On the surface, this album may look closer to a difficult university challenge rather than the latest popular music project by a musician who just had a previous hit was a collaboration with an international pop star. Split across four separate movements and sung in 13 languages, this is a dizzying classical-tinged work investigating feminine mystery, religious ascent, and physical transformation, frequently by way of the lens of different female saints. The end of a relationship—a theme handled with grounded openness elsewhere—is launched skyward on this record, carried by the lush sound of a full orchestra and work from a Pulitzer-winning songwriter within an extensive list of collaborators. Its sheer audacity alone makes the efforts of contemporary artists appear quite laughable.
Transcending Scholarly Exercise
That this album manages to escape overly academic chin-stroking feels almost a miracle, and full praise belonging to the artist. While it's not the first time project to alchemize the past with the present, its stakes feel far greater on Lux, and the balancing act far more dramatic. The element that truly raises this fourth release, outside of its multilayered tunes, dense arrangements, and inherent theatricality, proves to be an essential sense of playfulness. Similar to the legendary Björk during her peak, there is a captivating sense to the vocalist's voice that pulls the listener into its whirlwind. When she is breaking your heart apart, you nevertheless want to be alongside her through the journey.
A Prime Example of Exuberance
This playful spirit comes forth clearly during the stunning piano-led song about Saint Clare. It bathes in a string-drenched whirlpool for several moments. Suddenly, all the music falls silent, and there's a gleeful laugh and a comment before a comically exaggerated string crescendo crashes in with cartoonish force. The track then segues into the frenetic single featuring galloping strings, an imposing choral group, and a surprise role from none other than herself.
"The magic of Lux is that you never exactly understand—or even wish to know—where you will go next."
Almost every song ends in a completely distinct point from where it started. A track examines the transient trappings of celebrity with a delicate symphony before collapsing in digital cacophony. Elsewhere, a song echoing her earlier trap-infused style starts out dark and brooding, with prowling beats, until fluttering traditional handclaps and an angelic choir enter to smooth its rough edges.
The Bridge Of Experiment and Pop
Another crucial achievement on Lux involves navigating the gap of radical innovation and mainstream accessibility. It is little surprise that it has become her first release to crack the Top 5 of key markets: at its core a suite of truly catchy hits. One track performed entirely in the English language builds on a refrain that seems to collect increasingly nagging melodies as it spins skyward. This trick gets echoed by a different powerful ballad that grows and contracts, weaving multiple melodies as a complex weave.
- A dance-infused song charms via its playful, Disney-adjacent drama and a chant-along chorus.
- Lyrically, it shares the cultural impact of contemporary heartbreak songs, lambasting an ex- partner labeled an "emotional bully".
- Throughout these tracks, the vocals carry a sharp smile, akin to a fairy-tale figure concealing a knife: "Gold medal in being a scoundrel / You've won the trophy of disappointment."
A Maximalist Banquet for the Ears
This album represents popular music on a maximalist level, a hungry reach for capital-A Art in an era of looming AI-generated blankness. It rejects self-absorption in favor of glorious transcendence, crafting a dramatic spectacle that skillfully controls its built-in excess. It is an abundant source of hidden treasure that requires time to fully mine but doesn't feels like hard work. Where other big releases of the year seemed like a meager meal, Lux offers a sumptuous banquet at which the guests at the table, perhaps intoxicated on sacred drink, flutter between discussions about ancient saints, the galvanizing sensation of heartbreaking sadness, and common gossip about useless partners. In essence, it's a contemporary musical from pop's truly restlessly creative visionary.