Rosalía’s three-year-in-the-making record, Lux (Latin for ‘light’), reaffirms that her experimental spirit always meets and often exceeds expectations. From her breakthrough flamenco and traditional Spanish album El Mal Querer in 2018, to experimental pop and reggaeton in 2022’s Motomami, Rosalía’s latest release is certainly an ambitious, radical and genre-defying record.
With fifteen tracks unfolding in four parts and spanning thirteen different languages, including Catalan, Mandarin, Ukrainian and Arabic, Lux is a global tapestry of both sound and emotion. Accompanied by the instrumental beauty of the London Symphony Orchestra, each track draws inspiration from a different Catholic Saint. The Catalan artist’s creativity shines through every song, as a testament to her perfectionism and refusal to compromise on anything she creates.
A peaceful piano build-up introduces the beginning track ‘Sexo, Violencia y Llantas’, as it prepares the audience for an authentic listening experience. The ominous taunt of the organs which follows gives way to Rosalía’s stunning, opera-like vocals. Throughout Lux, Rosalía continues to astonish with her divine vocals and by moving fluidly between tongues on tracks like ‘Reliquia’, ‘Mundo Nuevo’, and ‘Sauvignon Blanc’, each one revealing a different facet of her voice.
The standout and most compelling track on the album, I would argue, is ‘Berghain’, a beautifully dark, experimental ode to both loss and rebirth.
“I know that heat melts me/ I know how to disappear/ When you come, that’s when I leave”
Rosalía in ‘Berghain’
Featuring Rosalía’s operatic German vocals, Björk’s ethereal bridge on divine intervention, and an outro by Yves Tumor, Berghain is anything but simple. The rapid-fire violin sequence performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, paired with the dramatic chorus delivered by the youth choir Escolania de Montserrat, leaves a lasting impact and transcends anything Rosalía has created before.
A personal favourite from Lux is ‘La Yugalar’, in which Rosalía tells the tale of a love so fierce that she would destroy hell itself for it. The track closes with a moving outro from Patti Smith, whose lyricism drifts in as a guided spirit urging Rosalía to transcend barriers and reach higher into the heavens. An exhortation that can also be interpreted as Smith’s broader call for artists to break free from expectation.
“Seven heavens/ Big deal/ I wanna see the eighth heaven”
Patti Smith in ‘La Yugalar’
Living in a popular culture landscape where listeners typically demand virality and repetitive beats, Rosalia dares to defy conventions with Lux, an album that requires patience during its listening experience. By building a bridge between worlds, her album highlights the need for global communion, bringing together communities worldwide.
9/10
