At first glance, this work may look closer to a challenging scholarly challenge than the latest popular music record from an artist who just had a previous hit was a collaboration with an international K-pop star. Broken across four distinct sections and voiced in thirteen languages, it is a dizzying orchestral-influenced work investigating feminine mystery, religious transcendence, and physical transformation, often through the prism of different women saints. The end of a relationship—a theme handled with grounded honesty elsewhere—is shot heavenward here, carried by the constant presence of a major orchestra and contributions from a Pulitzer-winning songwriter within a vast list of collaborators. Its sheer audacity alone makes the efforts of other artists appear rather small.
Transcending Academic Exercise
The fact that this album manages to avoid dry academic posturing feels nothing short of a miracle, with complete praise belonging to the artist. Although it's not the first time album to fuse the past with the present, its ambitions feel far greater on Lux, and the tightrope walk more dramatic. The element that truly elevates her fourth release, beyond its multilayered tunes, rich arrangements, and inherent theatricality, is an essential sense of fun. Similar to the iconic artist at her height, you find a captivating quality to the vocalist's singing which sweeps you into its whirlwind. When she is breaking your heart apart, the listener still desire to be alongside her through the ride.
A Signature Example of Joy
This exuberant spirit comes forth brightly on a stunning Italian ballad about Saint Clare. It bathes in a sorrowful whirlpool over more than four minutes. Then, everything drops silent, and we hear a spontaneous laugh followed by a comment before a comically over-the-top string crescendo thuds in like comedic force. The track then segues into the frenetic track driven by racing orchestration, a powerful choral group, and a cameo role from none other than herself.
"The charm of Lux is that the listener rarely exactly understand—or even want to predict—what it will go to next."
Almost every song finishes at a completely distinct place than where it started. One moment explores the transient nature of celebrity with a delicate orchestration only to collapsing into electronic chaos. Elsewhere, a cut that recalls the artist's earlier trap-infused work starts off moody and sinister, with menacing vocals, until fluttering flamenco rhythms and an angelic chorus arrive to smooth the song's jagged corners.
The Balance Of Experiment & Pop
Another crucial achievement of the album involves straddling the line of radical innovation and broad appeal. It is no coincidence that it has become the artist's highest-charting work to break into the upper reaches of key charts: at its core a suite of truly catchy pop songs. One track performed entirely in the English language builds on a refrain that seems to gather increasingly nagging hooks as it spins upward. This trick is repeated on another powerful track that expands and contracts, weaving layered tunes like an intricate tapestry.
- A dance-infused number charms via its jaunty, Disney-adjacent drama and an anthemic chorus.
- Lyrically, it shares the cultural impact of other heartbreak anthems, lambasting a former lover described as an "psychological terrorist".
- Across these tracks, the vocals have a painted-on edge, like a storybook character concealing a knife: "Gold medal in acting like a scoundrel / You've won the trophy of disappointment."
An Opulent Feast for the Soul
Lux represents popular music on a grand scale, an ambitious grasp for high artistry in an era of impending AI-generated blankness. It rejects self-absorption for sublime elevation, crafting a dramatic spectacle that masterfully manages its own inherent ridiculousness. It is a deep source of buried gems that requires patience to fully explore but never seem like hard work. Where some big releases of 2025 felt like a meager scraps, Lux is a lavish feast at which the guests around it, some intoxicated on holy wine, flutter between discussions about historical figures, the profound sensation of soul-shattering grief, and shared gossip about hopeless partners. In essence, it's a modern-day theatrical production from pop's most endlessly inventive practitioner.
