Initially, this work might appear more like a difficult scholarly challenge than a new pop record from a musician who just had a previous single was a collaboration with an international pop star. Broken across 4 separate sections and performed in 13 languages, this is a dizzying orchestral-influenced opus investigating feminine mystery, spiritual transcendence, and bodily change, frequently by way of the prism of various female saints. The dissolution of a romance—a theme handled with raw honesty elsewhere—is launched upwards here, buoyed by the lush presence of a major orchestra and work from a Pulitzer-winning composer among a long list of collaborators. Its sheer audacity by itself makes the efforts of contemporary pop stars look rather modest.
Rising Above Academic Exercise
The fact that this album succeeds in escape dry academic posturing is nearly miraculous, and complete credit going to the artist. While this is not her first album to blend the past with modern styles, the stakes are far higher on Lux, with the tightrope walk far more precarious. What truly raises this fourth release, beyond its multilayered tunes, dense arrangements, and engrained theatricality, is a core spirit of joy. Similar to the iconic Björk during her height, there is a wondrous quality to the vocalist's voice that pulls you into its tornado. When she's breaking hearts apart, you nevertheless want to stay alongside her for the ride.
A Signature Moment of Exuberance
That exuberant energy comes forth clearly on a stirring piano-led ballad inspired by Saint Clare. It luxuriates in a string-drenched melancholy for more than four minutes. Suddenly, all the music falls silent, to reveal we hear a gleeful laugh and a declaration prior to a hilariously over-the-top orchestral crescendo crashes down like cartoonish force. The song then shifts into the wild track driven by racing orchestration, a powerful choir, and a cameo role from the artist herself.
"The charm with this album is that the listener never exactly know—or even wish to know—what you is going next."
Almost each track finishes in a totally distinct point than where it began. One moment examines the transient nature of fame with a delicate symphony only to disintegrating into electronic chaos. Another, a song echoing her previous rhythmic style begins off dark and brooding, featuring menacing vocals, before sudden flamenco rhythms and an angelic chorus arrive to smooth the song's rough edges.
The Balance Of Art and Pop
A key achievement of the album involves straddling the gap of radical innovation and broad accessibility. It is no coincidence that the album has achieved her first release to break into the upper reaches of major charts: its heart contains a collection of utterly catchy pop songs. One track sung primarily in the English language builds on a refrain that seems to collect increasingly nagging melodies while it spirals upward. That trick is repeated on another powerful track that expands and constricts, weaving multiple melodies as a complex weave.
- A dance-infused song charms with its jaunty, Disney-adjacent drama and an anthemic hook.
- Lyrically, it aligns the pop culture honesty of other heartbreak songs, lambasting a former partner described as an "emotional terrorist".
- Across the album, the singing have a painted-on edge, akin to a fairy-tale figure hiding a knife: "Top prize in being a motherfucker / You have won the trophy of letdown."
An Opulent Banquet for the Soul
Lux is pop on a maximalist scale, an ambitious grasp for capital-A artistry amid of looming artificial sameness. It eschews self-absorption in favor of sublime elevation, crafting an over-the-top spectacle that skillfully manages its built-in excess. This is a deep well of buried gems that takes time to fully mine but never seem like hard work. While some major releases of the year felt like a meager meal, Lux offers a lavish feast at which the guests at the table, some intoxicated on sacred wine, flutter between conversations about historical figures, the galvanizing feeling of soul-shattering grief, and shared gossip about hopeless men. It is a contemporary musical from music's most endlessly inventive visionary.
