Our album of the year is Rosalía’s emphatic, grandiose and staggeringly beautiful fourth album LUX. And although the term magnum opus is sometimes thrown around a bit too casually, those two words can absolutely be used to describe this powerhouse of a record. Across fifteen songs, the Spanish artist does a deep dive into the world of classical music, teaming up with the London Symphony Orchestra and conductor Daniel Bjarnason to conjure up a stunning mix of multilingual classical-meets-pop-meets-flamenco, spearheaded by intense lead single Berghain (ft. Björk and Yves Tumor) and fan favourite waltz La Perla. Singing in thirteen languages across the record, Rosalía invites us into the worlds of more than a dozen female saints whose backstories she studied while writing. The intricate lives of these saints provide the backbone to LUX’s songwriting, allowing Rosalía to explore different worlds as she intends to understand who these women were and where they came from.
Rosalía’s decision to sing in thirteen languages on LUX was a bold one, but it most certainly paid off. Spanish is – obviously – at the forefront of proceedings, although we also hear bits and pieces of Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Ukrainian and Arabic along the way. The twinkling Mio Cristo Piange Diamanti is also sung entirely in Italian, while a choir on the aforementioned Berghain (as well as Rosalía herself) sing in German. And yet, despite the constant shift in tone and language, LUX is Rosalía most cohesive and ‘complete’ album to date, head and shoulders above everything which came before it. The true highlight comes near the end of the album on the flamenco-infused La Rumba Del Perdón, which ironically relies the least on the orchestra. It’s Rosalía going back to her flamenco roots, raw emotion and all, alongside Estrella Morente and Silvia Pérez Cruz. LUX’s fifteen songs are nothing short of a beautiful sonic journey, and it’s unlikely that we’ll ever hear an album like it again. The risk paid off, and now it’s time for a worldwide victory lap in 2026 when Rosalía takes LUX on the road.
Find our entire Album of the Year Top 25 here, and listen to LUX below.
