🔗 Share this article

Initially, Lux might appear more like an arduous academic quiz than the latest popular music record by an artist who just had a previous hit featured an international pop icon. Broken across 4 distinct parts and voiced in 13 tongues, we have a head-spinning classical-tinged opus exploring feminine mystery, religious transcendence, and physical change, frequently through the lens of different female saints. The dissolution of a romance—a topic handled with raw honesty elsewhere—is shot heavenward on this record, supported by the lush presence of a major orchestra and contributions from an award-winning songwriter within an extensive list of contributors. The pure audacity alone makes the work of contemporary artists seem rather modest.

Rising Above Scholarly Pretense

The fact that this album manages to transcend dry academic posturing is almost miraculous, with complete praise going to the artist. While this is not her first album to blend historical sounds with the present, the ambitions feel much greater on Lux, and the balancing act far more dramatic. The element that really elevates her fourth release, beyond its complex tunes, rich arrangements, and engrained theatricality, proves to be a core spirit of joy. Similar to the legendary Björk at her height, there is a wondrous quality to the vocalist's singing which sweeps you up in its tornado. When she's breaking your heart apart, the listener still want to be alongside her through the ride.

A Prime Moment of Joy

This playful spirit comes forth clearly during the stunning piano-led ballad about Saint Clare. It luxuriates in a string-drenched melancholy over more than four minutes. Suddenly, all the music drops away, and we hear a spontaneous giggle followed by a declaration prior to a hilariously exaggerated orchestral crescendo thuds in with cartoonish impact. The track immediately segues to the wild track driven by galloping strings, an imposing choral group, and a cameo appearance from the artist herself.

"The charm of Lux lies in you rarely quite understand—nor want to know—where you is going to next."

Almost each song concludes at a completely distinct point than where it started. One moment examines the transient nature of celebrity over a featherlight symphony only to disintegrating into electronic chaos. Elsewhere, a cut echoing the artist's earlier trap-infused style begins off dark and brooding, with prowling beats, until fluttering flamenco handclaps and an angelic choir arrive to smooth its rough corners.

The Balance Of Experiment & Accessibility

A key balancing act on Lux is navigating the line of radical experimentation and mainstream accessibility. This is no surprise that it has become the artist's first work to break into the upper reaches of key charts: at its core a collection of truly catchy pop songs. One track performed entirely in English builds on a refrain that feels to collect increasingly nagging melodies while it spirals upward. That feat is echoed by a different powerful ballad that grows and constricts, intertwining multiple melodies like a complex weave.

• A waltz-like song seduces with its jaunty, Disney-adjacent flair and an anthemic hook.
• In its words, it shares with cultural impact of other heartbreak songs, eviscerating an ex- lover labeled an "psychological bully".
• Across these tracks, the vocals have a painted-on smile, like a fairy-tale character concealing a blade: "Top prize in being a scoundrel / You've the podium of disappointment."

A Maximalist Banquet for the Soul

This album is pop on a maximalist scale, a hungry reach for capital-A artistry amid of looming AI-generated sameness. It rejects solipsism in favor of glorious elevation, creating a dramatic spectacle that skillfully controls its own built-in ridiculousness. It is an abundant well of buried gems that requires time to completely mine but never seem like a chore. While other major pop albums of the year seemed like feasting on meal, this record is a lavish feast at which the guests around it, perhaps tipsy on sacred drink, flit between conversations about ancient figures, the profound sensation of soul-shattering grief, and common gossip about hopeless men. In essence, it's a modern-day musical from pop's most restlessly inventive practitioner.