Dua Lipa: Radical Optimism album review — regressions on a dance floor

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Did Dua Lipa completely change directions, as her previous hit song suggests? The early reviews of her new album indicate it's a possibility. Reportedly, the singer from London delved into the backgrounds of psychedelic music, trip-hop, and Britpop during the album's creation. She listed influences such as Primal Scream, Massive Attack, and UK rave culture. However, Radical Optimism doesn't quite live up to its name in terms of being revolutionary.

The first song called "End of an Era" on Dua's newest album has a cool beat and a catchy sound. Even though she sings about losing control and feeling dizzy, she still keeps her signature style that's made her famous. Some people thought she was done with disco music after her last song for Barbie, but her new album still has a disco vibe. She sings about love and dancing in clubs, showing that she's still in love with the dance floor.

There are sensible explanations for this decision. Dua Lipa's previous album, Future Nostalgia, was extremely successful around the world when it was released in 2020. It has received over 12 billion streams on Spotify, making it one of the most popular albums ever on the platform. Her first album, which was called Dua Lipa and was released in 2017, is only slightly less popular. Most musicians don't have the confidence in their fanbase to completely change their style if it already works well. This explains why Dua Lipa has decided to stick with what has worked for her in the past and has not made any major changes to her new album, Radical Optimism, which is just as successful as her previous work.

The album has 11 songs that are concise in length. The group worked with Kevin Parker from Tame Impala who is well-known in popular music for his psychedelic style. They also collaborated with Danny L Harle, who was formerly a producer for PC Music. Parker’s unique touch can be heard in the electronically-manipulated guitar solo in the song “Houdini”, while Harle’s contribution can be identified through the high-pitched and difficult to ignore acid-house sounds present in “Maria”.

The songs on the album have a lot of production and sound effects, but they all have a similar simple beat. Dua Lipa sings really well with her unique voice. The song "Training Season" is especially good, it's both light and flexible. However, some of the other songs like "These Walls" seem like they were just put there to take up space. The song "Falling Forever" sounds like a typical European pop song that sounds like it was made by Cher. Dua Lipa sings in the song "Illusion" "Don't you know I could do this dance all night?" The big illusion is that this album claims to be different, but it's really just more of the same without anything particularly remarkable.

The music label Warner Records has recently launched a new album called "Radical Optimism".