A guide to Rosalia's new album, 'LUX'

Also known as my completely self-imposed November research project

Let me be the first to admit that I am a relatively new fan of Rosalia. I say relatively because I came into the fandom in 2024 when I heard LISA’s “New Woman,” which Rosalia features on. That song bangs if you’ve never heard it, but it’s *nothing* like what’s on LUX, Rosalia’s 4th album.

So, what is LUX? It means “light” in Latin, one of this album’s total of 13 different languages, and each song was inspired by a saint (as in Catholicism). Sonically, it’s like pop, opera, and flamenco had a threesome and accidentally birthed a film score? It is maximalism at its finest and I’ve never heard anything like it. I am already plotting to see her do it live in LA next year.

If nothing else (and it is MANY OTHER THINGS, trust), LUX is a showcase for Rosalia’s voice. In reviewing her back catalog, it’s immediately clear she’s talented, but what is not clear is that she has this particular set of pipes. HOW does anyone do both rap/chanting and opera (polar opposites???) without sounding like a total caricature? I don’t need an insane voice to be drawn into someone’s music, but the vocal talent here is CRAZY. One needs to proceed only a single line into the first verse of “Berghain” to have your hair blown back. Nobody else I can think of is doing this much variety with their throat instrument, and not only that, she writes all of her songs, too? Wtf.

In her Popcast interview (above), I loved this exchange where Rosalia basically explains that LUX is kale in a sea of chips (IYKYK):

Joe: “This is an album that is dense. It’s an hour long, and it is meant to be listened to from front to back. Did it cross your mind, like, it is a lot to ask of someone. Especially when we get to how you use language. Even if they are a Spanish speaker, your average listener will not be picking up every single word on this album. Do you think you’re asking a lot of your audience?”

Rosalia: “I think I am. Absolutely. But I think the more we are in the era of dopamine, the more I want the opposite. That’s what I’m craving. There has to be something that pulls us to be focused for fully an hour where you’re just there. I know it’s a lot to ask, but that’s what I want. There’s songs that haunt you like a fucking ghost, as soon as you hear them they are in your head, like a virus or some shit like that. And then there’s other songs that they just help you release something. Hopefully there’s some songs that help you have something freer inside you when you hear this album. That’s all I could wish for.”

IMMEDIATELY I AM OBSESSED.

What follows is less of an “album review” and more of a guide to bring the experience of LUX into full technicolor for anyone who doesn’t speak all 13 languages featured on the album and are therefore missing half the context. This is not at all what I set out to do when I started this review, but here we are nonetheless. I was drooling over this album even before I started translating the lyrics and looking all of this up on the internet, but after I was done, I had transported myself onto a new plane of existence, never to be the same again. Let’s chew on this raw kale together! According to Rosalia, the best way to listen to this album is all the way through from start to finish in the dark :)

(***Please note: The only thing that “qualifies” me to write this album guide is my obsessive nature and willingness to listen to hours of interviews and research the shit out of everything, lol. The translations from each language to English below I took from STROMMEN because that’s who Rosalia used to fine tune all the lyrics on LUX. Translation inaccuracies can be directed to them, disagreements with theme/saint interpretations can be directed to me and/or Wikipedia; TYSM!)

1. “Sex, Violence, and Tires” – SPANISH

This song isn’t inspired by a saint as much as it’s a thesis statement for the rollercoaster ride that is LUX. Rosalia, a person from earth, will enter heaven (a.k.a the exploration of all the saints throughout this album, touching the divine) and then return to earth (i.e. die) in the album’s closer, “Magnolias.” Buckle up.

First I will love the world and then I will love God
Who would come from this earth
And enter heaven and return to the earth

In the first, sex, violence, and tires
Blood sports, coins in throats
In the second, sparks, doves, and saints
Grace and fruit and the kiss of the balance

2. “Relic” – SPANISH – Inspired by Saint Rose of Lima

The thing I love about Saint Rose is that she, much like Rosalia, was young and beautiful. And when men started to notice her, she cut off her hair and rubbed peppers on her face so they would fuck off and she could focus on what was most important to her (God). Throughout this song, Rosalia sings of all the things she leaves behind around the world (hands, eyes, tongue, time, heels, smile, faith, a friend, bad love, the blunt, bad temper, art, eyelashes, hair) when she gives so much of herself as a pop artist. In a way, I think this is a song about fame (and youth and beauty) and what it takes, but also what it gives. Rosalia’s songs, this album, are the relic.

In Japan, I cried and unraveled my eyelashes
And in the city of glass, that’s where I got a trim
But hair grows back
Does purity, too?
Purity is in me, and it’s in Marrakech
No no no, I’m not a saint, but I’m blessed
But my heart has never been mine, I always give it
Take a piece of me
Keep it for when I’m not here
I’ll be your relic

3. “Divinize” – CATALAN – Inspired by the Garden of Eden

I couldn’t find a saint for “Divinize,” but I think it’s clearly inspired by the Garden of Eden: a song about creation through artistry and creativity. Rosalia said “creation, in the end, is something divine.” While it does sound like Rosalia probably wants to have (human) kids at some point, I think this song goes so hard for me because I can’t help but interpret the lyrics as the state of childlessness, creation through creativity instead of child-bearing, being holy:

Red, round fruit
Who can guess it?
Obviously, it’s the apple
That is forbidden
And if you only look at it
You would be saved
But without biting

Through my body you can see the light
Bruise me up I’ll eat all of my pride
I know I was made to divinize
Outside me, inside me

She feels more loved
In the vertigo of the body
An absence that satisfies
Chasing after grace
Pain, a delight
The divine emptiness
And the moonbeams
Feed her with cold
And deprivation is the indulgence
She practices for love

4. “Porcelain” – SPANISH, LATIN, JAPANESE – Inspired by Ryōnen Gensō

Ryōnen was rich and beautiful, forced into arranged marriages with older men not once, but twice. 🙃 After having several children probably against her will, she became a nun; she wanted further education but her beauty was too distracting to everyone else so she burned her own face (“my skin is delicate / porcelain / broken in the corner”). Woof. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Rosalia broke off her engagement in the summer of 2023 while she was writing this album; themes of women rejecting marriage for something “more” runs through the entirety of LUX. This song is also a total banger:

Ah, I can make you fall in love
I can inspire you
I can poison you
And I can heal you
I can lift you up
Or I can humiliate you
For better or for worse
Transform you
Throw away your beauty
Before it gets ruined by me
Will you think I’m crazy?
It’s a talent I was born with
I am the queen of chaos
Because God decided it

5. “My Christ Cries Diamonds” – ITALIAN – Inspired by Saint Clare of Assisi

Rosalia wanted to write an aria, so naturally, she turned to Italy. Saint Clare devoted her life to the poor. Instead of being married off at 18, Clare’s aunt helped her run away to become a nun instead, where she cut off all her hair as a symbol that she belonged only to God. Her family tried to persuade her to come back with money, but they only relented when she ripped off her veil to reveal her fugly haircut. Clare became close friends with Saint Francis of Assisi, and Clare’s sister followed her to the convent instead of agreeing to marry, which pissed off their parents. Rosalia told Zane Lowe this song is about their friendship and I love that for them:

Imperfect, agents of chaos
We take ourselves apart like myths, my king of anarchy
My reckless, favorite star – when you cry
Gather your tears and wet your forehead
Whatever the crime may be
My Christ cries diamonds
I carry you, I always carry you
Always

6. “Mountain Grove” (“Berghain”) – GERMAN, SPANISH, ENGLISH – Inspired by Saint Hildegard of Bingen and Vimala

Hildegard is known for so much boss ass shit: inventing her own language, writing, composing, philosophy, and having visions. She was a sickly youngest daughter, and I think this song is about being a sensitive person in a harsh world with shitty people in it. Rosalia said: “We all have this forest of thoughts inside us where you could get lost. I’m not glorifying evil, but darkness is present in life.” Whether it’s from divine visions or just the weight of the world, this song is about carrying that weight and trying not to disappear.

Vimala, an Indian poet and prostitute, was also an inspiration for “Berghain.” As a person who grew up Catholic, Rosalia said the process of making this album helped to broaden her ideas about what or who makes a saint; how it is not just about “purity.” According to Spotify, this is the second-biggest song on the album; Bjork also features on it (say less).

The flame penetrates my brain
Like a lead teddy bear
I keep many things stored in my heart
That’s why my heart is so heavy
His fear is my fear
His anger is my anger
His blood is my blood
I know very well what I am
Tenderness for the coffee
I’m only a lump of sugar
I know that the heat melts me
I know how to disappear

7. “The Pearl” – SPANISH – Inspired by Rauw Alejandro? (or, the idea that men will let you down, but God never will)

I don’t think this song is about a saint, I think it’s low-key about Rosalia’s ex-fiancé. 😬 In the Zane Lowe interview she insists that LUX is not about her, but she also (kind of reluctantly) admitted that yes, there are little pieces of Rosalia in this record that are autobiographical. She said: “the best fiction is fiction that has a blurry line between what’s personal and what’s universal. What’s detailed and what’s abstract.” “La Perla” is one of only two promotional singles (it’s the biggest song in terms of streaming numbers) and I think that’s because it’s so relatable:

Hello, thief of peace
Minefield for my sensitivity
Playboy, a champion
Spends the money he has and also what he doesn’t
He is so charming
Star of nonsense, a mirage
Olympic gold medal for the biggest jerk
You have the podium of great disappointment

8. “New World” – SPANISH – Inspired by… the idea of being “born again?”

This song doesn’t have a lot of lyrics, but goddamn are they relatable if you’re not a fan of how the last few years have gone. People are kind of ruining everything, aren’t we?????

I wish I could deny this world entirely
To return again to live
Mother of my heart
To return again to live
To see if in a new world
Maybe in a new world I would find more truth

9. “At Dawn” – SPANISH, UKRAINIAN – Inspired by Saint Olga of Kyiv

When she was 15, Saint Olga was married to a prince. After he was brutally murdered by his enemies, Olga became the ruler and enacted her revenge. Her husband’s murderers tried to get Olga to marry their king, so she outsmarted them by playing along at first and then, surprise! She burned them all alive. Pharrell helped write the music, so naturally it bangs:

At dawn
There’s no weapon, no Glock or Beretta
That can shoot and bring you back
I’m not looking for revenge
Revenge is looking for me
All the stars in the sky
Reflect in my hair
I carry a thousand tongues of fire

10. “God Is A Stalker” – SPANISH – Inspired by God

This song is from God’s POV, lol. Rosalia told Zane Lowe that writing from God’s perspective is an impossible exercise in a serious sense, so it comes from a place of humor. The song feels a bit playful, which fits perfectly:

Owner of the world and of ideas
Everyone wants me on their side
My inbox is overflowing
I live in the clouds, up high
And the devil’s pressed, stressed out
I love racing against time
To see which of us gets to you first

11. “The Jugular” – SPANISH, ARABIC – Inspired by Rabia Basri

Rabia Basri was a former slave, mystic, and poet from Iraq; the most famous woman in all of Islam. She is known for the doctrine of divine love, which is loving without being motivated by fear or promise of reward. A quote attributed to Rabia reads: “Women have never been so infatuated with themselves as men, nor have they ever claimed divinity.” Truuuuuuuu. The end of “La Yugular” includes a clip from a 1976 interview of Patti Smith, where she basically says you should keep reaching higher and higher even after achieving success, because you can’t not. This is one of my favorite songs of the year. It’s a perfect song to cry in the bathtub to.

My heart, which is always in a race
I’m cutting flowers before it’s even spring
Where they tie up the horses, mine are tied tight
Blood and luck have dragged me here
Your love is an avalanche
It falls by its own weight just by existing
Yesterday, today, and tomorrow
The snow I want to sink into
For you I would destroy the sky
For you I would tear down hell
No promises, no threats

12. “Sauvignon Blanc” – SPANISH – Inspired by Saint Teresa of Avila

Teresa was a 16th century nun who renounced her wealth and wrote of “divine intoxication,” hence the wine metaphor. This song represents a sort of detachment from the material world, or as Rosalia tells Zane Lowe, a dedication to “desiring less.” The music is so delicate and yes I cried at the end.

I don’t want pearls or caviar anymore
Your love will be my capital
And what does it matter? If I have you
I don’t need anything else
Sauvignon blanc by your side
My future will be golden

13. “The Rumba of Forgiveness” – SPANISH – Inspired by forgiveness

I didn’t find a saint for this, but it’s clearly about forgiveness, which is obviously a major theme in Catholicism. It’s probably my least favorite song here, but I have to stress that LUX is a no-skips album.

You and your buddy, from the heart
Inseparable, but something happened
There was a kilo uncut in your drawer
And out of pure envy someone stole it from you
Your best friend, the one who played guitar
What could have happened? Surely the guitar didn’t sound anymore
And neither did the phone
He couldn’t have been such a good friend if he loosened the strings
From the first to the bass string
And inside he hid the kilo, and just like the kilo
He disappeared too
But I
Forgive you for everything

14. “Memory” – SPANISH, PORTUGUESE – Inspired by confession

This is the only song on the record that wasn’t written by Rosalia, so it wasn’t directly inspired by a saint, but Rosalia still felt like it was perfect for the album’s closing movement as a confessional. I agree.

Do you still remember me?
Whenever I remember something
I always remember it a little differently
And, no matter how it is, that memory
Is always true in my mind
And if my soul spills out
And the lack of a past becomes oblivion
When I die, I only ask
Not to forget what I have lived

15. “Magnolias” – SPANISH – Inspired by Anandamayi Ma

Anandamayi Ma was an Indian saint, teacher, and mystic who was considered the epitome of “divine grace.” “Magnolias” is about dying peacefully. Talking about this song, Rosalia said she would rather people have a party and be joyful when she dies, which is reflected in both the lyrics and music. It sounds like a funeral procession, but an uplifting one? (Don’t think about it too long, otherwise you will start sobbing.) It’s a perfect album closer.

They say that if you were to see
Death pass right by your side
In the Mercedes – the long one
It brings you good luck
You’ve all come
Even my enemies
Today they cry
Throw magnolias on me
God descends and I ascend
We meet in the middle

I, who come from the stars
Today turn into dust
To return to them

---

*****Bonus tracks (currently not available on streaming, only on the physical versions of the album)*****

1. “Big Fire” (“Focu ‘ranni”) – SPANISH, SICILIAN – Inspired by Saint Rosalia of Palermo

Rosalia was an Italian saint who called off her wedding the night before she was supposed to be married, then withdrew to a cave to live as a hermit. (Also known as me six years ago!) She is often invoked in times of sickness and plague. This one hurts because it’s Rosalia’s namesake and I think the song is clearly about ending her engagement. It was apparently supposed to be a collab with Lady Gaga (who is a member of the broken engagements club) but it didn’t end up happening:

I carved your name into my ribs
But my heart never bore your initials
Sooner or later, fate strikes
Even if you ignore it’s signs
You
My big fire
I threw myself into nothingness
To not lose my freedom
And unconditional love
He is the only one who would accept
I’m throwing myself into nothingness
Before I get burned

2. “Jeanne” – SPANISH, FRENCH – Inspired by Joan of Arc

You’ve probably heard of Joan of Arc, but in case you haven’t: Claiming she was acting under God’s orders, Joan became a military leader who is recognized as the savior of France. She was a feminist and symbol of freedom and independence. She wore men’s clothes and was deemed a heretic, imprisoned, and then executed. I will probably buy the record on vinyl just so I can hear this song properly. It is slow and haunting and I need it:

My father
I will be neithеr a man
Nor a woman
It is my heart that calls me
If I leave you
If I am invited
To surrender my weapons
Without giving up my soul

3. “Robot Girlfriend” – SPANISH, MANDARIN, HEBREW – Inspired by Miriam and Sun Bu’er

Miriam was a Jewish prophetess who appears in the Bible. Her more famous brother is Moses, who stopped fucking his wife (Tzipora) because he was working for God. So Miriam and her husband both were like woah, that isn’t at all fair to Tzipora, and God retaliated by giving Miriam leprosy :) This is all an allegory for women having needs (shudder):

A robot girlfriend
Is what you want today
I’m sorry, my dear
But I’m real

Sun was a Chinese poet and wife who had three children. When a religious leader came to town, her husband eagerly became a follower, because of course he did. But Sun was really the one who was destined for more, and she eventually left her family, denouncing her “wifely duties” to everyone’s shock and horror. She successfully became a Taoist nun and the only female member of the Complete Perfected. Boss. (Across the interviews I listened to, Rosalia repeatedly referred to herself as rebellious. I love her.)

I freed myself, I freed you
I was born to rebel
And I rebel to be born again
If pressure makes diamonds
Then why aren’t we all shining?

I need to take a nap now, but if you’re still tapped in and want more, you have to listen to the Zane Lowe interview (above). Once you’ve recovered from your brain breaking and gluing itself back together, come drop your favorite songs from LUX in the comments!

OVERALL SCORE: 8.6/10