Album: Dua Lipa - Radical Optimism

This album has a lot to live up to. Its predecessor Future Nostalgia came along just as the Covid crisis was properly kicking into gear, and it became, in its way, era defining. As we said at the time, it was “the sound of a musician finding their own voice and revelling in it”: Lipa hitting a groove as a very charming avatar of disco/house glitterball vibes, just at the point we most needed them in our lives.  

Though she was no obscurity before, it catapulted her into the megastar firmament, with its singles achieving streams in the billions, and its status as a classic assured and extended by some really choice remixes on the Club Future Nostalgia version which followed. So the challenge now is: does Lipa keep on in that groove, or does she try and move on and keep developing as an artist? 

The answer is quite clearly the former. The title strongly suggests an attempt to regain the magic mood that Future Nostalgia conjured. The singles “Houdini”, “Training Season” and the piano-banging, slap-bass-twanging “Illusion” all continue with that Daft Punk-ish disco frameworkand some rock solid pop songwriting, and still absolutely sound like… well, like Dua Lipa. And the album kicks off with more of the same – in fact, the opener “End of an Era” is even better than those singles, with DJ record spinbacks and giddy flutes all suggesting that she’s remembered how fun dance music is supposed to be.

But as the album goes on, there’s not so much that has the quirky audacity of that song, or of Future Nostalgia. Lipa is pushing her voice a bit more in the manner of American singers, which loses some of the relatable insouciance she had before: there’s nothing as fun and silly as her “dance my arse off” rap in “Levitating”.  

It’s not a wash-out by any means, with every song jam packed with hooks and decent grooves, and the album finishing almost as well as it started with the Spanish gallop of “Maria” and the full-on arrangement of “Happy For You”. It just feels like Lipa and her team have worked a little too assidiously to recreate the magic of the last album, without leaving a lot of room for cutting loose and happy accidents.

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@joemuggs

Listen to "Illusion":