Initially, this album might appear closer to an arduous university quiz than a new popular music project from a musician who just had a last hit featured an international pop star. Divided into four separate movements and voiced in thirteen languages, we have a dizzying orchestral-influenced opus that delves into feminine mystique, spiritual transcendence, and corporal change, often by way of the lens of different saintly figures. The end of a romance—a theme treated with raw honesty elsewhere—is launched skyward on this record, carried by the constant presence of a major symphony orchestra and input from an award-winning composer among an extensive list of collaborators. Its sheer ambition alone makes the efforts of other artists look rather small.
Transcending Scholarly Pretense
That this album manages to avoid dry intellectual chin-stroking is almost miraculous, with sole praise going to the artist. Although this is not her first album to alchemize historical sounds with the present, its scale are far greater here, and the tightrope walk far more precarious. The element that truly raises this fourth album, beyond its multilayered tunes, dense compositions, and engrained drama, proves to be a core spirit of playfulness. Similar to the legendary Björk during her peak, there is a wondrous sense to Rosalía's singing which sweeps the listener up in its tornado. Even when she's breaking your heart apart, you still want to stay alongside her for the ride.
A Prime Example of Joy
That playful spirit shines brightly on the stunning piano-led ballad inspired by Saint Clare. It bathes in a string-drenched melancholy over several moments. Then, everything drops away, and we hear a gleeful laugh followed by a comment prior to a comically exaggerated orchestral crescendo thuds down with comedic force. The track then shifts to the wild single featuring racing orchestration, a powerful choir, and a cameo appearance from the artist herself.
"The magic with this album is that the listener never exactly know—or even want to know—where you will go to next."
Nearly every track finishes in a completely different place from how it started. A track examines the fleeting trappings of fame over a delicate orchestration only to disintegrating into digital chaos. Another, a song echoing her previous trap-infused style begins off dark and sinister, featuring prowling vocals, until fluttering traditional handclaps and a heavenly choir enter to soften its jagged corners.
The Balance Between Experiment and Pop
A key achievement of Lux is straddling the line between radical innovation and mainstream accessibility. This is little surprise that the album has achieved the artist's highest-charting release to break into the Top 5 of key markets: at its core a suite of truly catchy pop songs. A song sung primarily in English swells on a refrain that seems to gather increasingly nagging melodies while it spins skyward. That feat is echoed on a different powerful ballad that grows and constricts, intertwining multiple melodies as an intricate weave.
- A dance-infused song charms with its jaunty, theatrical flair and a chant-along hook.
- In its words, it shares with pop culture honesty of contemporary breakup songs, eviscerating an ex- partner described as an "psychological bully".
- Throughout these tracks, the vocals carry a painted-on edge, akin to a fairy-tale character concealing a blade: "Top prize in being a motherfucker / You've won the trophy of letdown."
A Maximalist Banquet for the Ears
Lux is pop on a maximalist scale, a hungry grasp for capital-A artistry amid of looming artificial blankness. It rejects solipsism for sublime transcendence, creating an over-the-top spectacle that skillfully manages its inherent ridiculousness. This is a deep source of hidden gems that takes time to completely mine but doesn't feels like hard work. While other major pop albums of the year seemed like a meager meal, this record offers a sumptuous banquet at which the characters at the table, perhaps tipsy on holy wine, flit from conversations about historical figures, the profound feeling of soul-shattering grief, and shared stories about hopeless men. It is a modern-day musical from pop's most endlessly creative practitioner.
