"LUX" By Rosalía

Rosalía is a Spanish avant-garde pop artist and innovator who has reshaped global pop by deconstructing flamenco and fusing it with rap, experimental production, and international influences. From El Mal Querer and MOTOMAMI to her multilingual, genre-spanning project LUX, her work blends raw emotional intensity with boundary-breaking artistry, redefining modern femininity and creative freedom in pop music.(Pop/R&B)

In less than three years, Rosalía has accomplished an astonishing job of remapping the music industry and shifting the way that pop music has been defined. Through two previous albums—Los Ángeles and El Mal Querer—she made flamenco music accessible to many people, but through the latter, she also broke apart the conventional boundaries of flamenco and created a new genre within it, which was motivated by the desire to create something romantic and yet also has roots in Spanish rap music. Through her subsequent Spanish-language release—MOTOMAMI—Rosalía has cemented her status as an avant-garde artist and innovator, and the raw emotion of her voice and sound propelled her to become a global sensation.

After the final album of her first trilogy (Los Ángeles, El Mal Querer, MOTOMAMI), she produced LUX, which was written and recorded in 13 different languages and includes four movements, to reflect Rosalía's international reach as well as how far she has come as a performer. Where MOTOMAMI was all about the euphoric experience of pop music, LUX represents the process of falling in love, losing that love, and finding new inspiration. While work produced by Rosalía may require more effort to fully grasp and understand—LUX includes elements of avant-garde, classically influenced pop as well as many influences from around the world—it is also an emotional journey that contains a great deal for those who truly love this style of music.For Women, LUX is like a new testament of feminine celebrity.

In "Sauvignon Blanc," Rosalía swears she will burn her Rolls-Royce and throw away her Jimmy Choos, so she will be free to sell her soul to create some spiritual peace. In "Reliquia," she determines that being famous is a sacrifice and that the heart she has been given by others is not real; she is a relic to the world.

On "Dios Es Un Stalker," Rosalía becomes a god with flaws, as her passionate obsession for other people has turned into something feral. With lyrics like, “I’m your shadow.”, “I’m the labyrinth.”With lyrics like, “I’m your shadow,” “I’m the labyrinth,” she is creating a mystical and sacred choral experience for listeners through clean bass lines and complex harmonies. This is proof that even the most godly of heroes are subject to the imperfections of human nature.

Rosalía ended her engagement to Puerto Rican star Rauw Alejandro in 2023; shortly after she began working on this record. LUX encompasses the pain of heartbreak from a religious viewpoint, but quickly reinterprets this pain from a modern feminine perspective. The best line on the record is "La Perla," which describes the way Rosalía discards the men in her life. She has elevated the idea of a "man" to be associated with being an "emotional terrorist," and describes her relationship with Rauw by referring to him as a "red flag andante" (a walking red flag), thus creating a perfectly executed controlled evisceration of the modern man's masculinity alongside the masterful retaliation of Fiona Apple and Tancarlos.

The music of LUX has a unique identity—distinct from that other pop that uses "the algorithm" to get the song heard LUX sits next to the albums of the music that uses the concert genre as a means to create a female archetype, [when you think of...] creating an example of overcoming heartache such as Vulnicura, Ys, Hounds of Love, Titanic Rising, MAGDALENE.

There are the so-called "bangers," but instead of being found on the top of the charts you are much more likely to find them hanging out in the pasture. For example, "Focu'Ranni" rises above the chopped up samples of her own voice, the arrangement feels like an older, wiser cousin of "Pienso en tu mirá" from El Mal Querer. LUX has made an artist out of Rosalía without losing sight of the connection that her fans initially made with her because of her lyrics are sung to them as directly as possible.

LUX is where pop music and religious music meet on a higher ground of mutual understanding. "When God comes down I go up/And we give our hearts to each other."

Mason Morgan