Review: Rosalía ascends to new heights on ‘LUX’

Courtesy of Columbia Records

Rosalía once again transforms what pop can mean with her latest album release. Her first two albums, Los Ángeles and El Mal Querer, brought flamenco into the mainstream, mixing sacred tradition with modern edge. Then came MOTOMAMI, a bold experiment of sound and spirit that pushed her even further as an artist. 

Now, with LUX, Rosalía reaches for something higher. Influenced by classical music, literature and art, her fourth album trades chaos for clarity — a spiritual, avant-garde record that explores faith, love, self-discovery and the violence of creation through a symphonic reflection. Arranged in four movements and sung in 13 languages, the 15-track album rejects instant gratification and rewards patience with emotional depth.

The opening track, “Sexo, Violencia y Llantas,” sets the tone with a transcending piano and a sharp vibrato that cuts through echoing strings. “Who could live between the two? / First love the world, and then love God,” she declares in the English translation, a thesis for the record’s collision between holiness and humanity. 

“Reliquia” quickens the tempo with techno flourishes and cinematic violin. Rosalía calls herself a relic, a woman shedding fragments of herself across continents yet refusing to lose her spirit.

“Divinize” slows the pulse, sliding between English and Spanish. “Bruise me up, I’ll eat all of my pride,” she chants, crafting a love letter to self-redemption and womanhood. “Porcelana,” featuring Dougie F, layers soft percussion and distant strings until piano and woodwinds bloom into a luminous outro. “Mio Cristo Piange Diamanti,” sung entirely in Italian, erupts into operatic splendor, a cathedral of sound that feels both grand and intimate.

The storm truly breaks on “Berghain,” her collaboration with Björk and Yves Tumor. Thunderous drums and ghostly background vocals crack through a multilingual haze of German, Spanish and English, closing with a dizzying string orbit. “La Perla,” with Yahritza Y Su Esencia, quiets the chaos, resembling a whispered story told between friends under candlelight, a confession both soft and human.

Entering its third movement, the album takes its final stretches with “Mundo Nuevo” and floats like incense between movements, while “De Madrugá” recalls El Mal Querer with heavy percussion and glowing vocals. “Dios Es Un Stalker” blends celestial harmonies with Latin rhythms, bridging her roots and her reinvention. “Sauvignon Blanc” offers the album’s most vulnerable prayer as she sings, “I will listen to my God / I will throw away my Jimmy Choos.”

Rosalía closes LUX with grace. “Memória,” a Portuguese duet with Carminho, drifts heavenward, while “Magnolias” builds toward an ecstatic finale with buzzing percussion, angelic choirs and rising strings that ascend beyond language.

At times, LUX can feel weighed down by its own ambition, with a few songs blending together. Still, even in its excess, the album shines with intention and a bold mix of art, faith and femininity.

4 ½ magnolias out of 5

This article was written for The Daily Texan the official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin