Not only is Lux 2025’s Album Of The Year, IMHO, its lead single Berghain (feat. Björk and Yves Tumor – what a flex!) also snatches the Song Of The Year crown.
This staggering song’s intro – choral euphoria underscored by a flurry of sawing strings – wouldn’t sound out of place nestled among the classical greats.
When Björk enters around the halfway mark, her vocals have an omnipresent quality – like Mother Earth grieving: “The only way to save us is through divine intervention.” We’ve already been served a lush, sonic banquet, then Yves Tumor closes out this masterstroke, repeating, “I’ll fuck you ‘til you love me” – aching with desperation. Something about the f-word mingling with orchestration feels like swearing in church. As measured, bombastic bass drums vibrate like a giant’s footsteps, the song’s conclusion is exhilarating and unexpected.
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An entire opera in less than three minutes, Berghain is devoted to the 12th-century German abbess, Hildegard of Bingen, who had visions that would pierce her brain.
Lux, which is Latin for light, is a collection of character studies “inspired by the lives of female saints”. Rosalía was fascinated by how different cultures interpret and contextualise sainthood. For example: Olga of Kyiv, an Eastern Orthodox saint, slaughtered thousands of men from the tribe responsible for her husband’s death but was canonised regardless.
Rosalía’s astonishing fourth record, which is arranged in four movements, is sung in 13 languages (including Japanese, Italian, Chinese, Hebrew and Ukrainian). On the dramatic Porcelana, she raps in Latin. Rosalía spent an entire year working with native speakers to get the translations spot on, turning to Justice and Charlotte Gainsbourg for the French parts.
She also made a conscious decision to stay away from looping and instead prioritise human performance, recruiting Catalan choirs and the London Symphony Orchestra.
“How nice it’d be, to come from this Earth, go to Heaven, and come back to the Earth,” opener Sexo, Violencia, y Llantas ponders. On Sauvignon Blanc, which is sung in Spanish, she vows, “I will listen to my God/ I will throw away my Jimmy Choos” – there’s humour within the reverence.
Rosalía could never be accused of algorithm chasing. She creates sonic art from a limitless palette and artistic licence prevails. Lux effortlessly pings from serene waltz (La Perla, which calls out an “emotional terrorist”) to deconstructed salsa rhythms (Dios Es Un Stalker), flamenco pop (La Rumba Del Perdón) to aria (Mio Cristo Piange Diamanti) plus so much more.
La Yugular aptly closes with a snippet from a 1976 interview recording of Patti Smith – one of Rosalía’s sheroes – during which she urged artists to shatter expectations: “Break on through to the other side. Going through one door isn’t enough, a million doors aren’t enough.”
While Lux’s digital version contains 15 tracks, physical copies of the record – vinyl, CDs – contain three bonus songs.
LABEL: SONY MUSIC
