At first glance, this work may look more like a challenging academic quiz rather than a new pop project from an artist whose last hit was a collaboration with an international pop star. Divided across four separate sections and voiced in thirteen tongues, we have a breathtaking symphonic opus investigating feminine mystery, spiritual transcendence, and bodily change, frequently via the perspective of various female saints. The end of a love affair—a topic handled with grounded honesty elsewhere—is shot skyward here, buoyed by the lush sound of a major orchestra and work from an award-winning composer within an extensive roll call of contributors. The pure audacity alone makes the efforts of contemporary artists seem quite laughable.
Rising Above Scholarly Pretense
That Lux succeeds in escape overly academic posturing is nearly a miracle, with complete credit belonging to the artist. Although this is not her first project to blend historical sounds and the present, its ambitions are far higher here, with the tightrope walk far more precarious. The element that truly raises this fourth release, outside of its multilayered tunes, rich arrangements, and engrained theatricality, is a core sense of playfulness. Similar to the legendary artist during her height, you find a captivating sense to Rosalía's voice which sweeps the listener up in its whirlwind. When she's breaking hearts in two, the listener nevertheless want to stay alongside her for the journey.
A Prime Moment of Exuberance
That exuberant energy shines clearly on a stirring piano-led ballad about Saint Clare. It bathes in a string-drenched melancholy over several minutes. Then, everything drops away, and there's a spontaneous giggle followed by a declaration before a comically exaggerated orchestral crescendo thuds in like cartoonish force. The song then shifts to the frenetic track driven by galloping orchestration, an imposing choir, and a cameo role from none other than Björk.
"The charm with Lux is that you rarely quite understand—nor wish to predict—where you will go to next."
Almost each track ends in a totally different place than how it started. One moment examines the transient trappings of celebrity over a delicate orchestration before collapsing into electronic chaos. Elsewhere, a cut echoing the artist's earlier rhythmic work starts out moody and brooding, featuring menacing beats, before fluttering traditional rhythms and an angelic choir enter to soften its rough edges.
The Bridge Between Art and Accessibility
A key achievement on the album is straddling the line between radical innovation and broad accessibility. It is no surprise that it has become the artist's highest-charting work to break into the Top 5 of key charts: at its core a suite of truly undeniable pop songs. One track performed entirely in the English language swells around a refrain that feels to gather more and more infectious hooks while it spins upward. That feat is echoed by a different powerful track that grows and contracts, weaving layered tunes as a complex tapestry.
- A waltz-like number seduces via its jaunty, theatrical drama and an anthemic hook.
- Lyrically, it aligns the pop culture honesty of contemporary heartbreak anthems, eviscerating an ex- lover labeled an "emotional bully".
- Across the album, the singing have a painted-on edge, like a fairy-tale figure concealing a blade: "Gold medal in acting like a motherfucker / You have won the trophy of disappointment."
A Maximalist Feast for the Soul
Lux is pop on a grand level, a hungry reach for high artistry in an era of looming artificial blankness. It eschews solipsism for sublime transcendence, crafting a dramatic spectacle that skillfully controls its own inherent ridiculousness. It is an abundant source of hidden gems that takes patience to fully mine but doesn't feels like hard work. Where other major releases of the year felt like a meager scraps, Lux is a sumptuous feast at which the guests around it, perhaps tipsy on holy drink, flit from discussions about historical saints, the profound sensation of soul-shattering sadness, and shared stories about hopeless partners. In essence, it's a contemporary musical from music's most endlessly inventive visionary.
