Initially, this album may look closer to a challenging university quiz rather than a new popular music album from an artist who just had a previous single featured an international pop icon. Broken into four distinct sections and sung in 13 tongues, this is a head-spinning symphonic album exploring feminine mystique, spiritual ascent, and corporal change, frequently through the perspective of various female saints. The end of a relationship—a topic treated with grounded honesty elsewhere—soars heavenward here, supported by the lush sound of a full symphony orchestra and work from a Pulitzer-winning songwriter within a vast roll call of contributors. Its sheer daring alone renders the efforts of contemporary pop stars appear rather laughable.
Transcending Academic Exercise
That Lux succeeds in escape dry academic posturing feels nearly a miracle, with complete credit going to Rosalía. While it's not her first project to blend the past and the present, the scale are much higher here, and the balancing act more pronounced. What really elevates her fourth album, outside of its multilayered melodies, dense arrangements, and inherent drama, proves to be an essential spirit of playfulness. Similar to the iconic Björk during her height, you find a wondrous sense to the vocalist's singing which sweeps the listener into its whirlwind. When she is breaking hearts in two, the listener still want to stay alongside her for the journey.
A Signature Example of Exuberance
This exuberant spirit shines brightly on the stirring Italian song about Saint Clare. It luxuriates in a sorrowful whirlpool over more than four minutes. Suddenly, everything falls silent, and we hear a gleeful laugh and a declaration prior to a hilariously over-the-top orchestral crescendo thuds down with cartoonish force. The song immediately shifts to the wild track featuring galloping strings, an imposing choral group, and a cameo appearance from none other than Björk.
"The magic of this album is that the listener rarely exactly know—or even want to know—what it is going to next."
Almost each song finishes in a completely different place than where it started. A track explores the transient nature of fame with a delicate symphony only to collapsing in electronic chaos. Elsewhere, a song that recalls her earlier trap-infused work starts out dark and brooding, with prowling vocals, until sudden traditional handclaps and a heavenly chorus enter to soften the song's rough corners.
The Balance Between Experiment & Accessibility
A key achievement of Lux involves navigating the line of radical innovation and broad appeal. It is no surprise that the album has achieved the artist's highest-charting work to break into the upper reaches of key charts: at its core a suite of truly catchy pop songs. A song sung entirely in English swells around a chorus that seems to gather more and more nagging melodies as it spirals skyward. That feat gets repeated by another expansive track that expands and constricts, intertwining multiple tunes as a complex weave.
- A waltz-like song charms with its jaunty, theatrical drama and an anthemic hook.
- Lyrically, it shares the pop culture honesty of other heartbreak anthems, eviscerating a former lover described as an "emotional bully".
- Throughout the album, the vocals carry a sharp smile, like a storybook figure hiding a blade: "Gold medal in acting like a scoundrel / You have won the trophy of disappointment."
A Maximalist Banquet for the Soul
This album is popular music on a maximalist scale, a hungry grasp for high Art in an era of impending artificial blankness. It eschews self-absorption in favor of sublime elevation, creating an over-the-top drama that masterfully controls its own built-in ridiculousness. This is a deep source of hidden treasure that requires patience to completely explore but doesn't seem like a chore. Where some big pop albums of the year felt like a meager scraps, Lux offers a lavish feast at which the characters at the table, some intoxicated on holy wine, flit from conversations about ancient figures, the profound sensation of heartbreaking sadness, and common gossip about hopeless partners. In essence, it's a contemporary musical from music's truly endlessly inventive visionary.
