At first glance, Lux might appear more like a challenging scholarly challenge than the latest pop record from a musician who just had a last hit featured an international pop icon. Broken across four separate movements and performed in 13 languages, it is a head-spinning orchestral-influenced work exploring feminine mystery, spiritual ascent, and bodily change, often via the perspective of different women saints. The end of a romance—a topic treated with raw honesty elsewhere—is shot skyward here, supported by the lush sound of a major symphony orchestra and contributions from a Pulitzer-winning songwriter within an extensive roll call of collaborators. The pure ambition by itself renders the efforts of other pop stars look rather laughable.
Rising Above Academic Exercise
The fact that Lux manages to avoid dry academic chin-stroking feels almost a miracle, with sole credit going to the artist. Although this is not her first album to fuse historical sounds with modern styles, the stakes are far greater here, with the tightrope walk far more pronounced. The element that truly elevates this fourth release, outside of its complex melodies, rich compositions, and engrained drama, is an essential spirit of fun. Much like the iconic artist during her peak, you find a wondrous quality to the vocalist's voice that pulls you up in its whirlwind. Even when she's tearing your heart apart, the listener still want to stay right there through the journey.
A Signature Example of Exuberance
That playful energy shines brightly on a stirring piano-led ballad about a saint. It bathes in a sorrowful melancholy for more than four moments. Then, all the music drops away, to reveal there's a spontaneous laugh and a comment before a hilariously over-the-top string surge crashes down like cartoonish impact. The song then segues to the frenetic single driven by racing orchestration, an imposing choir, and a surprise appearance from the artist herself.
"The charm with this album is that you never exactly understand—or even wish to know—where it is going next."
Nearly every track finishes in a completely different place than where it began. A track explores the transient nature of celebrity with a featherlight orchestration before disintegrating into digital cacophony. Another, a song that recalls the artist's previous trap-infused work begins off moody and brooding, with prowling beats, before sudden flamenco rhythms and a heavenly chorus arrive to soften its jagged edges.
The Balance Of Art and Accessibility
A key achievement of the album involves navigating the line between bold innovation and broad appeal. It is little surprise that the album has achieved her first work to crack the Top 5 of major charts: its heart contains a suite of truly catchy pop songs. A song performed primarily in English builds on a refrain that seems to collect more and more infectious melodies as it spirals upward. This feat gets repeated by a different powerful track that expands and contracts, weaving layered melodies like an intricate weave.
- A waltz-like song seduces via its playful, Disney-adjacent drama and a chant-along hook.
- In its words, it shares the cultural honesty of contemporary heartbreak anthems, lambasting an ex- lover described as an "psychological bully".
- Throughout the album, the vocals carry a sharp edge, akin to a fairy-tale figure concealing a blade: "Gold medal in acting like a scoundrel / You've won the trophy of disappointment."
A Maximalist Banquet for the Ears
This album is pop on a grand level, a hungry reach for capital-A artistry in an era of looming artificial blankness. It eschews self-absorption for sublime transcendence, creating an over-the-top drama that masterfully manages its own inherent ridiculousness. It is an abundant source of hidden gems that requires time to completely mine but never feels like a chore. Where some major releases of the year seemed like a meager scraps, Lux is a sumptuous feast where the guests around the table, perhaps intoxicated on holy drink, flutter between discussions about historical figures, the profound feeling of heartbreaking grief, and shared gossip about hopeless men. It is a contemporary theatrical production from music's most endlessly creative practitioner.
