At first glance, this album might appear closer to an arduous scholarly examination than a new pop project by a musician who just had a previous hit featured an international pop star. Divided across four different parts and sung in 13 tongues, we have a head-spinning symphonic work exploring female mystique, spiritual transcendence, and physical transformation, frequently by way of the lens of various saintly figures. The dissolution of a romance—a topic treated with raw honesty on another major 2025 album—is launched skyward on this record, buoyed by the constant presence of a major symphony orchestra and contributions from a Pulitzer-winning songwriter among a long list of collaborators. The pure daring alone makes the work of other artists seem quite small.
Rising Above Scholarly Exercise
The fact that Lux succeeds in escape overly academic chin-stroking is nothing short of miraculous, with full praise belonging to Rosalía. While this is not her first album to alchemize historical sounds with the present, its ambitions are far greater here, and the balancing act far more pronounced. The element that really raises this fourth album, beyond its multilayered tunes, rich compositions, and inherent drama, is an essential sense of fun. Much like the legendary Björk during her peak, you find a wondrous sense to the vocalist's singing which sweeps the listener up in its whirlwind. When she is breaking hearts in two, you still want to stay alongside her through the ride.
A Prime Moment of Joy
This playful energy comes forth clearly on the stirring piano-led song inspired by Saint Clare. It bathes in a sorrowful melancholy over more than four minutes. Then, all the music falls away, to reveal we hear a gleeful laugh and a comment prior to a comically over-the-top orchestral crescendo thuds in with comedic impact. The track then shifts to the frenetic track featuring galloping strings, an imposing choral group, and a surprise role from none other than herself.
"The charm of this album is that you never exactly know—nor want to know—what it will go next."
Almost every song concludes in a totally different place than how it began. A track examines the fleeting trappings of celebrity with a featherlight symphony before collapsing into digital chaos. Another, a song echoing her earlier rhythmic style begins off dark and sinister, featuring menacing beats, until fluttering traditional handclaps and an angelic chorus arrive to soften its rough corners.
The Balance Between Art and Accessibility
A key balancing act of Lux is navigating the line between bold experimentation and mainstream appeal. It is little coincidence that the album has achieved her first release to crack the Top 5 of key charts: its heart contains a suite of truly catchy hits. One track sung entirely in English builds on a chorus that seems to gather increasingly infectious melodies as it spirals skyward. That trick gets repeated by a different powerful ballad that grows and constricts, weaving layered melodies as a complex tapestry.
- A waltz-like number charms via its jaunty, Disney-adjacent drama and an anthemic hook.
- Lyrically, it shares the cultural honesty of contemporary breakup songs, lambasting an ex- lover described as an "emotional bully".
- Across the album, the singing have a painted-on edge, akin to a fairy-tale figure concealing a knife: "Gold medal in acting like a motherfucker / You have won the trophy of letdown."
An Opulent Banquet for the Soul
This album represents pop on a maximalist scale, an ambitious reach for capital-A Art amid of impending AI-generated sameness. It eschews self-absorption in favor of glorious elevation, creating an over-the-top spectacle that masterfully manages its own built-in ridiculousness. It is an abundant source of hidden gems that takes time to fully explore but doesn't seem like hard work. While other big releases of 2025 felt like feasting on meal, this record is a lavish banquet at which the guests at it, some tipsy on sacred drink, flutter between conversations about ancient saints, the galvanizing sensation of heartbreaking grief, and common stories about useless men. In essence, it's a contemporary musical from pop's most restlessly creative practitioner.
