On the surface, this album might appear more like an arduous university examination than a new pop project by a musician who just had a last hit featured an international pop icon. Split into four different parts and voiced in thirteen languages, it is a dizzying orchestral-influenced opus investigating female mystery, spiritual transcendence, and physical change, often via the perspective of different women saints. The end of a love affair—a theme handled with raw openness on another major 2025 album—is shot heavenward on this record, buoyed by the lush sound of a major orchestra and input from a Pulitzer-winning composer among an extensive list of collaborators. Its sheer ambition alone renders the efforts of other artists seem rather small.
Transcending Scholarly Exercise
The fact that this album manages to transcend dry intellectual posturing feels nearly a miracle, with sole credit belonging to the artist. Although it's not her first album to alchemize the past and the present, its ambitions feel far higher here, with the tightrope walk far more dramatic. What truly raises this fourth album, beyond its multilayered tunes, rich compositions, and inherent drama, is an essential sense of fun. Much like the legendary Björk at her peak, there is a wondrous quality to the vocalist's singing that pulls you into its whirlwind. When she is tearing hearts in two, the listener still want to be alongside her through the ride.
A Prime Example of Exuberance
This playful spirit comes forth clearly on the stunning piano-led song inspired by Saint Clare. It luxuriates in a sorrowful whirlpool over more than four moments. Suddenly, all the music drops away, to reveal we hear a gleeful giggle and a comment before a comically exaggerated string crescendo thuds down with cartoonish impact. The track then shifts into the wild track driven by galloping orchestration, a powerful choral group, and a cameo role from the artist herself.
"The charm of this album lies in you never exactly understand—nor want to know—what you is going next."
Almost each song concludes in a totally distinct place from how it began. A track explores the transient trappings of celebrity over a delicate symphony before collapsing in electronic chaos. Elsewhere, a song that recalls the artist's earlier trap-infused work begins out dark and sinister, with menacing beats, before fluttering flamenco handclaps and a heavenly choir enter to soften the song's rough corners.
The Bridge Between Art and Pop
A key balancing act of Lux involves straddling the gap of radical experimentation and broad accessibility. This is no surprise that it has achieved the artist's highest-charting work to break into the upper reaches of major charts: at its core a collection of truly undeniable pop songs. One track performed primarily in the English language swells on a refrain that seems to collect increasingly infectious hooks as it spirals upward. This feat gets repeated on another powerful track that expands and contracts, weaving multiple melodies like an intricate weave.
- A dance-infused song seduces via its playful, Disney-adjacent flair and an anthemic chorus.
- In its words, it shares with pop culture honesty of contemporary heartbreak anthems, lambasting a former lover described as an "psychological bully".
- Throughout these tracks, the vocals carry a sharp smile, akin to a fairy-tale figure hiding a knife: "Gold medal in being a motherfucker / You've won the trophy of disappointment."
An Opulent Feast for the Soul
Lux represents popular music on a grand scale, an ambitious reach for capital-A Art in an era of looming artificial blankness. It eschews self-absorption for sublime transcendence, crafting a dramatic spectacle that skillfully manages its built-in ridiculousness. This is a deep well of buried treasure that requires time to completely mine but never seem like a chore. Where other major releases of 2025 felt like a meager meal, Lux offers a sumptuous feast at which the characters around it, perhaps tipsy on sacred wine, flit from discussions about historical figures, the galvanizing sensation of soul-shattering sadness, and shared gossip about useless partners. In essence, it's a contemporary musical from music's most endlessly creative practitioner.
