Album Review: Future Nostalgia
Dua Lipa is no stranger to an oddball album roll-out. Her 2017 debut album was delayed twice, with five singles out and dominating European radio by its eventual June release. These were self imposed delays to better the record. For her sophomore effort, however, Dua has faced a world out of her control, where every new step is uncharted, but it has made Future Nostalgia and her stance in the pop-star realm all the more impressive.
Dua kicked off 2019 with two Grammy wins (Best New Artist, and Best Dance Recording for her duet with Silk City, “Electricity”). The year before, her collaboration with Calvin Harris, “One Kiss,” had exploded following the massive success of “New Rules.” By the time she released the lead single for Future Nostalgia in November, the anticipation for her sophomore record had been reaching a fever pitch. Breaking the R&B and/or alternative pop trend most Top-40 artists had attempted to straddle for 2019, “Don’t Start Now” was the nu-disco and Euro-dance banger that turned the head of almost every publication. Dua’s sensual and commanding vocals grooved over a catchy bass-line, with a familiar lyrical middle-finger to an ex that has become standard to Lipa’s discography.
Despite moving past the breakup, present Dua was not so confident prior to the song’s release. “A week before I was about to release ‘Don’t Start Now’ I started panicking,” she told The New York Times in March, “ I [hadn’t] asked or checked or seen if anybody even wants something like this.”
Instead of shying away, Dua doubled down—releasing the title track, “Future Nostalgia,” as a promotional single. “You want the recipe but can’t handle my sound,” she proclaims over an eccentric 80's funk beat and synths. She debuts the speak-singing (not quite rapping, not quite singing) that is sprinkled throughout the record. Dua's British accent also makes its first cameo. In a little over 3 minutes, Dua was able to establish herself better than she did with her entire first record.
To finish out her hit-trinity, Dua delivered her most grandiose single from the record. Akin to Madonna’s “Hung Up,” the opening synth to “Physical” leads into a dark, techno beat. “Lights out, follow the noise” Dua nearly growls as her voice reaches a new level of anthemic. The second official single “Physical” gives a lyrical-nod to Olivia Newton-John’s 1981 single of the same name. In turn, Dua had to give the song an 80’s workout-video treatment. Its main video also sees Dua’s continuing her motif of illusions and visual effects. With flashy visuals and growing momentum, Dua finally had a perfect album campaign under her belt.
As Dua beaconed everyone to their local dance floor and gym, health officials were doing the opposite. Uncertainty and fear was growing across the world with the spread of COVID-19. Clubs, gyms, and most public spaces were shutting their doors as Future Nostalgia's release date, April 3rd, inched closer. “Don’t Start Now” was still climbing towards #1, but the attention on Dua shifted from excitement to anticipation. Should she delay the album release?
A summer release was becoming all the more likely when the album leaked online two weeks ahead of its April due date. Suddenly, it was clear what Dua had to do—let the world do more “dance-crying.” That is term that she uses to describes her music. Despite the handful of carefree love songs on the record, the world in which it is being listened to does call for some crying.
“I guess we’re ready for the summer” Dua’s breezy vocals sing on “Cool,” foreshadowing the feelings of everyone currently locked up inside. Sandwiched between two previous singles, it is a testament to the track’s catchiness that it feels equally single-worthy (although as one quickly learns, virtually any song on this record could be sent to radio). Indeed, the record hits a peak in grooviness with the love-struck “Levitating.” Dua is as playful as she is commanding, and the space-theme metaphors anchor the record onto the highest levels of funk.
Next, Dua decides to slow things down for the seductive “Pretty Please.” Beginning with her lone vocal over a bass-line, the track leads into a more intricate and almost-quirky (“is that a cowbell?”) second half that maintains the cohesion of the record. This pause in dance floor-beats is simply that—a break—as the club-banger “Hallucinate” follows with its pulsating beat and infectious hook.
Two sample-led tracks follow, with “Love Again” and “Break My Heart” sampling White Town and INXS respectively. Dua’s most grand use of strings on the intro “Love Again” veers onto ballad territory before dropping into the record’s most disco tune. The third single, “Break My Heart” swells and stalls in all the right places. Dua’s use of samples add a sense of familiarity, but her voice carries these songs into new dimensions.
It is here where Dua treads into less stable territory. On paper, “Good in Bed” would appear to have the record's most basic lyricism (“I know it’s really bad bad bad bad bad”). Although sounding like a Lily Allen B-side, Dua’s explicit honesty on this one is endearing. With a few listens, the track’s odd and descending chorus ends up staying on par with the tracks before it.
Dua lands the record back on Earth for the sobering “Boys Will Boys.” Surely a pop song will never be able to capture the complexity of social-political topics, but Dua will sure try when it is a subject that her young audience needs to hear. Featuring soaring strings, a child choir, and military-style drums, Dua shows that not everything can be danced away. Although seemingly different from the rest of the album, the track perfectly captures the female-alpha energy of the opener.
In the end, was releasing Future Nostalgia during a global crisis the right move? In the way Dua drew upon the nostalgia of the music she heard as a child, the record feels like a memory of an era long gone—one of friends, lovers, and the limitless fun of the dance floor. When discussing her favorite song on the record, “Love Again,” Dua notes, “It was a song for me, to give myself a little cuddle, and was about being hopeful that I would fall in love again.” In a strange way, Future Nostalgia feels like music’s hug to pop listeners. It is a reminder of all that will return.
In the search for her own sound, Dua has found the power in not simply recreating the past, but harnessing the best of it to build the sound of the future. Indeed, the opening track to her debut had a novice Dua asking, “How can we go back to the beginning?” Three years later, Dua is “so moved on it’s scary.”
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