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On the surface, Lux could seem closer to a difficult scholarly quiz rather than the latest popular music project by an artist who just had a last hit was a collaboration with an international pop icon. Broken into four separate sections and sung in thirteen tongues, we have a dizzying orchestral-influenced album exploring female mystique, religious ascent, and corporal change, frequently via the prism of different women saints. The end of a relationship—a theme treated with grounded honesty elsewhere—is launched heavenward on this record, carried by the lush sound of a major symphony orchestra and work from a Pulitzer-winning songwriter among a long list of collaborators. Its sheer audacity by itself renders the work of contemporary artists look quite modest.

Transcending Scholarly Exercise

The fact that Lux succeeds in transcend overly academic chin-stroking feels nothing short of miraculous, with sole praise belonging to the artist. While it's not the first time album to fuse historical sounds with the present, its ambitions are much greater on Lux, with the balancing act more precarious. What really raises this fourth release, beyond its complex melodies, rich compositions, and engrained drama, is an essential spirit of playfulness. Similar to the iconic artist during her peak, you find a wondrous sense to Rosalía's voice that pulls the listener up in its whirlwind. When she is tearing hearts apart, the listener still desire to stay right there for the journey.

A Signature Example of Joy

This playful energy shines clearly on the stirring Italian ballad about Saint Clare. It bathes in a sorrowful melancholy for several minutes. Then, everything drops away, and we hear a gleeful laugh and a comment before a comically over-the-top string surge thuds in like cartoonish impact. The track immediately shifts to the wild single featuring racing strings, an imposing choir, and a cameo role from none other than Björk.

"The magic with this album is that you never exactly understand—nor wish to predict—what it will go next."

Almost every song ends at a totally distinct point from how it began. A track examines the transient trappings of celebrity with a featherlight orchestration only to disintegrating into electronic cacophony. Elsewhere, a song echoing her previous rhythmic work begins out dark and brooding, featuring prowling beats, before fluttering traditional rhythms and an angelic chorus arrive to smooth its jagged edges.

The Balance Of Experiment & Pop

A key achievement on Lux is straddling the line between bold experimentation and mainstream appeal. It is no coincidence that the album has become the artist's first work to crack the Top 5 of major markets: at its core a collection of truly catchy hits. One track sung entirely in the English language builds around a chorus that seems to gather increasingly infectious melodies while it spins skyward. This feat is repeated by another expansive ballad that expands and contracts, intertwining multiple melodies like a complex weave.

• A waltz-like number charms via its playful, Disney-adjacent flair and an anthemic hook.
• In its words, it shares the cultural impact of other heartbreak anthems, eviscerating an ex- partner described as an "psychological bully".
• Across these tracks, the vocals carry a sharp smile, like a fairy-tale figure hiding a knife: "Top prize in being a motherfucker / You've the podium of letdown."

A Maximalist Feast for the Ears

This album represents pop on a grand scale, an ambitious grasp for high Art amid of impending artificial sameness. It eschews self-absorption in favor of sublime transcendence, creating a dramatic spectacle that skillfully controls its own inherent excess. This is an abundant source of buried gems that takes patience to fully mine but never feels like hard work. While some major releases of the year seemed like a meager meal, Lux offers a sumptuous feast where the characters around it, perhaps tipsy on sacred drink, flit between discussions about ancient figures, the profound feeling of heartbreaking grief, and shared gossip about hopeless men. It is a modern-day musical from pop's most endlessly creative practitioner.