Writer Alex Noel argues that Rosalía’s LUX isn’t just an album but a rare modern work reaching for the sacred. In a distracted age, she sees it as a call back to wonder, devotion, and light.
If there was ever an album to inspire devotion, it would be LUX by Rosalía. Since its release on November 7th, it has been received to rapturous applause. And not for the reasons you might expect. LUX (which means ‘light’ in Latin) doesn’t tick a set of boxes guaranteed to win over audiences or aim to please an algorithm. Instead, it is a singular album - set apart - even from Rosalía’s own previous work. It is also now the highest charting album ever in the UK for a Spanish female artist.
As an album, it is as lofty and high-minded as the female saints and mystics Rosalía researched in the two-and-half years it took to record it. And as expansive as the 13 languages she sings in, which include Ukrainian, Italian and Arabic. Not to mention the orchestral arrangements it features - played by the London Symphony Orchestra; at times subsuming you in the swell of their dynamics and intensity, only to withdraw just as dramatically. LUX has moved Andrew Lloyd Webber on Instagram to effusively declare it his album of the decade, let alone of 2025. He referenced the Latin pronunciation of Lux (or ‘loox’): “because then you can say ‘Et Lux Perpetua’ which means eternal light and I think this album is going to be eternal.” Madonna too - an icon of pop herself - has proclaimed Rosalía a visionary artist.
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The four movements of this magnum opus contain a collision of genres. Across the album’s songs you’ll hear flamenco, rap, reggaeton, opera and classical. The avant-garde of it all evokes Kate Bush, and Bjork - who appears on song ‘Berghain’ singing the line “the only way to save us is through divine intervention”. Rosalía suggests you listen to the hour-long album in one sitting, in a darkened room; which I did, I sat still and just listened. To my ear there are also the genre-bending sounds of FKA twigs and hints of Aphex Twin’s jarringly distorted beats. Not understanding all the lyrics isn’t a problem, because you can look up the translations.
Not understanding all the lyrics isn’t a problem, because you can look up the translations.
In an interview with the New York Times’ ‘Popcast’, Rosalía insisted that despite attempts to call it otherwise, LUX is still a pop album. But in making it she has set out to expand the boundaries of what pop is. It has been somewhat of a pilgrimage - which makes sense for a woman who completed the Camino de Santiago at age 19. Channelling her inner ascetic she has rejected the usual mores of the music industry, including expectations to follow in the footsteps of previous albums. As a result she has realised a boldly experimental album, and in her own unique way.
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She was inspired by the lives of devoted women whether considered as saints or mystics or figures known for their wisdom in different cultures - among them Miriam (the Hebrew prophetess in the Bible), Joan of Arc and Teresa of Ávila.
She was inspired by the lives of devoted women whether considered as saints or mystics or figures known for their wisdom in different cultures - among them Miriam (the Hebrew prophetess in the Bible), Joan of Arc and Teresa of Ávila. Reading numerous hagiographies during her extensive research was part of this. It has closely informed both her lyrics and the languages they’re written in. The songwriting explores her own faith in God too, which is rooted in her Catholic upbringing. It’s something she’s referenced in her music before but never so explicitly as she does on LUX. She explains this, saying that the album: “has the intention of verticality [connecting heaven and earth]…I’ve always had a desire of, ‘how can I get closer to God?’”
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On every level LUX is complex and absorbing. It’s in striking contrast to the music and media which feels dumbed-down; designed to make no demands of us. And which reduces us to passive consumers. Rosalía knows that this album will require her listeners to focus and fully engage - to work for something which doesn’t necessarily deliver immediate gratification. She knows it’s a lot to ask but this too is intentional: “I think that the more we are in the era of dopamine, the more I want the opposite. At least that’s what I want. That’s what I’m craving.”
And so Rosalía is calling us higher; inviting us to release ourselves from the mundane, lowly world of made-for-you content feeds, and instead experience a sense of transcendence by giving LUX our complete, unadulterated attention. If this pure focus isn’t the light we need in our present darkness of distraction and endless scrolling, I don’t know what is.
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