Dua Lipa - Future nostalgia [2020]

[honeychile]

Can't stop playing this little cunt since it came out.

I wasn't particularly sure where i stood with Don't start now when it dropped. After her debut album, in isolation it sounded like a semi-affected departure; almost as though after pulling together all the songs for her debut over the space of a few years and exploding into the public eye, she was suddenly faced with having to do something new and it sounded kind of forced, which was especially odd given what a lovely oddity Swan song was.

Then the song Future nostalgia came out with its heady blend of Chemical Brother's Go and lashings of Janelle Monáe. Then Physical crashed in pounding your head against the dancefloor until orgasmic cranial collapse. Then Break my heart swanned in with that bassline, disco by way of INXS and Lady Gaga, and it became clear there was huge creative cohesion to the whole project. Returning to Don't start now in context turns out to have been a deferred pleasure.

The first song yet to have seen airplay is Cool, which to be honest sounds like it could have come from the 80s songs that are far greater than Thriller thread. Don't dream it's over collides headfirst into Lovers in a dangerous time. The whole album's very liberal in acknowledging its derivativeness, it embraces it from the title downards and runs with it, and when an artist feels no shame about something like that, then they as a performer and you as a listener can throw yourselves into it more liberally.

Pretty please is a great example of the perfectly-judged production that characterises the album - teasing the idea of over-egging the pudding in the latter half before stepping back at the last second. That swagger is a big part of what makes all of these well-written songs so irresistible. The tune itself put me in mind of Carly Rae Jepsen's Gimmie love, if Lianne La Havas had written and sung it instead (it's much better than that makes it sound). Lipa and the writing/production team must have been well aware these sorts of comparisons would be made and happily decided not to give the slightest shit.

There's nothing here which has quite the cup-of-cold-water-in-the-face effect of New rules. It's not that kind of album - New rules always sounded like it wasn't designed for an album (in fact that's true of all her first album really). This is a gorgeous ensemble which just ups the ante song after song. That is, until the final two tracks, which are forgettable - Good in bed is serviceable but insubstantial mid-noughties fare, and Boys will be boys frustratingly passes up the chance to really nail its message due to shite lyrics and a half-assed melody. It probably would have hit harder if they'd just run with the flow of the first nine tracks. In spirit Future nostalgia recalls the effortless seduction of Kylie Minogue's Fever, but unsurprisingly given the title it's more backward-looking.

I don't recall a proper Dua Lipa thread on here before so feel free to use this as a more general thread for her.

[Custard]

I really liked her debut album, and her singles and collaborations since, so I really need to whack this on my phone and get listening

Surely the best British pop star of the moment? It was Charli XCX for a few years there, but she seems to have gone off the boil a bit lately

[Twit 2]

Isn't this meant for kids?

[honeychile]

Great point. Close the thread Barry, the grown-ups have shown up. God i feel like an idiot now!

[alan nagsworth]

I really liked her debut album, and her singles and collaborations since, so I really need to whack this on my phone and get listening

Surely the best British pop star of the moment? It was Charli XCX for a few years there, but she seems to have gone off the boil a bit lately

You fuckin what mate. Her debut album from last September is tremendous.

[Custard]

We are all kids. The oldest member of this forum is 12 and a half

[Custard]

Alan Nagsworth: Her debut album? It was her third

I loved her previous stuff, but I'm afraid the new one bored the arse off me. It felt like all the fun had been sucked out. Absolutely love her Sucker album though, which she seems to not like herself anymore

[Pauline Walnuts]

Charli XCX has a new album 'dropping' tonight, apparenly.

[sevendaughters]

Isn't this meant for kids?

I saw a bit of a recent music video of hers where she absolutely 100% mimes wanking a cock and giving it a lick. So quite the opposite. I think it should be age restricted.

[Norton Canes]

Then the song Future nostalgia came out with its heady blend of Chemical Brother's Go and lashings of Janelle Monáe

That's a very charitable appraisal.

[kidsick5000]

Isn't this meant for kids?

I saw one of her music videos and instantly felt like one of those dads who's been told that his 19-year-old daughter's friends are coming round to sunbathe in the back garden and decides it'll probably be for the best if he goes and gets that thing for the thing from the garden centre – for the entire day.

[honeychile]

That's a very charitable appraisal.

I don't see how it can be charitable or uncharitable - it's just there.

[the science eel]

I saw a bit of a recent music video of hers where she absolutely 100% mimes wanking a cock and giving it a lick. So quite the opposite. I think it should be age restricted.

She was doing all that stuff on the James Corden live show thing last night.

[purlieu]

I loved her previous stuff, but I'm afraid the new one bored the arse off me. It felt like all the fun had been sucked out. Absolutely love her Sucker album though, which she seems to not like herself anymore

I can't stand Sucker, the really awkward bratty punk persona she created for that doesn't really work for me at all. Charli was a bit underwhelming after the two mixtapes, but she's still one of the most exciting pop singers out there.

Charli XCX has a new album 'dropping' tonight, apparenly.

New song. First from the album, which is being recorded entirely in isolation via internet collabs, including collaborating with fans. Album will be 'dropping' next month apparently.


I found Dua Lipa's debut a mixed bag, with some fairly mediocre opening and closing songs surrounding a run of incredible tracks. Haven't actually heard anything from the new one yet, but should probably do something about that.

[Pauline Walnuts]

I can't stand Sucker, the really awkward bratty punk persona she created for that doesn't really work for me at all. Charli was a bit underwhelming after the two mixtapes, but she's still one of the most exciting pop singers out there.

"I don't Wanna go to School"

Charlotte, you're 25 you left school several years ago. 

New song. First from the album, which is being recorded entirely in isolation via internet collabs, including collaborating with fans. Album will be 'dropping' next month apparently.

And here's the single:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O9xP4g8zfU

Does have a bit of the True Romance about it.

[peanutbutter]

Don't Start Now is a great song, haven't heard the album yet though

[Non Stop Dancer]

I saw a bit of a recent music video of hers where she absolutely 100% mimes wanking a cock and giving it a lick. So quite the opposite. I think it should be age restricted.

Yes, that didn't half give me an absolute fucking rager.

[honeychile]

One thing that does annoy me about this album which is a gripe i've increasingly had with pop music over the past twenty years (at least as i've perceived it) is the complete abdication of writers trying to end songs properly. I'm not even talking about writing a bespoke outro (would love some good examples from recent years actually), but even just taking the effort to resolve a song with a sense of natural conclusion rather than doing one final chorus and stopping abruptly at the end of the bar. The title track has some small degree of resolution, but Don't start now, Cool, Physical, Levitating, and Hallucinate are all guilty, while Pretty please and Break my heart just about stagger over the line. As a kid i always used to hate the laziness of a fade-out, but even that's preferable to the stunted anti-climax that passes for a coda nowadays.

[checkoutgirl]

Sounds like something you'd hear at a girl's disco.

[sevendaughters]

Think the album is a cynical exercise. Loads of artistes go back to the 80s as some kind of values of classic pop signifiers thing when actually the 80s was mostly dreadful tinny-sounding tosh. There's some ok tracks but I think it sells the idea of her being a proper artiste a bit short.

[Bazooka]

Forgettable chart mould pop unfortunately.

[hummingofevil]

There is something about it that can't quite put my finger on about why I don't like this quite as much as I should. I mean it's ace but it's 4* not 5* and not quite up there with One Kiss (which I think is almost perfect at being what it is). I think it's maybe that the hooks are good and it's catchy enough but there aren't big choruses. I've got hallucinate on now and it's great but what is nominally a chorus feels a bit like two pre-choruses. It's splitting hairs though as it's belting.

As for the endings I like them. The album zips by and the songs just stopping dead gives it a nice no fucking about vibe.

[Spiteface]

I saw a bit of a recent music video of hers where she absolutely 100% mimes wanking a cock and giving it a lick.

For reference:

https://youtu.be/YvVonQ7LUJ0?t=223

[Custard]

Bookmarking that. For a friend

[SteveDave]

She looks a less booby version of an ex-girlfriend of mine. Weird.

[the science eel]

Aye right

[Huxleys Babkins]

[hummingofevil]

I've been listening to it a couple times in last hour but this album has the one thing that so many great albums miss; it goes deep. Levitating and pretty please are fine tracks but if that is the best the rest of the album has so offer then meh. The reason this album is incredible is that drops off then save a proper banger 7 tracks in.

The more Iisten to it the better it is. wow. Seriously, this is ace on every level. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEh0I-NzFoc

[Twit 2]

.

[Abnormal Palm]

I held off posting for 24hr but WOW