On the surface, this album might appear closer to a challenging academic quiz rather than a new pop album from a musician who just had a previous hit featured an international pop star. Split into 4 separate parts and performed in 13 tongues, we have a dizzying classical-tinged work investigating female mystery, religious ascent, and bodily transformation, often by way of the prism of different female saints. The end of a relationship—a topic treated with grounded honesty elsewhere—is shot skyward here, buoyed by the constant presence of a major orchestra and work from an award-winning songwriter within a long roll call of contributors. The pure ambition alone renders the efforts of contemporary artists seem rather modest.
Transcending Scholarly Pretense
That Lux succeeds in transcend dry academic posturing feels nothing short of miraculous, and full praise belonging to the artist. Although it's not the first time album to fuse the past with the present, the ambitions feel far higher here, and the balancing act far more dramatic. The element that truly elevates her fourth album, outside of its multilayered tunes, rich arrangements, and engrained theatricality, is an essential sense of fun. Much like the legendary Björk at her height, you find a wondrous sense to Rosalía's singing which sweeps the listener up in its whirlwind. When she is tearing your heart apart, the listener nevertheless desire to stay right there through the journey.
A Prime Example of Exuberance
That exuberant energy shines brightly on the stirring Italian ballad about Saint Clare. It bathes in a sorrowful whirlpool over more than four minutes. Suddenly, all the music drops away, to reveal we hear a gleeful giggle and a comment prior to a hilariously over-the-top string surge crashes in like cartoonish impact. The track immediately segues into the frenetic single driven by racing orchestration, a powerful choir, and a surprise role from none other than herself.
"The charm of this album lies in the listener rarely exactly understand—or even want to predict—what it will go to next."
Almost every track finishes at a completely different place from how it started. A track examines the transient nature of fame with a delicate orchestration only to disintegrating in electronic cacophony. Another, a song that recalls the artist's earlier rhythmic work starts off moody and sinister, with prowling beats, until sudden flamenco handclaps and an angelic chorus enter to smooth its rough edges.
The Bridge Of Art and Accessibility
Another crucial achievement of the album is straddling the line of radical experimentation and broad appeal. It is little surprise that it has become the artist's highest-charting work to crack the upper reaches of major markets: at its core a collection of truly catchy hits. One track sung primarily in English builds on a refrain that seems to collect increasingly infectious melodies while it spins skyward. This trick is repeated by another expansive ballad that grows and constricts, intertwining layered tunes like a complex tapestry.
- A dance-infused song seduces with its jaunty, theatrical flair and an anthemic hook.
- Lyrically, it aligns the cultural honesty of other breakup songs, lambasting a former partner described as an "emotional bully".
- Throughout these tracks, the vocals have a painted-on smile, akin to a storybook character hiding a blade: "Gold medal in acting like a motherfucker / You have won the trophy of disappointment."
An Opulent Feast for the Ears
Lux represents pop on a maximalist level, a hungry grasp for capital-A Art in an era of looming artificial blankness. It rejects solipsism for sublime elevation, crafting a dramatic spectacle that masterfully manages its own inherent ridiculousness. This is a deep source of hidden gems that takes patience to fully mine but doesn't feels like hard work. Where some major releases of the year felt like feasting on scraps, Lux offers a sumptuous banquet at which the guests at the table, perhaps intoxicated on sacred wine, flutter from conversations about historical figures, the galvanizing sensation of soul-shattering sadness, and common gossip about hopeless partners. It is a modern-day musical from music's truly endlessly creative visionary.
