Pressing play on ROSALÍA’s LUX is like being in the presence of some sort of immaculate, ornate sprawling avant garde exhibit that takes up the entire floor of a contemporary art museum. Simply walking through isn’t going to be enough time to fully immerse yourself within the artist’s vision, and even if you were to spend half of your day reading every placard placed next to each piece standing still in front of it all, you still might not fully absorb the work in just that time. That being said, it leaves you with an awe-filled impression nonetheless, be it a spiritual one from its very chic Catholic art appropriation vibes (the mainstream celebrity pivot back to spirituality is back, y’all…) or just one of whelming in spectacle to what a modern pop artist can create when they’re working beyond conventions.

As a reaction to what came before it — the maximalist, experimental art-pop adventure that was the Spanish singer’s 2023 album, MOTOMAMI, LUX is a polarity against its immediacy heard within bangers like “SAOKA” and “CHICKEN TERIYAKI”. Instead, ROSALÍA — alongside a diverse cast of collaborators from across the entire spectrum including producer constants Noah Goldstein and Dylan Wiggins in its whole body (of note: “Sexo, Violencia y Llantas”, “Divinize”,) the odd couple of Daft Punk’s Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and OneRepublic bro Ryan Tedder on the featherlight digi-pop pomp “Reliquia”, Pharrell and El Guincho in the menacing Latin beatmaking of “De Madrugá”, songwriting assists from The-Dream on the Broadway caliber ballad “Sauvignon Blanc” and the imminently returning Goon-er Tobias Jesso Jr. on the et. al. of all-of-the-above of “La Yugular”, as well as guest vocalists björk and Yves Tumor on the peak spectacle “Berghain” — she transcends this physical world and the passage through death’s door (be it our own human mortality or her own artistic creativity) through another singular stylistic reinvention that essentially conflates R&B pop, electronic, and — more dramatically — classical and operatic remnants across four movements of 60-minute-long musical cinema about love, heartbreak faith, and fame.

Is it too much to add that ROSALÍA does this all in 14 languages specifically inspired by Christian saints, Hebrew prophets, Sufi Muslim mystics, and Buddhist nuns? That’s some real Catholic pope-level grip on singing in different tongues as a means to spread your message — in this case, her art — globally through reflections that can be subjectively interpreted by the individual beholder, yet are still bound to common emotional ground. LUX may be exemplary pop-avant garde grandeur, but it’s also an album that leaves plenty of room for life’s mysteries to permeate without one, unanimous concrete belief system needed to deconstruct them.

Highlights: “Divinize”, “Reliquia”, “Berghain”,

ROSALÍA’s LUX is available now on Columbia Records.

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