Music Evaluation: Dua Lipa’s ‘Radical Optimism’ is managed dance pop

NEW YORK — Within the refrain of “Whatcha Doing,” the fifth observe on Dua Lipa’s newest album, she sings: “But when management is my faith / And I am headed for collision / Misplaced my 20/20 imaginative and prescient,” referencing the surprising pull of a brand new companion.

That sentiment proves true on “Radical Optimism,” a managed assortment of dance tracks, ripe with earworms. Management is Lipa’s faith — typically for higher, generally for worse.

Lipa, 28, gained the Grammy for greatest new artist in 2019, after a four-year stretch that noticed her launch a debut album to important and industrial success after which emerge as a radio mainstay with the supremely catchy single “New Guidelines.” However it was 2020’s “Future Nostalgia” that solidified Lipa’s place in pop music: She was not solely a vocal power, however a confirmed hitmaker.

“Levitating,” that album’s lead single, spent 77 weeks on Billboard’s Sizzling 100 — the longest time spent on the chart for a tune by a girl — and was named Billboard’s No. 1 tune of 2021, regardless of by no means reaching the highest spot within the weekly charts (it peaked at No. 2). It match simply inside Lipa’s roster of putting up with radio and dancehall hits, an inventory that started with “New Guidelines” and expanded to incorporate “IDGAF,” “One Kiss,” “Bodily,” “Do not Begin Now” and most lately, “Dance the Evening,” the existential crisis-inducing dance observe featured in “Barbie.”

That is all a tough act to comply with. “Radical Optimism” has, in some methods, already pulled its weight — largely as a result of the tracks launched forward of the album — “Houdini,” “Phantasm” and “Coaching Season” — have the traditional Lipa hooks that first drove her rise, making for straightforward pop listening: “Catch me or I am going Houdini” — good — “you assume I’m gonna fall for an phantasm” — no — “coaching season’s over” — bought it.

Advised in Lipa’s assured tone, these lyrical quips paint an lively however imprecise picture of affection misplaced, discovered and forgiven. Lipa doesn’t usually embody overly particular references to her personal life in her love songs, as a substitute distilling experiences into tight phrases that seize simply sufficient to make them relatable with out requiring a lot evaluation. In that sense, there’s a managed familiarity to “Radical Optimism” — one which Lipa is clearly able to harnessing to coax listeners into her commanding beats, and right into a dance.

Within the album’s greatest moments, that sense of familiarity not solely works to Lipa’s benefit but in addition proves that she is fluent within the language of recent pop music. In others, it muddies the thematic imaginative and prescient of “Radical Optimism” that Lipa and the album are pushing — which could be stronger instructed with a recent pop dialect.

Lipa labored with Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker on elements of the album, telling AP that she had sought his collaboration since making her first file. Parker’s affect is heard within the album’s strongest tracks: “Houdini” and “Phantasm.” (Lipa selected the appropriate lead singles, it appears, a lot in order that their energy weakens the punch of the remainder of the album.)

There are different vibrant spots: Lipa’s hovering vocals on “Falling Endlessly” are certain to mobilize each dancers and singers. “Pleased For You,” about wanting again on a relationship and being proud of how each events have moved on, is probably probably the most personally revealing of Lipa’s real-life optimism.

“Something For Love” sees Lipa try and free herself of the management that usually sharpens her tracks. The tune begins with Lipa in dialog within the studio earlier than evolving right into a piano-backed ballad after which an upbeat and layered manufacturing. The items are all sturdy, however the observe ends earlier than that collaged imaginative and prescient can totally coalesce, leaving it feeling unrealized.

But when “Finish Of An Period,” the album’s opening observe, is to “Radical Optimism” what “Future Nostalgia” was to its namesake album, Lipa is aware of that is just the start of a shift: “One chapter could be accomplished, God is aware of I had some enjoyable / New one has simply begun,” she sings.