At first glance, this work may look closer to a difficult academic challenge rather than the latest popular music project by an artist whose previous single featured a global pop star. Broken across 4 separate parts and voiced in 13 tongues, this is a breathtaking orchestral-influenced album investigating female mystery, spiritual transcendence, and bodily transformation, often by way of the prism of various female saints. The end of a romance—a theme handled with grounded honesty elsewhere—is launched skyward on this record, carried by the lush sound of a full symphony orchestra and contributions from an award-winning songwriter within an extensive list of contributors. The pure ambition alone makes the work of contemporary artists seem quite modest.
Transcending Academic Exercise
The fact that this album succeeds in escape dry intellectual posturing is nothing short of miraculous, with full credit belonging to the artist. Although it's not the first time album to alchemize historical sounds with the present, its scale are much greater on Lux, with the balancing act more pronounced. What really elevates this fourth album, outside of its complex melodies, dense compositions, and engrained theatricality, is an essential sense of fun. Much like the legendary artist at her height, you find a captivating quality to the vocalist's voice that pulls you into its tornado. Even when she's tearing your heart apart, you still want to stay right there through the journey.
A Prime Example of Joy
This playful energy shines clearly during a stirring Italian song about a saint. It bathes in a sorrowful melancholy over more than four minutes. Suddenly, all the music falls silent, and there's a spontaneous laugh and a comment prior to a hilariously over-the-top orchestral crescendo thuds down like cartoonish force. The song immediately segues into the wild single featuring galloping orchestration, a powerful choral group, and a cameo role from the artist Björk.
"The charm with this album lies in the listener rarely exactly understand—or even want to predict—where you is going next."
Nearly every track finishes in a completely distinct place than where it began. One moment explores the fleeting nature of celebrity over a delicate orchestration only to disintegrating into electronic chaos. Another, a song that recalls her previous rhythmic work begins out moody and brooding, featuring prowling vocals, until fluttering flamenco handclaps and a heavenly chorus enter to smooth the song's jagged corners.
The Bridge Of Art and Pop
A key balancing act of Lux is straddling the line of bold innovation and broad accessibility. This is little surprise that the album has achieved the artist's first release to crack the upper reaches of major charts: its heart contains a collection of truly catchy pop songs. One track sung primarily in English swells on a refrain that seems to collect increasingly infectious melodies while it spins upward. This feat is echoed on a different powerful ballad that expands and contracts, intertwining layered melodies like an intricate weave.
- A waltz-like song seduces via its jaunty, theatrical flair and a chant-along chorus.
- Lyrically, it aligns with pop culture impact of contemporary heartbreak anthems, lambasting a former partner described as an "psychological bully".
- Throughout these tracks, the singing carry a painted-on edge, like a fairy-tale character concealing a knife: "Top prize in being a scoundrel / You have the podium of disappointment."
A Maximalist Banquet for the Soul
Lux is pop on a maximalist level, an ambitious grasp for high Art amid of impending artificial sameness. It rejects self-absorption in favor of sublime transcendence, creating a dramatic spectacle that masterfully manages its own inherent ridiculousness. This is a deep source of buried gems that requires patience to fully mine but doesn't seem like hard work. Where some big releases of the year seemed like feasting on scraps, this record offers a lavish banquet at which the guests at the table, some tipsy on sacred drink, flutter from conversations about ancient saints, the galvanizing feeling of soul-shattering sadness, and common gossip about hopeless men. It is a modern-day musical from music's truly endlessly inventive visionary.
