At first glance, this album could seem more like a challenging scholarly challenge rather than the latest popular music record from a musician whose previous hit was a collaboration with a global pop star. Split into 4 separate sections and voiced in thirteen languages, it is a head-spinning symphonic album investigating female mystique, spiritual transcendence, and physical transformation, frequently through the perspective of various saintly figures. The end of a romance—a theme handled with raw openness elsewhere—is shot skyward on this record, buoyed by the constant sound of a major symphony orchestra and contributions from a Pulitzer-winning songwriter within a vast roll call of collaborators. The pure ambition alone makes the work of contemporary pop stars look quite small.
Transcending Scholarly Exercise
That this album succeeds in escape overly academic chin-stroking is almost a miracle, and full credit going to the artist. While this is not her first album to fuse the past and the present, the ambitions are much greater here, with the balancing act more pronounced. The element that truly raises her fourth album, beyond its multilayered melodies, rich arrangements, and engrained drama, is an essential sense of joy. Similar to the legendary Björk during her height, there is a wondrous sense to Rosalía's singing that pulls you up in its whirlwind. Even when she is breaking your heart in two, the listener still want to be alongside her through the journey.
A Signature Moment of Exuberance
That exuberant energy comes forth brightly during a stunning piano-led song inspired by a saint. It bathes in a string-drenched whirlpool over several minutes. Suddenly, everything drops silent, and there's a spontaneous laugh followed by a comment before a hilariously over-the-top string surge crashes in with cartoonish force. The song immediately segues to the wild single featuring racing strings, a powerful choir, and a cameo role from the artist herself.
"The magic of Lux lies in you never exactly know—or even want to predict—what it is going to next."
Nearly every track finishes in a completely different point than how it started. One moment examines the fleeting nature of celebrity with a featherlight symphony only to disintegrating in electronic chaos. Elsewhere, a cut that recalls the artist's earlier rhythmic style starts off dark and brooding, featuring menacing vocals, before fluttering traditional rhythms and a heavenly chorus enter to soften the song's jagged edges.
The Balance Of Experiment & Pop
Another crucial achievement on the album involves navigating the gap between radical experimentation and mainstream accessibility. It is little coincidence that it has achieved her first work to break into the Top 5 of major charts: its heart contains a suite of utterly undeniable pop songs. One track performed entirely in English builds on a refrain that seems to gather more and more infectious melodies while it spirals upward. This trick is echoed by a different expansive ballad that expands and constricts, weaving multiple melodies like a complex weave.
- A waltz-like song charms via its jaunty, theatrical drama and a chant-along hook.
- Lyrically, it aligns the cultural honesty of contemporary breakup anthems, eviscerating a former lover labeled an "emotional bully".
- Across the album, the vocals have a sharp smile, akin to a fairy-tale figure concealing a blade: "Gold medal in being a motherfucker / You've the podium of disappointment."
An Opulent Banquet for the Ears
Lux represents popular music on a grand scale, a hungry grasp for high artistry amid of impending artificial sameness. It rejects self-absorption for sublime elevation, creating an over-the-top spectacle that skillfully manages its built-in ridiculousness. This is a deep source of buried gems that takes time to fully mine but doesn't feels like hard work. Where some major releases of the year felt like a meager scraps, this record offers a sumptuous feast at which the guests around the table, some tipsy on sacred drink, flutter from discussions about historical saints, the profound feeling of soul-shattering grief, and common gossip about hopeless men. It is a modern-day theatrical production from music's truly endlessly creative practitioner.
