At first glance, this work might appear more like an arduous academic examination than a new popular music project by an artist who just had a last single was a collaboration with an international K-pop icon. Broken across 4 separate parts and voiced in thirteen tongues, it is a head-spinning orchestral-influenced work exploring female mystery, religious transcendence, and corporal change, frequently through the perspective of different women saints. The end of a relationship—a topic treated with raw honesty elsewhere—is shot heavenward here, supported by the lush sound of a full orchestra and contributions from a Pulitzer-winning composer among a vast list of collaborators. Its sheer audacity by itself makes the work of contemporary pop stars seem rather laughable.
Transcending Scholarly Pretense
The fact that Lux manages to avoid overly intellectual posturing is nothing short of a miracle, and complete credit belonging to Rosalía. Although this is not her first album to fuse historical sounds and modern styles, the scale feel far higher here, with the balancing act more dramatic. What really raises her fourth album, beyond its complex tunes, dense arrangements, and engrained drama, is an essential sense of playfulness. Much like the iconic artist at her peak, you find a wondrous sense to the vocalist's singing which sweeps you up in its tornado. Even when she is tearing your heart in two, the listener nevertheless want to stay alongside her through the ride.
A Signature Moment of Joy
That exuberant energy comes forth brightly on a stunning piano-led song about a saint. It luxuriates in a sorrowful melancholy over several minutes. Suddenly, everything falls away, and there's a spontaneous giggle followed by a declaration before a comically over-the-top orchestral crescendo crashes in like comedic force. The track then shifts into the wild track featuring galloping strings, an imposing choir, and a cameo role from none other than herself.
"The charm of this album is that you rarely quite know—or even want to predict—what you is going next."
Nearly every track ends in a completely distinct point from where it started. A track explores the transient nature of celebrity over a featherlight orchestration only to collapsing into digital cacophony. Elsewhere, a song echoing her earlier trap-infused style begins out moody and sinister, with prowling beats, before sudden flamenco rhythms and a heavenly choir enter to soften the song's rough edges.
The Balance Between Experiment and Accessibility
A key achievement of the album involves navigating the line between radical experimentation and mainstream accessibility. This is no coincidence that it has become the artist's first release to crack the upper reaches of key charts: its heart contains a collection of utterly undeniable hits. A song performed primarily in the English language swells on a refrain that seems to gather more and more infectious melodies while it spirals upward. That feat is echoed on a different expansive ballad that expands and contracts, intertwining layered melodies as an intricate tapestry.
- A dance-infused song seduces via its jaunty, Disney-adjacent drama and a chant-along chorus.
- Lyrically, it shares the cultural honesty of contemporary heartbreak songs, lambasting a former partner described as an "psychological terrorist".
- Across these tracks, the singing carry a sharp edge, akin to a storybook figure concealing a knife: "Top prize in acting like a motherfucker / You have won the trophy of letdown."
An Opulent Feast for the Ears
This album represents popular music on a grand scale, an ambitious reach for capital-A artistry amid of looming AI-generated blankness. It eschews self-absorption in favor of glorious elevation, crafting an over-the-top spectacle that masterfully controls its own inherent ridiculousness. It is an abundant well of hidden gems that takes patience to fully explore but never feels like a chore. While some major releases of the year felt like a meager scraps, this record offers a sumptuous feast where the guests at it, some intoxicated on sacred wine, flit between discussions about ancient saints, the profound sensation of heartbreaking sadness, and common stories about hopeless men. It is a modern-day theatrical production from music's truly endlessly creative practitioner.
