Initially, Lux might appear more like an arduous academic examination than a new popular music project by a musician whose last hit featured an international pop icon. Split across four different parts and performed in thirteen languages, we have a breathtaking symphonic album investigating female mystique, spiritual transcendence, and physical transformation, often via the perspective of various women saints. The dissolution of a relationship—a theme treated with grounded openness elsewhere—soars heavenward on this record, carried by the constant sound of a major orchestra and input from an award-winning composer among an extensive list of contributors. The pure daring by itself makes the work of contemporary artists appear rather laughable.
Transcending Academic Exercise
The fact that this album manages to escape dry academic posturing feels nearly a miracle, and complete praise going to the artist. Although it's not her first project to alchemize historical sounds and the present, the scale feel much greater on Lux, and the balancing act far more dramatic. What truly raises her fourth album, beyond its complex tunes, rich compositions, and inherent drama, is a core spirit of fun. Much like the legendary artist during her peak, you find a captivating quality to the vocalist's singing that pulls you up in its tornado. Even when she's breaking hearts apart, the listener nevertheless want to stay right there through the ride.
A Signature Example of Exuberance
This exuberant energy comes forth clearly on a stirring piano-led song about Saint Clare. It bathes in a sorrowful whirlpool for several moments. Suddenly, everything drops away, to reveal there's a spontaneous giggle and a comment before a hilariously over-the-top string crescendo thuds down with cartoonish force. The track then shifts to the frenetic single driven by racing strings, an imposing choral group, and a surprise role from the artist Björk.
"The magic with this album is that you never quite know—nor want to know—what you is going to next."
Nearly each song ends in a completely different point from how it began. A track explores the fleeting nature of celebrity with a featherlight symphony only to collapsing in electronic chaos. Elsewhere, a song echoing her earlier rhythmic style begins off dark and brooding, featuring menacing beats, before sudden flamenco rhythms and an angelic chorus arrive to soften the song's jagged corners.
The Balance Between Art and Accessibility
Another crucial balancing act on Lux involves straddling the gap between radical experimentation and mainstream accessibility. This is little surprise that the album has achieved her first release to crack the upper reaches of major charts: at its core a suite of truly undeniable pop songs. One track performed primarily in English builds on a refrain that seems to gather more and more infectious hooks as it spirals upward. This trick gets echoed on a different expansive ballad that grows and constricts, weaving multiple tunes like an intricate tapestry.
- A waltz-like song seduces via its jaunty, Disney-adjacent flair and an anthemic hook.
- In its words, it shares the cultural impact of other heartbreak anthems, eviscerating a former partner described as an "psychological terrorist".
- Across the album, the vocals carry a painted-on smile, akin to a fairy-tale character hiding a knife: "Gold medal in acting like a motherfucker / You've won the trophy of letdown."
A Maximalist Feast for the Ears
Lux is pop on a grand level, a hungry grasp for high artistry amid of impending artificial sameness. It rejects self-absorption for sublime elevation, crafting an over-the-top drama that skillfully manages its built-in excess. It is an abundant well of buried treasure that requires patience to fully mine but never seem like hard work. While some major pop albums of the year seemed like feasting on meal, Lux is a lavish banquet where the characters at it, perhaps intoxicated on holy wine, flit from discussions about historical figures, the profound feeling of heartbreaking grief, and shared stories about hopeless partners. It is a contemporary theatrical production from music's most endlessly inventive visionary.