Released March 27, 2020
7.5 / 10
Favorites
Don't Start Now, Physical, Hallucinate, Love Again, Break My Heart
Least favorites
Good In Bed
It's 2020, we're in the middle of a worldwide pandemic and Dua Lipa refreshes the landscape of nu-disco with the release of her sophomore album. Is it too soon to declare the advent of the golden age of singer-songwriter pop music? I think it's a pretty safe bet at this point, with yet another solid major pop album out everywhere. "Future Nostalgia" sounds carefully planned, with the help of career musicians and producers like Stuart Price, Jeff Bhasker, Take a Daytrip, Tove Lo, Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter. The sounds consolidate one another in a very cohesive album featuring some stellar production that makes up for uninspired lyrics. The record is a really enjoyable listen and even though there are a couple tracks I'm not too fond of, none leave me indifferent. Dua takes a turn for the better with "Future Nostalgia", relying more heavily on live instrumentation than on her electronic-dominated self-titled debut, with frequent whirls of strings and an almost omnipresent funk bass guitar. Thematically it's also a departure for the 24 year old singer, from the brooding anxiety-driven universe of "Dua Lipa" to a brighter outlook on life. She might be swimming against the tide, with more and more pop artists basking in more emotional content nowadays, but, through it all, Dua sticks to her cool disposition with such force that it'll probably blow your mind (mwah)! As announced by its title, "Future Nostalgia" combines glossy modern sounds with older influences. Dua samples from different eras, making a sonic collage of 70s disco, 80s synth pop and 90s and 2000s dance pop of sort, yet the album doesn't feel outdated at all. Its building blocks are familiar, however the whole is new and cool. The dancersise class really starts with lead single Don't Start Now. You've probably heard it - a lot - through the radio or at your local H&M - if you're into that kind of thing. The song is an empowering breakup song about realizing you're stronger than you thought you were. The track is rumored to have been inspired by Dua's breakups with Isaac Carew and Paul Klein - not that I would be the one to relay rumors. Gossip is the devil's radio, I'm not trying to be the DJ. Musically, the disco strings and funk bass remind me of Chic and the whole song seems to have been built with particular care taken as to make sure each part flows into the next seamlessly. From its inception, the track was destined to be played on a loop until you tune out and leave it on unsuspectedly: the song was born to reach the top of the charts, and it did. The second single from "Future Nostalgia", Physical, has a synth pop groove not unlike its 80s predecessors. It's an ecstatic love song that directly references Olivia Newton-John's 1981 bop of the same name. It cheekily combines future and past both sonically and lyrically - "Love the simulation we're dreaming in" - all in one hyper workout rhythm. Physical is truly relentless, in your face, and when you think it can't get more energized it does. Dua doesn't reinvent the wheel or herself for that matter; still she succeeds in crafting the most contagious of sounds. Drawing from more recent inspirations, Hallucinate serves 2000s disco-house vibe. Not for nothing was the track co-produced by Stuart Price, renowned for his work on Madonna's "Confessions on a Dance Floor". The track is begging to be remixed again and again and probably will. Dua's voice goes through reverb effects on the pre-chorus to give a dizzying feeling of inhaling psychedelics just before the exalted chorus in an adroit tour de force. "Future Nostalgia" is first and foremost feel-good music: even when tackling darker topics, the music is upbeat and Dua keeps her signature cool. Its release circumstances amplify Dua's attempt to put out music to dance and forget your woes to. Sonics are bright and Dua's voice is so commanding it becomes mesmerizing at some points. Levitating sees her at her most captivating on the verses and the bridge. The track is bouncy and dense but well-adjusted production-wise. Her voice blends in well with the surrounding music, however, in all honesty, the song gets slightly old after the second verse. Lyrically, not much to see except if you're on a Pop Tour of common tropes and clichés. It's clear to see that Dua isn't the poet-singer-songwriter type; she leans more on the plain-spoken side. It's evident on Cool, co-written with Tove Lo. The synth play is an instant attention-grabber when the melodies kick of but it's hard to shake off some corny lyrics. I can stand a couple lines running the "cool" metaphor way past its due course, comparing standoffishness and temperature, but the line "I guess we're ready for the summer", given its context, drives me over the edge - c-h-e-e-s-y. I realized how much I missed her deeper register when she taps into it on the bridge, making me wonder if the key was the smart choice on Cool. Good In Bed starts like any Maroon 5 song would, with an overplayed chord progression, before turning into a Lily Allen progeny. The track is the ugly duckling of the record, sounding outdated and honestly, annoying. It's as jazzy as Adam Levine - you guessed it, not so jazzy - and the rhyming scheme on the chorus is so lazy it's a miracle the song ever got out of bed. There's nothing futuristic or nostalgic about Good In Bed - except maybe it makes you miss the rest of the album? After all, Dua is not a poet nor does she need to be one. On Love Again, lyrics are simplistic yet the song is hell of a good one. It starts off deceivingly letting us think we'll have some down time: gotcha, no ballad on "Future Nostalgia". The music rejoices around a sample of a trumpet motif from "Your Woman" by White Town (a 1997 UK number 1). Each element of the composition sticks out clearly, and can be taken in and out easily without much detriment to the sound - a testament to the simplicity of the songwriting. This track in particular made it very easy for me to imagine a stripped version of "Future Nostalgia" - maybe already in the works? Most of the record focuses on love and lust yet the album is bookended by songs on which outspoken Dua expresses her twist on feminism. "Future Nostalgia" was meant to offer some form of escapism but Dua couldn't help herself by giving her two cents on gender inequality based on personal experience. The eponymous opener features displays of self-confidence ("I wanna change the game", "You want the recipe, but can't handle my sound", "I know you ain't used to a female alpha") born from a place of irritation. When describing her work, Dua says "for a female artist, it takes a lot more to be taken seriously [...] they assume it's all manufactured" so she has to go and work twice as hard to convince. Plenty of room for cheek on Future Nostalgia with punchlines like "I can't build you up if you ain't tough enough / I can't teach a man how to wear his pants". Dua also doesn't shy away from starting a conversation and closing it shortly after, all within the bounds of the closing track, Boys Will Be Boys. She addresses the fact that women often have to change the way they carry themselves and be overly sensitive to how they are perceived for fear of being attacked - both verbally and physically. The lyrical content loses the little flair it had on the second verse, where Dua sacrifices lyric and music synergy for a punchline, sprinkling crumbs of cringe here and there ("And that was sarcasm, in case you needed it mansplained", "If you're offended by this song / You're clearly doing something wrong"). The track seems aimed at the younger tier of her fanbase; which is why I find it strange that it comes right after Good In Bed, in which she very casually talks about f***ing. Despite venturing in new sonic directions, Dua hasn't completely cut ties with the artist she was at the time her freshman album hit the shelves. Break My Heart is a refreshed take on her brand of "dance crying", for which she became known with "Dua Lipa". Her voice snaps through the opening verse, in a rare moment of clarity void of strong vocal effects. It's Dua as vulnerable as she will get, unable to shake off the projection of what would happen if her current relationship runs into a wall. She shows that you can perfectly be scared of being happy when your work's ambition is to bring more happiness into the world.
Favorite lyrics
"It's second nature to walk home before the sun goes down And put your keys between your knuckles when there's boys around Isn't it funny how we laugh it off to hide our fear When there's nothing funny here? Sick intuition that they taught us, so we won't freak out We hide our figures, doing anything to shut their mouths We smile away to ease the tension so it don't go south But there's nothing funny now"
Boys Will Be Boys
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