At first glance, this work may look closer to a difficult academic examination rather than a new popular music project from a musician who just had a last hit featured a global K-pop icon. Divided into four separate movements and performed in 13 languages, this is a breathtaking orchestral-influenced opus investigating female mystery, religious ascent, and corporal change, often by way of the lens of various female saints. The end of a romance—a topic handled with raw openness on another major 2025 album—is shot heavenward here, carried by the lush presence of a full symphony orchestra and input from a Pulitzer-winning composer among a vast roll call of collaborators. Its sheer daring alone renders the efforts of contemporary artists appear rather laughable.
Rising Above Academic Exercise
That Lux manages to avoid dry intellectual chin-stroking feels nothing short of miraculous, and full praise belonging to the artist. While it's not her first album to blend the past and modern styles, its ambitions feel much higher here, with the tightrope walk more precarious. What really raises her fourth album, beyond its multilayered tunes, dense arrangements, and inherent theatricality, is a core sense of joy. Similar to the iconic artist at her height, there is a wondrous sense to the vocalist's singing that pulls you up in its whirlwind. Even when she is tearing your heart in two, you still desire to be alongside her through the ride.
A Prime Example of Joy
That playful energy shines clearly on the stirring Italian song inspired by Saint Clare. It luxuriates in a string-drenched whirlpool for several minutes. Then, all the music falls away, and there's a spontaneous laugh and a declaration before a hilariously over-the-top string crescendo thuds in like cartoonish force. The track immediately shifts to the frenetic track featuring galloping strings, a powerful choral group, and a surprise appearance from the artist herself.
"The charm with this album is that you rarely quite understand—or even want to predict—what you is going to next."
Almost every song finishes at a totally distinct place than how it started. One moment examines the fleeting nature of fame with a delicate orchestration before collapsing in digital cacophony. Another, a song that recalls her previous trap-infused work starts out dark and sinister, with prowling vocals, before sudden traditional rhythms and an angelic choir enter to smooth the song's jagged edges.
The Bridge Between Experiment & Accessibility
Another crucial achievement on the album is straddling the line between radical experimentation and mainstream appeal. This is no coincidence that the album has achieved her highest-charting release to crack the upper reaches of major charts: at its core a suite of utterly catchy pop songs. One track performed entirely in the English language builds on a refrain that seems to gather more and more infectious hooks as it spins upward. This trick is repeated by another expansive ballad that expands and contracts, intertwining layered melodies like a complex tapestry.
- A waltz-like song seduces with its jaunty, Disney-adjacent drama and a chant-along hook.
- Lyrically, it shares with cultural honesty of other breakup anthems, lambasting a former lover described as an "psychological bully".
- Throughout these tracks, the singing carry a sharp smile, akin to a storybook character concealing a knife: "Top prize in acting like a motherfucker / You have won the trophy of disappointment."
A Maximalist Feast for the Soul
Lux represents popular music on a maximalist scale, a hungry reach for high Art in an era of looming AI-generated blankness. It rejects solipsism in favor of glorious elevation, creating an over-the-top spectacle that skillfully controls its inherent excess. This is a deep well of hidden treasure that requires time to fully mine but doesn't feels like a chore. While some big pop albums of 2025 seemed like feasting on scraps, this record offers a lavish banquet at which the guests around the table, some tipsy on holy wine, flit from conversations about historical saints, the profound feeling of soul-shattering grief, and shared stories about hopeless men. In essence, it's a modern-day theatrical production from pop's truly endlessly creative visionary.
