“LUX” - Rosalía
Released November 6, 2025 through Columbia.File under: alt pop/classical pop
Pop music is always a difficult genre for me; I find it hard sometimes to reconcile pop music when so much of it is made simply to appeal to the algorithm, or to make cash for the artist. To me, the most important music is art, not simply a product, and occasionally a pop album comes along that is so personal, so well crafted, and has a sense of pure artistry that the label “pop” seems inappropriate.
LUX is just such an album.
It’s Rosalía’s 4th album, and her experience as a musician really shows here. Orchestral arrangements with the London Symphony Orchestra, complete with electronic glitch sounds in 3/4 time signatures, and multilingual lyrics, all sung with an earnest honesty that is apparent at all points. It really is an aural feast of musicality.
The album explores themes of religion and faith in the face of adversity, specifically the lives of female saints across the history of Catholicism, and the trials and tribulations of their own lives being relived and relayed in that of Rosalía herself. But leaving that aside, for a monolingual person such as myself, the stories are lost in sounds, and only the musicality remains.
Pitchfork describes Rosalía’s approach to the album thus: “LUX takes desire as a holy problem and divinity as a complex solution. Love, men, God, femininity, death, surrender—they all swirl around this idea, expressed in Japanese, Ukrainian, Chinese, Italian, and nine more languages. How did Rosalía begin to understand life’s thorniest questions? She read hagiographies of female saints and poets like Teresa de Jesus, Sun Bu’er, and Hildegard Von Bingen; she studied feminist theory while preparing lines for her acting debut in Euphoria. She looked to these devout women for inspiration and synthesized their messages into her own creed as a 33-year-old pop star trying to make sense of all this insanity.”
Of particular note is the powerhouse single Berghain, an immense collaborative effort with Bjork and Yves Tumor, spanning a plethora of emotion sung German, Spanish and English. Watch the video below.
Criticisms of this album are mostly along the lines of “it’s pop music so it’s not good”, or “other people have done the same/better in the past”. That aside, I urge you to have a listen to this album in isolation and tell me it’s not at least very enjoyable. For fans of FKA Twigs, Caroline Polachek, Rebecca Black, Charlie XCX, and Sudan Archives.
Listen to “LUX” on:Apple Music }|{ Spotify }|{ Tidal
“Getting Killed” - Geese
Released September 25, 2025 through Partisan.File under: alternative rock
Geese is singer/songwriter Cameron Winter’s band project, and much like the work of Winter himself, Geese is one of the most exciting musical acts around today. Given a 9/10 by Pitchfork, it’s not hard to see why critics are raving about this album.
Visceral and poetic, with archetypes all its own, building its own story from the ground up, Getting Killed keeps delivering surprise after surprise, with Winter’s vocals as the vital glue that binds it all together.
Apple Music says of Getting Killed:“… a savage and beautiful thing, anchored by the athletic rhythm section of bassist Dom DiGesu and drummer Max Bassin and given a serrated edge by guitarist Emily Green. … Whether you’re in heaven or hell, it’s hard not to nod at least a little bit of assent to one of rock’s most electrifying new crews and gripping new voices.”
Vocally reminds me of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and like World Party. Musically it has moments of Neutral Milk Hotel, with layers of the production harkening to Tom Waits’ 90s masterpiece Bone Machine, and at times is reminiscent of Radiohead’s rambling moments on In Rainbows (particularly in the title track Getting Killed).
For people who enjoy Caroline, Foxing, NewDad and Wednesday.
Listen to “Getting Killed” on:Apple Music }|{ Spotify }|{ Tidal