another crucial achievement on Lux involves navigating the gap between radical experimentation and broad accessibility. It is little surprise that it has become her first work to crack the Top 5 of major charts: at its core a collection of truly catchy hits. One track performed primarily in the English language builds around a refrain that feels to gather more and more nagging melodies while it spirals upward. This feat is echoed by a different expansive track that expands and constricts, weaving layered tunes as a complex tapestry.
- A waltz-like number seduces with its playful, Disney-adjacent drama and an anthemic chorus.
- In its words, it aligns with cultural honesty of other heartbreak anthems, eviscerating a former partner described as an "emotional terrorist".
- Across the album, the vocals have a painted-on edge, akin to a fairy-tale figure concealing a knife: "Top prize in being a motherfucker / You've the podium of disappointment."
An Opulent Feast for the Soul
This album represents pop on a grand level, an ambitious grasp for high Art in an era of looming artificial blankness. It rejects solipsism for sublime elevation, creating an over-the-top drama that skillfully controls its inherent excess. It is an abundant source of buried gems that takes patience to fully mine but doesn't feels like hard work. While some big releases of 2025 felt like feasting on meal, this record is a sumptuous feast at which the guests around it, some intoxicated on holy wine, flutter between discussions about ancient figures, the profound sensation of heartbreaking sadness, and shared gossip about useless men. It is a contemporary theatrical production from pop's most restlessly inventive visionary.
