Review: Future Nostalgia - Dua Lipa
By Kenny Cox
Internet legend tells us at the dawn of each new decade emerges the pop superstar that is poised to reign over music for years to come. The end of the 90’s saw Britney ascend to the top of the charts, as did Lady Gaga towards the latter half of the 2000’s. So who is the torch being passed to for this new decade. While multiple artists seemed like obvious choices, one singer in particular made a case for a surprise addition to the race — Dua Lipa. Since the release of her 2018 single “One Kiss” with Calvin Harris, Dua has carved out a space for extravagant, high-energy dance tracks in a pop landscape seemingly defined by minimalism and misery. And with her second LP, Future Nostalgia, Dua may have just dashed across the finish line in the race to be 2020’s defining pop act.
Pivoting from the seemingly radio-engineered tropical house and Forever 21-core pop of her debut record, Future Nostalgia pulls from the 70’s and 80’s to make an irresistible, exhilarating album that rarely lets up across it’s tight 37 minute runtime. Many have been quick to compare Dua to artists like Madonna or Kylie Minogue, but Future Nostalgia most recalls Annie’s 2004 record Anniemal, with both records drawing upon pop’s past to catapult it into the future. Whether it’s an INXS-sampled riff jingling around the chorus that Dua pulls for “Break My Heart” or the Oliva Newton-John references on “Physical,” the record is constantly paying homage to the past, and doing all with the ice-cool confidence of an artist that knows she’s destined for greatness.
Future Nostalgia’s best moments appear when Dua guides the listener past the doors and onto the glittering dance floor of her making. For all of it’s constant radio airplay since October, “Don’t Start Now” has yet to lose it’s throwback thrill, sounding like the soundtrack to a night at Studio 54 thirty years into the future. Mid-album highlight “Levitating” follows this disco-pop formula to even greater effect, with an utterly blissful chorus that is amongst the best in recent memory. While this throwback approach to pop has been popular with others, what sets Dua apart from her peers is the attention to detail from the eras she pulls from — the orchestral flourishes on “Love Again,” the strutting bassline of “Pretty Please,” the retro vocoders on “Future Nostalgia.” Dua doesn’t settle for mere imitation, but fully embodies her influences to make what might seem like pastiche for others entirely hers.
However, even with all of the twinkling disco lights and explosions of glitter that Dua conjures throughout the record, the night eventually has to end. And Future Nostalgia stops the party with all the subtlety of flipping on the lights, unplugging the speakers mid-song, and throwing everyone’s coats on the floor. The second-to-last track “Good In Bed” ends Dua’s disco hot streak, confusingly opting for what sounds like a 2006 Lily Allen B-side. “Good In Bed” doesn’t help its case lyrically either, with dedications to “good pipe in the moonlight” and a repetitive chorus that seems at odds with the album’s deftly written hooks.
This feeling that the energy is taken right out of the record carries on into the closing track “Boys Will Be Boys,” seemingly Dua’s answer to Rachel Platten’s “Fight Song.” The downtempo piano ballad is a call to female empowerment that lets listeners know that “boys will be boys… but girls will be women!” It’s a baffling choice for a closer, derailing whatever momentum the record had left, leaving an anticlimactic feeling in the wake of a record nearly full of perfectly-crafted pop tunes.
This feeling that the energy is taken right out of the record carries on into the closing track “Boys Will Be Boys,” seemingly Dua’s answer to Rachel Platten’s “Fight Song.” The downtempo piano ballad is a call to female empowerment that lets listeners know that “boys will be boys… but girls will be women!” It’s a baffling choice for a closer, derailing whatever momentum the record had left, leaving an anticlimactic feeling in the wake of a record nearly full of perfectly-crafted pop tunes.
Even though the record might not stick the landing, Future Nostalgia is a sign that Dua Lipa might just be pop music’s newest MVP. With an nearly perfect run of shimmering dance tracks delivered with the assertiveness of an artist well into her career, Dua Lipa takes her place amongst some of music’s best hit-makers today, and one can only wonder what else lies in store for her in the decade to come.
BOPS: "Levitating," "Break My Heart," "Physical," "Hallucinate"
DUDS: "Good In Bed," "Boys Will Be Boys"
