On the surface, this album may look closer to an arduous scholarly examination than the latest popular music album by an artist who just had a last hit featured a global K-pop star. Divided across 4 distinct sections and sung in thirteen tongues, it is a dizzying classical-tinged work exploring female mystery, spiritual ascent, and bodily change, often by way of the lens of various female saints. The dissolution of a romance—a topic treated with grounded honesty elsewhere—is shot upwards here, buoyed by the constant presence of a full orchestra and work from a Pulitzer-winning songwriter within a vast list of collaborators. The pure ambition by itself renders the work of other artists appear quite modest.
Transcending Academic Pretense
The fact that Lux manages to escape dry intellectual chin-stroking feels almost a miracle, and sole credit going to the artist. Although it's not the first time project to fuse historical sounds and the present, its stakes feel far higher on Lux, with the tightrope walk more precarious. What truly elevates her fourth album, beyond its multilayered melodies, rich compositions, and engrained drama, is a core spirit of fun. Similar to the legendary Björk during her peak, there is a wondrous quality to the vocalist's singing which sweeps you up in its tornado. Even when she's breaking your heart in two, the listener still desire to be right there through the ride.
A Prime Example of Joy
That exuberant energy shines clearly during a stunning Italian song about Saint Clare. It luxuriates in a string-drenched melancholy for more than four minutes. Suddenly, everything drops silent, to reveal there's a spontaneous laugh and a comment before a comically exaggerated orchestral crescendo crashes in like comedic impact. The song immediately shifts to the wild single driven by galloping orchestration, an imposing choral group, and a cameo appearance from the artist herself.
"The magic of this album is that the listener never exactly understand—nor wish to predict—where you is going to next."
Almost each song finishes in a totally distinct point from how it began. One moment examines the fleeting trappings of celebrity with a featherlight symphony only to collapsing in electronic chaos. Elsewhere, a song that recalls her earlier trap-infused work starts off moody and brooding, featuring menacing vocals, before fluttering traditional rhythms and an angelic chorus enter to soften the song's jagged edges.
The Balance Between Art and Pop
Another crucial achievement of Lux involves straddling the gap of bold innovation and broad appeal. It is little surprise that the album has become the artist's highest-charting work to crack the Top 5 of key charts: at its core a collection of truly undeniable hits. One track sung primarily in English swells on a chorus that seems to collect increasingly nagging melodies while it spins upward. That feat gets repeated on another expansive ballad that grows and constricts, intertwining multiple melodies as a complex tapestry.
- A dance-infused number seduces with its playful, theatrical flair and a chant-along chorus.
- Lyrically, it shares the pop culture impact of contemporary heartbreak songs, lambasting an ex- lover described as an "psychological bully".
- Throughout the album, the singing have a painted-on smile, like a storybook figure concealing a blade: "Gold medal in being a scoundrel / You have the podium of disappointment."
A Maximalist Feast for the Soul
This album represents pop on a maximalist level, an ambitious reach for high Art in an era of impending artificial blankness. It rejects self-absorption in favor of sublime transcendence, creating a dramatic spectacle that skillfully controls its own inherent ridiculousness. This is an abundant source of buried gems that requires patience to fully explore but doesn't seem like a chore. Where other big pop albums of the year seemed like a meager scraps, this record is a sumptuous banquet where the guests around the table, perhaps intoxicated on sacred drink, flit between discussions about historical saints, the profound sensation of heartbreaking grief, and shared stories about hopeless men. In essence, it's a modern-day musical from music's most restlessly inventive visionary.
