Initially, this album could seem closer to a challenging academic challenge than a new popular music record from a musician whose last single was a collaboration with an international pop icon. Divided across four separate parts and sung in 13 languages, it is a breathtaking symphonic opus exploring feminine mystique, spiritual transcendence, and bodily change, often through the lens of various saintly figures. The dissolution of a love affair—a theme handled with raw openness on another major 2025 album—soars upwards here, carried by the lush presence of a full symphony orchestra and contributions from an award-winning songwriter among a long roll call of contributors. The pure audacity alone renders the efforts of contemporary artists seem rather small.
Rising Above Scholarly Exercise
The fact that this album manages to transcend dry academic posturing feels almost a miracle, with sole credit going to the artist. While this is not her first project to alchemize historical sounds and the present, its ambitions feel much greater on Lux, and the tightrope walk more pronounced. What truly elevates this fourth album, outside of its multilayered melodies, dense arrangements, and inherent drama, is an essential sense of playfulness. Much like the legendary Björk during her peak, you find a captivating sense to Rosalía's voice that pulls you up in its whirlwind. Even when she is breaking your heart apart, the listener nevertheless want to stay right there for the journey.
A Prime Moment of Exuberance
This exuberant spirit comes forth clearly during a stirring Italian ballad about a saint. It bathes in a sorrowful whirlpool for several minutes. Then, everything falls away, and there's a gleeful laugh followed by a comment before a comically exaggerated orchestral surge crashes in with cartoonish force. The track immediately segues to the frenetic single featuring galloping strings, an imposing choir, and a cameo role from the artist Björk.
"The charm with this album is that the listener never exactly understand—nor want to know—where you will go to next."
Almost every track finishes in a totally different place than how it began. A track explores the fleeting trappings of fame with a delicate orchestration only to collapsing in digital chaos. Another, a cut that recalls her previous trap-infused style starts off moody and sinister, with menacing vocals, until sudden flamenco handclaps and an angelic choir enter to soften the song's jagged corners.
The Bridge Of Experiment & Accessibility
Another crucial achievement on the album is navigating the line between bold innovation and mainstream accessibility. It is no surprise that it has become her first release to break into the Top 5 of key markets: its heart contains a collection of utterly undeniable hits. One track sung entirely in the English language swells around a chorus that feels to gather more and more infectious melodies as it spins upward. That trick is echoed on a different expansive ballad that grows and contracts, weaving multiple melodies like a complex tapestry.
- A dance-infused number charms with its jaunty, Disney-adjacent drama and an anthemic chorus.
- In its words, it shares with pop culture honesty of other breakup songs, eviscerating an ex- partner labeled an "emotional terrorist".
- Throughout the album, the singing carry a sharp smile, akin to a storybook character concealing a knife: "Top prize in being a motherfucker / You have the podium of disappointment."
A Maximalist Banquet for the Soul
Lux represents popular music on a maximalist level, a hungry reach for high artistry in an era of looming AI-generated blankness. It eschews self-absorption for sublime elevation, crafting a dramatic drama that masterfully controls its own inherent excess. It is a deep well of buried treasure that requires time to fully explore but doesn't feels like a chore. While other major pop albums of 2025 felt like a meager meal, Lux is a sumptuous feast at which the characters around the table, perhaps tipsy on sacred wine, flit from discussions about historical figures, the galvanizing feeling of soul-shattering sadness, and common gossip about useless men. It is a contemporary theatrical production from music's truly endlessly creative practitioner.
