At first glance, this album may look more like a difficult academic challenge than the latest popular music album by an artist who just had a last hit was a collaboration with an international pop star. Broken into 4 distinct sections and sung in thirteen tongues, we have a breathtaking symphonic album investigating female mystique, spiritual ascent, and physical transformation, often by way of the prism of various women saints. The dissolution of a romance—a theme handled with raw openness elsewhere—is launched upwards on this record, buoyed by the lush sound of a full orchestra and input from a Pulitzer-winning composer within a long list of collaborators. Its sheer ambition alone renders the efforts of other artists appear quite modest.
Transcending Academic Pretense
That Lux manages to avoid dry intellectual posturing feels nearly a miracle, and sole praise belonging to Rosalía. Although this is not her first album to fuse the past and modern styles, the stakes are much higher here, and the tightrope walk more pronounced. The element that truly elevates her fourth album, beyond its complex melodies, dense compositions, and inherent drama, is an essential spirit of joy. Similar to the iconic Björk during her peak, you find a captivating sense to Rosalía's singing that pulls the listener up in its tornado. Even when she's tearing hearts in two, the listener still desire to stay right there for the journey.
A Prime Example of Exuberance
That exuberant spirit shines clearly on the stunning Italian song about Saint Clare. It luxuriates in a string-drenched whirlpool for several minutes. Then, all the music drops away, to reveal there's a gleeful laugh followed by a comment before a hilariously exaggerated orchestral surge thuds in with cartoonish force. The track then shifts to the frenetic track featuring galloping strings, a powerful choral group, and a surprise role from the artist herself.
"The magic of this album is that you never quite know—or even want to know—what it is going next."
Nearly each track ends at a totally distinct point than how it started. One moment explores the fleeting trappings of celebrity with a delicate symphony only to collapsing in electronic cacophony. Another, a song echoing her earlier rhythmic style begins off dark and brooding, featuring menacing vocals, before sudden traditional handclaps and a heavenly choir arrive to smooth the song's rough corners.
The Balance Of Art and Accessibility
Another crucial achievement on Lux involves straddling the gap of radical innovation and mainstream appeal. It is little surprise that the album has become the artist's first release to break into the upper reaches of major markets: its heart contains a collection of utterly catchy pop songs. One track performed entirely in the English language builds around a chorus that seems to collect more and more nagging hooks as it spirals skyward. This trick is repeated by a different expansive ballad that grows and constricts, intertwining layered melodies as a complex weave.
- A waltz-like number seduces with its jaunty, theatrical drama and a chant-along hook.
- In its words, it shares with cultural impact of contemporary breakup songs, lambasting an ex- lover described as an "emotional bully".
- Throughout these tracks, the singing have a sharp smile, like a fairy-tale character hiding a blade: "Top prize in acting like a scoundrel / You've the podium of letdown."
An Opulent Feast for the Soul
Lux represents pop on a grand scale, an ambitious reach for capital-A Art amid of impending artificial blankness. It eschews self-absorption in favor of sublime transcendence, creating a dramatic spectacle that masterfully controls its own inherent excess. It is a deep well of buried treasure that requires time to fully explore but doesn't feels like a chore. Where other major pop albums of the year seemed like a meager scraps, this record is a sumptuous feast at which the characters at it, some intoxicated on holy drink, flutter between discussions about historical saints, the profound sensation of heartbreaking sadness, and shared gossip about useless men. It is a contemporary musical from music's most restlessly inventive visionary.
