On the surface, this work may look more like a challenging scholarly quiz rather than the latest popular music project from a musician who just had a previous single was a collaboration with an international pop icon. Divided into four distinct movements and performed in 13 tongues, we have a breathtaking classical-tinged opus investigating feminine mystique, religious ascent, and corporal change, often via the prism of various saintly figures. The dissolution of a love affair—a theme treated with grounded honesty elsewhere—is launched skyward here, buoyed by the lush sound of a major orchestra and work from an award-winning composer within an extensive list of contributors. The pure audacity alone renders the work of contemporary pop stars look quite small.
Rising Above Academic Pretense
The fact that this album manages to escape overly academic posturing feels nearly miraculous, with complete praise belonging to the artist. While it's not her first project to fuse the past with the present, the scale feel much greater here, and the tightrope walk far more precarious. What truly raises this fourth album, beyond its complex melodies, rich compositions, and inherent theatricality, proves to be an essential sense of playfulness. Much like the iconic Björk at her height, there is a captivating quality to Rosalía's singing that pulls you up in its tornado. When she's breaking hearts apart, the listener still desire to stay alongside her through the ride.
A Signature Example of Exuberance
This playful spirit shines clearly during a stirring piano-led ballad about Saint Clare. It bathes in a string-drenched melancholy for several moments. Suddenly, all the music drops away, and there's a spontaneous laugh and a declaration before a comically over-the-top string surge thuds in like cartoonish force. The song then segues into the wild single driven by racing strings, a powerful choral group, and a surprise role from none other than Björk.
"The charm with Lux is that you rarely exactly know—nor wish to know—where it is going to next."
Almost every track ends in a completely different point from where it started. One moment examines the transient trappings of fame over a featherlight orchestration before disintegrating in electronic chaos. Another, a song that recalls the artist's previous rhythmic style begins off dark and brooding, featuring prowling vocals, before sudden traditional handclaps and an angelic chorus enter to soften its jagged edges.
The Bridge Of Art and Pop
A key achievement of the album involves navigating the gap of radical experimentation and broad accessibility. It is no coincidence that it has become the artist's first release to crack the Top 5 of key charts: its heart contains a collection of utterly catchy pop songs. One track sung entirely in the English language builds on a refrain that feels to gather more and more nagging melodies while it spins skyward. This feat is echoed by a different powerful track that expands and contracts, intertwining multiple melodies like an intricate weave.
- A dance-infused song charms with its playful, theatrical flair and an anthemic hook.
- In its words, it aligns with pop culture honesty of other heartbreak anthems, lambasting an ex- partner labeled an "psychological bully".
- Throughout these tracks, the vocals have a painted-on smile, like a storybook figure hiding a knife: "Top prize in being a motherfucker / You've won the trophy of letdown."
A Maximalist Feast for the Soul
Lux represents pop on a grand scale, a hungry reach for high artistry in an era of looming artificial blankness. It eschews self-absorption in favor of glorious elevation, creating a dramatic drama that skillfully controls its inherent excess. This is an abundant well of hidden gems that requires time to completely explore but never feels like a chore. Where some major releases of the year seemed like feasting on scraps, this record offers a sumptuous feast at which the guests around it, some intoxicated on sacred wine, flutter from conversations about ancient saints, the galvanizing sensation of soul-shattering grief, and common stories about hopeless partners. It is a contemporary theatrical production from pop's most restlessly inventive practitioner.
