Our Top Album of 2025: Rosalía's Lux Claims the Number One Spot.

On the surface, this work might appear closer to a challenging academic quiz rather than a new pop album from a musician whose previous single featured an international K-pop star. Split into 4 separate movements and performed in thirteen languages, this is a head-spinning classical-tinged album investigating female mystery, spiritual transcendence, and physical transformation, frequently via the prism of different female saints. The dissolution of a romance—a theme handled with raw honesty elsewhere—is launched skyward here, buoyed by the constant presence of a full symphony orchestra and work from a Pulitzer-winning composer within a long roll call of contributors. The pure audacity by itself makes the work of other pop stars seem rather laughable.

Rising Above Academic Pretense

That this album succeeds in transcend overly intellectual posturing is nearly miraculous, and complete credit going to Rosalía. While this is not the first time project to fuse historical sounds and modern styles, its stakes feel far greater on Lux, with the balancing act more pronounced. The element that truly raises her fourth album, beyond its multilayered melodies, dense arrangements, and engrained drama, proves to be a core spirit of joy. Similar to the iconic Björk during her height, there is a captivating sense to Rosalía's singing that pulls the listener up in its whirlwind. Even when she's tearing hearts apart, the listener still want to stay alongside her for the journey.

A Signature Example of Exuberance

That playful energy shines clearly on the stunning Italian song about a saint. It luxuriates in a string-drenched whirlpool for several minutes. Suddenly, everything drops away, to reveal we hear a gleeful laugh followed by a declaration before a comically exaggerated string crescendo thuds in with comedic force. The track then shifts into the frenetic track driven by racing strings, a powerful choir, and a surprise appearance from the artist Björk.

"The magic with Lux lies in you rarely quite understand—or even want to predict—where you is going to next."

Almost every track ends in a completely distinct place from how it began. A track explores the fleeting nature of celebrity over a featherlight symphony only to collapsing in electronic chaos. Another, a cut that recalls her earlier rhythmic work begins out dark and sinister, featuring menacing beats, until sudden flamenco rhythms and an angelic choir arrive to smooth its rough edges.

The Balance Of Experiment and Pop

A key achievement on Lux involves straddling the line of bold innovation and mainstream appeal. This is little coincidence that the album has become the artist's first work to break into the Top 5 of key markets: at its core a collection of utterly undeniable pop songs. A song sung primarily in the English language swells around a refrain that seems to collect more and more infectious melodies while it spins skyward. This trick is repeated on another powerful ballad that expands and contracts, weaving layered melodies like a complex weave.

• A dance-infused song charms via its jaunty, Disney-adjacent flair and an anthemic hook.
• Lyrically, it shares with pop culture honesty of other heartbreak songs, lambasting a former lover labeled an "emotional bully".
• Across the album, the vocals carry a sharp edge, akin to a fairy-tale character concealing a knife: "Top prize in acting like a scoundrel / You've the podium of letdown."

An Opulent Banquet for the Ears

This album represents pop on a maximalist level, an ambitious reach for high Art in an era of impending artificial blankness. It rejects self-absorption in favor of glorious transcendence, creating a dramatic spectacle that masterfully manages its own inherent excess. It is a deep source of buried gems that takes patience to completely mine but doesn't seem like a chore. Where some big releases of 2025 seemed like feasting on meal, this record is a lavish feast at which the characters at the table, perhaps intoxicated on holy drink, flit between discussions about historical saints, the profound feeling of heartbreaking grief, and common stories about useless men. It is a contemporary musical from pop's most restlessly inventive visionary.