On the surface, Lux could seem more like a challenging university quiz than a new popular music album by a musician who just had a previous single featured an international K-pop star. Divided into 4 separate parts and sung in thirteen languages, it is a breathtaking orchestral-influenced opus investigating feminine mystique, spiritual transcendence, and physical change, often via the prism of different saintly figures. The dissolution of a romance—a theme treated with grounded honesty elsewhere—is shot skyward on this record, buoyed by the lush presence of a full symphony orchestra and work from an award-winning songwriter within a vast roll call of collaborators. Its sheer daring alone renders the efforts of other artists seem rather small.
Rising Above Scholarly Exercise
That this album manages to escape dry academic chin-stroking is nearly a miracle, with sole credit going to the artist. Although it's not her first album to alchemize the past with the present, its ambitions are far greater on Lux, with the balancing act more precarious. The element that truly raises her fourth album, outside of its complex tunes, dense arrangements, and engrained drama, is a core sense of playfulness. Much like the legendary Björk during her height, you find a wondrous sense to the vocalist's singing which sweeps you into its whirlwind. Even when she is breaking hearts apart, you nevertheless want to be right there through the journey.
A Prime Example of Exuberance
This exuberant energy shines clearly on the stirring Italian song about Saint Clare. It luxuriates in a string-drenched whirlpool over several minutes. Then, all the music drops away, to reveal we hear a gleeful laugh and a declaration before a comically exaggerated orchestral surge thuds in with cartoonish force. The song then shifts to the frenetic track driven by racing strings, an imposing choral group, and a cameo role from the artist herself.
"The charm of this album lies in you never exactly know—or even want to know—where it is going next."
Nearly every song concludes in a completely distinct point from how it started. One moment explores the fleeting trappings of fame with a featherlight orchestration before collapsing into electronic chaos. Another, a cut echoing her previous trap-infused work starts out dark and brooding, with menacing beats, until fluttering flamenco rhythms and an angelic choir enter to smooth the song's jagged corners.
The Balance Between Art and Pop
A key achievement of the album is straddling the line of radical experimentation and mainstream appeal. This is no surprise that the album has become the artist's highest-charting release to crack the upper reaches of major charts: at its core a collection of utterly undeniable hits. One track sung primarily in the English language builds around a refrain that seems to collect increasingly nagging hooks as it spirals upward. That feat gets repeated on another powerful ballad that grows and contracts, intertwining multiple tunes as an intricate weave.
- A dance-infused song charms with its jaunty, theatrical drama and a chant-along chorus.
- Lyrically, it aligns the pop culture impact of contemporary breakup anthems, eviscerating a former lover labeled an "emotional terrorist".
- Throughout these tracks, the singing have a painted-on edge, akin to a fairy-tale figure concealing a blade: "Gold medal in being a scoundrel / You have won the trophy of disappointment."
An Opulent Feast for the Soul
This album is pop on a maximalist scale, a hungry grasp for high artistry in an era of impending AI-generated blankness. It eschews solipsism for sublime elevation, crafting an over-the-top drama that skillfully controls its own inherent ridiculousness. This is an abundant well of buried gems that takes patience to fully mine but doesn't seem like a chore. Where some big pop albums of 2025 seemed like a meager meal, Lux is a lavish banquet at which the guests around it, some tipsy on sacred wine, flit between discussions about historical figures, the profound sensation of heartbreaking grief, and shared gossip about hopeless partners. In essence, it's a contemporary theatrical production from pop's most endlessly inventive practitioner.
