ROSALÍA 'LUX' REVIEW

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With her fourth studio album, Rosalía delivers an ambitious, symphonic opus; LUX. The album is a profound departure from the more immediate pop-hooks of her past, instead opening up an orchestral universe in which strings, choral forces and moments of operatic grandeur serve as the backbone of a complex emotional journey.

Working with the London Symphony Orchestra under conductor Daníel Bjarnason, the pairing of Rosalía’s voice with sweeping strings, brass, choir and percussion unite to challenge the very definition of a “pop” album. The effect is no mere layering of orchestral textures over beats, but rather a sustained engagement with symphonic form: movements, motifs, and dramatic dynamics dominate the experience. 

One of the fascinating aspects of LUX is how Rosalía blends her flamenco/pop background with expansive orchestral ambition. Her previous album, MOTOMAMI, played with hyper-pop, reggaeton and electronic textures; by contrast, LUX opts for a slower burn and a wider palette. The album still draws on contemporary rhythms, multilingual lyricism and her signature vocal stylings. But the orchestral setting changes the relationship: the voice becomes one instrument among many; not overshadowed, but integrated into grander structures. This union of pop-sensibility and orchestral scale creates a curious tension: the familiar and the strange, grounded and celestial. 

The emotional peaks and valleys of LUX are designed much like a classical suite: starting in more earthly terrain, then ascending into something transcendent, split across four movements (a nod to the classical suite). The opening movement evokes an almost earthly chaos, before giving way to spiritual, even sacred, poise in later sections. The symphonic nature allows Rosalía to dwell in extended musical gestures; ragged crescendos, moments of silence, swelling choirs, orchestral releases. On Magnolias she closes the album in a hushed, reverential manner: the orchestral layers retreat, leaving space for reflection, much like an adagio movement winding down after allegros and crescendos. 

Lyrically, the record touches on themes of divinity, transformation, heartbreak and feminine identity. Yet it is the orchestral instrumentation that frames these ideas in a cathedral-scale sound. The instruments here act like characters, shifting roles: the choir may represent the divine, the strings the latent emotion, percussion the human heart-beat. The album’s four-movement structure echoes that narrative arc: from turmoil, through reflection, to final transcendence.

The collaborations on LUX unfold like movements within the same symphony, each voice woven seamlessly into Rosalía’s grand design. Rather than conventional features, these artists; Björk, Carminho, Estrella Morente, Silvia Pérez Cruz, Yahritza, Yves Tumor, and the Escolania de Montserrat with the Cor Cambra Palau de la Música Catalana. The result is a living chorus that expands the album’s emotional and sonic range. 

Björk lends an ethereal tension, while Carminho and Morente ground the record in Iberian and fado roots. Pérez Cruz’s harmonies merge so naturally with Rosalía’s that their voices seem to breathe as one, and the children’s choir turns moments of solitude into spiritual invocation. Even Yves Tumor’s art-pop edge folds into the orchestral sweep, introducing friction that heightens the album’s sense of drama. Across these collaborations, Rosalía doesn’t merely share the stage: she conducts a collective resonance, transforming LUX into a dialogue between the sacred, the feminine, and the avant-garde.

LUX is a bold move, and not without risk: some listeners may find the orchestral weight overwhelming, the song-structures less “hooky” than typical pop fare. But in embracing symphonic form, Rosalía has undertaken a task that is no easy feat: a pop record that leans into universe-building. The strings swell, the choirs call, the piano opens gates to other realms. Her voice remains central, but it rests within the orchestral hall as much as it soars above it. If you’re looking for another straightforward single-driven pop album, LUX may require patience and focus. But if you’re willing to surrender to its scale (and let the symphonic architecture wash over you), then Rosalía offers a richly layered, emotionally resonant, and musically elevated statement: a pop-symphony for the modern age.

LUX is out now.