Standing proudly next to the great American pop women of today is the British-Albanian Dua Lipa, the one with the great Future Nostalgia (2020) made the leap to the commercial top segment.
Following up such a hit album is no easy feat, but the singles Houdini (2023) and Training Season did for the Future Nostalgia-hits not under and therefore promised quite a bit.
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Menno Pot prescribes de Volkskrant about pop music.
With that history the rest is done Radical Optimism somewhat disappointing. This album, Lipa’s third, does not come close to the previous one, at least not in terms of hit potential.
Should we listen to it in a different way? It seems that way. Many pop stars would release their hit from the Barbiemovie added. Not Lipa, because Dance the Night does not fit into the narrative: breakup, getting back on your feet, regaining optimism. Radical Optimism wants to be an album that you listen to from start to finish.
She therefore keeps it compact, 36 minutes, but for that playing time there are too many inferior songs (Falling Forever, Happy for You). Lipa is also in two minds: disco and ABBA on the one hand, psychedelic experiment on the other (for the latter she hired Kevin Parker from Tame Impala as producer).
Lipa palpably wants to take a step forward here, but no matter how sympathetically you listen, the conclusion is always the same: this album is not nearly as tasty as the previous one.
Dua Lipa
Radical Optimism
Pop
★★☆☆☆
Warner
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