On the surface, this album may look more like an arduous university quiz than the latest popular music project by a musician who just had a last hit featured a global pop icon. Broken across four different parts and sung in 13 tongues, this is a head-spinning orchestral-influenced album investigating female mystery, spiritual ascent, and corporal transformation, frequently via the prism of different saintly figures. The end of a relationship—a topic handled with grounded honesty elsewhere—is launched heavenward on this record, carried by the lush sound of a major symphony orchestra and contributions from a Pulitzer-winning songwriter among an extensive list of contributors. Its sheer audacity alone makes the efforts of other pop stars appear quite laughable.
Rising Above Academic Exercise
The fact that this album manages to avoid dry academic chin-stroking feels almost miraculous, and full credit going to Rosalía. While this is not her first project to alchemize the past and the present, its stakes feel far greater on Lux, with the tightrope walk far more pronounced. The element that really elevates this fourth album, beyond its multilayered melodies, dense compositions, and inherent theatricality, is an essential sense of fun. Similar to the legendary Björk at her height, you find a captivating sense to the vocalist's voice that pulls you up in its tornado. When she is breaking your heart in two, the listener still desire to be right there for the journey.
A Prime Example of Joy
This playful spirit shines brightly during the stunning piano-led song about a saint. It bathes in a string-drenched melancholy for more than four moments. Suddenly, everything drops away, to reveal there's a gleeful giggle and a comment before a hilariously exaggerated orchestral crescendo crashes in with comedic impact. The song then shifts into the wild track featuring galloping orchestration, an imposing choral group, and a cameo role from the artist Björk.
"The charm with this album lies in the listener rarely quite understand—nor wish to predict—where it will go next."
Nearly every track ends at a totally different point from where it started. A track explores the transient trappings of celebrity with a featherlight orchestration only to collapsing into digital cacophony. Another, a cut echoing the artist's previous rhythmic work begins off moody and sinister, with menacing beats, before sudden traditional rhythms and an angelic chorus enter to soften its rough edges.
The Balance Between Experiment and Pop
Another crucial achievement of the album is straddling the gap between radical innovation and broad accessibility. This is little coincidence that the album has achieved the artist's first release to crack the Top 5 of major markets: its heart contains a collection of truly undeniable pop songs. One track sung primarily in the English language swells around a refrain that seems to gather more and more nagging melodies while it spirals upward. That feat is repeated by a different expansive ballad that expands and constricts, weaving multiple melodies as an intricate weave.
- A waltz-like number seduces with its jaunty, theatrical flair and an anthemic hook.
- Lyrically, it aligns with cultural honesty of other breakup anthems, eviscerating an ex- lover described as an "psychological bully".
- Throughout these tracks, the vocals have a painted-on smile, akin to a storybook character concealing a knife: "Gold medal in acting like a motherfucker / You've won the trophy of letdown."
An Opulent Feast for the Ears
This album is popular music on a maximalist scale, an ambitious reach for capital-A artistry in an era of impending artificial sameness. It eschews self-absorption for glorious transcendence, creating an over-the-top spectacle that skillfully manages its own built-in excess. This is an abundant well of hidden treasure that requires patience to completely explore but doesn't seem like hard work. Where other major pop albums of the year seemed like feasting on meal, this record is a sumptuous feast at which the characters at it, some intoxicated on holy wine, flutter from discussions about historical figures, the profound feeling of soul-shattering grief, and common stories about useless partners. It is a modern-day theatrical production from music's most restlessly inventive practitioner.
