Our Leading Record of the Year: Rosalía's Lux Takes the Top Spot.

On the surface, this album may look more like an arduous academic examination rather than the latest pop album from an artist who just had a last single was a collaboration with a global pop icon. Split across four different movements and performed in 13 tongues, this is a dizzying classical-tinged work exploring feminine mystery, spiritual transcendence, and bodily change, often by way of the lens of various saintly figures. The end of a romance—a theme treated with raw openness elsewhere—is shot upwards here, carried by the constant sound of a full orchestra and input from a Pulitzer-winning composer among a long list of collaborators. The pure daring alone makes the efforts of other artists seem rather laughable.

Rising Above Scholarly Pretense

That this album succeeds in escape dry academic posturing is almost a miracle, with full praise going to the artist. Although this is not her first album to alchemize historical sounds and the present, its ambitions are much higher on Lux, and the tightrope walk more pronounced. What really raises her fourth release, outside of its multilayered melodies, rich compositions, and engrained theatricality, is an essential spirit of joy. Similar to the legendary Björk at her height, you find a wondrous sense to the vocalist's voice that pulls the listener into its whirlwind. When she is tearing your heart in two, you still desire to be right there through the ride.

A Prime Example of Joy

This exuberant spirit shines clearly during a stirring piano-led song inspired by a saint. It luxuriates in a string-drenched whirlpool for several minutes. Suddenly, all the music drops away, and there's a gleeful laugh followed by a declaration before a comically over-the-top orchestral crescendo crashes down like cartoonish force. The track immediately shifts to the frenetic track driven by galloping strings, an imposing choral group, and a cameo appearance from the artist Björk.

"The magic with this album is that you rarely quite understand—nor want to predict—what it will go next."

Almost each song finishes at a completely distinct place from how it started. One moment examines the transient nature of celebrity over a featherlight orchestration only to collapsing into electronic cacophony. Elsewhere, a song echoing the artist's previous rhythmic style begins out moody and sinister, with menacing vocals, until fluttering flamenco rhythms and a heavenly choir arrive to soften its rough corners.

The Balance Of Art and Accessibility

A key balancing act on Lux is navigating the gap between bold experimentation and mainstream accessibility. It is little surprise that it has achieved her highest-charting work to break into the Top 5 of key charts: at its core a suite of truly catchy hits. One track performed primarily in English swells around a chorus that seems to gather increasingly nagging hooks as it spirals upward. This trick is echoed by another expansive ballad that expands and contracts, weaving layered tunes like an intricate weave.

• A dance-infused song seduces with its playful, Disney-adjacent flair and a chant-along chorus.
• In its words, it shares with pop culture honesty of contemporary heartbreak anthems, lambasting an ex- partner labeled an "psychological terrorist".
• Throughout the album, the singing have a painted-on edge, akin to a fairy-tale figure concealing a knife: "Gold medal in being a scoundrel / You have won the trophy of letdown."

An Opulent Feast for the Soul

Lux is pop on a grand scale, a hungry reach for capital-A Art in an era of looming artificial blankness. It eschews solipsism in favor of sublime transcendence, creating an over-the-top drama that skillfully controls its own inherent ridiculousness. It is an abundant source of hidden treasure that requires time to completely mine but doesn't seem like a chore. While some major pop albums of 2025 seemed like feasting on scraps, this record offers a sumptuous feast where the characters around the table, perhaps intoxicated on holy wine, flutter from discussions about historical figures, the galvanizing sensation of soul-shattering grief, and common gossip about hopeless partners. It is a contemporary musical from pop's truly restlessly inventive practitioner.