On the surface, Lux could seem more like a challenging scholarly challenge rather than the latest popular music record from a musician who just had a last hit featured an international pop star. Divided into 4 separate movements and performed in 13 tongues, we have a dizzying classical-tinged work exploring feminine mystique, religious ascent, and bodily change, often by way of the perspective of various women saints. The end of a relationship—a topic treated with grounded honesty elsewhere—is shot skyward here, buoyed by the lush presence of a major symphony orchestra and work from an award-winning songwriter among a long roll call of collaborators. The pure audacity by itself makes the efforts of contemporary artists look quite modest.
Rising Above Academic Exercise
That Lux succeeds in avoid overly academic chin-stroking feels almost miraculous, and sole credit belonging to Rosalía. While this is not the first time project to blend historical sounds and the present, its stakes feel much greater here, and the balancing act more precarious. What truly elevates this fourth release, outside of its multilayered tunes, dense arrangements, and engrained drama, is an essential spirit of joy. Similar to the legendary artist during her peak, there is a captivating sense to the vocalist's singing that pulls the listener up in its tornado. Even when she's breaking your heart in two, the listener nevertheless want to be alongside her for the journey.
A Prime Moment of Exuberance
This exuberant spirit shines clearly during the stunning piano-led ballad about a saint. It bathes in a string-drenched melancholy over more than four moments. Then, everything drops away, and we hear a spontaneous laugh and a comment prior to a hilariously over-the-top orchestral crescendo crashes down like cartoonish force. The song then shifts into the wild track featuring galloping orchestration, a powerful choir, and a cameo role from the artist herself.
"The charm of Lux is that you rarely exactly understand—or even want to know—where you will go next."
Nearly every track finishes in a totally different place than how it began. A track examines the transient nature of fame with a delicate symphony before disintegrating in digital cacophony. Another, a cut echoing her earlier rhythmic work starts out dark and sinister, with prowling beats, until sudden flamenco rhythms and an angelic chorus enter to smooth its rough corners.
The Bridge Of Experiment and Accessibility
Another crucial balancing act of Lux is straddling the line of bold experimentation and broad appeal. This is little coincidence that it has become her first release to break into the upper reaches of key charts: at its core a suite of truly undeniable pop songs. One track performed primarily in the English language builds on a chorus that seems to gather increasingly nagging hooks as it spirals skyward. This trick gets repeated by another powerful track that grows and constricts, weaving multiple tunes like an intricate weave.
- A waltz-like song charms via its playful, theatrical flair and an anthemic hook.
- In its words, it shares the cultural impact of other breakup songs, lambasting an ex- lover labeled an "psychological terrorist".
- Across these tracks, the vocals carry a sharp edge, like a fairy-tale figure hiding a knife: "Gold medal in acting like a scoundrel / You've the podium of disappointment."
A Maximalist Feast for the Soul
This album is pop on a maximalist scale, a hungry reach for capital-A artistry amid of impending artificial sameness. It eschews solipsism for glorious elevation, crafting a dramatic drama that masterfully manages its built-in ridiculousness. This is a deep source of hidden gems that takes time to fully mine but never seem like a chore. While other major pop albums of the year felt like feasting on scraps, Lux offers a lavish banquet where the characters around the table, perhaps tipsy on sacred drink, flit from conversations about historical figures, the galvanizing sensation of soul-shattering sadness, and common stories about useless men. In essence, it's a modern-day musical from music's most restlessly creative practitioner.
