The Spanish artist Rosalía has chosen to look forward rather than retreat into nostalgia, and the outcome is a record that’s thrilling, puzzling, and haunting in equal measure. While many artists in 2025 seem stuck in the past, Rosalía’s Lux pushes music fearlessly into new territory.
This year has seen music heavily weighed down by nostalgia. Oasis revived tired memories under the guise of cool retro style, Radiohead returned to play predictable hits, and yet another Beatles documentary filled November. The endless recycling of rock’s golden age has created a creative vacuum, where the weight of the past stifles new ideas.
If 2025 will be remembered for anything, it will be as the year music went backwards.
Against this backdrop of regression, Lux feels like a revelation — fearless, experimental, and unapologetically strange. The album’s cover, showing Rosalía dressed as a nun, hints at both devotion and rebellion, symbolizing her choice to embark on an entirely new creative journey. The sounds within confirm it.
Across her previous three releases, Rosalía explored flamenco, electronic music, and reggaeton, becoming a global icon, especially in the Spanish-speaking world. Yet with Lux, she completely dismantles those expectations, venturing deep into experimental and avant-garde realms.
In this new chapter, Rosalía stands as a true successor to Björk, who even appears on the exuberantly strange single “Berghain.” The collaboration passes the creative torch from one visionary to another, suggesting Rosalía’s place among the boldest innovators in modern music.
Author’s summary: Rosalía’s album Lux defies nostalgia with a fearless dive into experimental sound, marking her as a daring visionary in a year obsessed with musical pasts.