Album Review: Dua Lipa Gets Physical On 'Future Nostalgia'
Dua Lipa takes her crown as the it-girl on the dance floor with the glittering escapism of her disco-infused sophomore album, Future Nostalgia.
Written by Annie Lyons
Photo courtesy of The Times and Hugo Comte
“I know you're dying trying to figure me out,” Dua Lipa sings on the title track of her sophomore album, Future Nostalgia. It’s a tongue-in-cheek lyric that until recently had more than a grain of truth to it. The British pop singer’s solid 2017 self-titled debut established her ability to craft a catchy hit and won her the 2019 Grammy for Best New Artist, but it has that typical feeling of an artist still finding their identity. Lipa seemed to have all the right ingredients for stardom — a sultry alto voice, endless cool-girl poise, and the creative talent to back it up — but her versatility came at the loss of a distinct persona.
After a few awkward videos of clunky dance moves sparked mostly playful memes (Hello, Dula Peep) that took jabs at Lipa’s stage presence — or supposed lack thereof — the Best New Artist curse seemed to hang ominously in the backdrop.
But Lipa reacted to the criticism the way most of us like to think we would — buckling down, putting in the work, and bringing everyone to her side. She amped up expectations for Future Nostalgia with two masterful singles paired with high-concept and vibrant visuals. One of the highlights of the rollout was a truly triumphant performance of “Don’t Start Now” at the 2019 MTV Europe Music Awards, where the empowering break-up song doubled as a sly response to past critics (“I'm not where you left me at all”). After all, there is no better power move than making an exhilarating dance-pop album designed for clubs after being told you can’t dance.
And all that anticipation sweetly paid off — Future Nostalgia is pure euphoria. True to its name, the album pays homage to the past with production that’s a veritable masterclass in disco and electropop spanning from classic ‘70s funk bass lines to ‘80s-inspired synth sounds to early aughts Kylie Minogue nu-disco. It’s to the album’s strength that it dabbles in the sounds of different decades instead of zeroing in on one era. The nostalgic concept is apparent, right down to Lipa’s timeless voice, but it never feels like pure pastiche. Lipa’s more interested in inspiration than imitation, as evidenced in how she remixes recognizable samples. In the intoxicating “Love Again,” she takes the trumpet line from the relatively muted 1997 alt-dance track “Your Woman” by White Town but amps it up with a heavier dance beat and soaring strings that encapsulate Future Nostalgia’s thrumming heart.
Photo courtesy of Dua Lipa Limited and Warner Records UK
Future Nostalgia is made for movement — if the album took the love language test, physical touch would win by a mile. Whether Lipa’s riding on the ecstasy of a new love or reveling in post-break-up dance-floor catharsis, there’s a pulsing physicality to each track. The deep house “Hallucinate” is a technicolor fever dream (prepare for the remixes), and “Cool” rides on shimmering icy synths reminiscent of the Gwen Stefani track of the same name. The album standout “Physical” draws inspiration from the 1981 Olivia Newton-John dancercise smash with breakneck acceleration that’s reminiscent of another early 1980s gem, Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out For A Hero.” The result is Lipa at her finest — a proper club banger that paints a delirious portrait of bodies pressed together under hazy lights.
Lipa also pushes her vocal and lyrical range to new grounds. There's a perceptible yearning to “Pretty Please” and a tension behind the new crush anxieties in “Break My Heart.” “Don’t Start Now” is her answer to the tropical house hit “New Rules” from her debut, with all the confidence of knowing a break-up is firmly in the past. Future Nostalgia especially showcases Lipa’s playful diva attitude. Delightful cockiness embellishes “Future Nostalgia” where she asserts her talents with lines like “You wanna turn it up loud” and “I know you ain’t used to a female alpha” over a funky Prince-meets-Daft-Punk beat. In the cosmically flavored “Levitating,” she sings, “My sugarboo, I'm levitating / The Milky Way, we're renegading,” complete with bratty yeah-yeah-yeahs and Blondie-esque sing-rapping. A song that prominently features the endearment “sugarboo” shouldn’t be so catchy, but Lipa pulls it off.
The campiness doesn’t always land, like with the love-it-or-hate-it “Good in Bed.” Sexually candid lyrics and bubbly production bring Lily Allen to mind, but the song precariously straddles the line toward cringe. See: “I dedicate this verse to / all that good pipe in the moonlight.” But there’s enough self-awareness, like the little laugh she gives after “Yeah, we don't know how to talk / But damn, we know how to f--k” that shows Lipa isn’t taking these moments of fun seriously, and neither should we.
Photo courtesy of Hugo Comte
Future Nostalgia keeps it foot firmly on the gas pedal with little time to catch a breather. So it’s a peculiar choice to close with “Boys Will Be Boys,” which is somehow both a snooze of a filler track and jarringly out of place. It’s the closest Lipa gets to a ballad on the album: a chamber pop arrangement where she details her frustrations as a woman in a male-dominated society. Her good intentions get bogged down by over-sentimental production that features grandiose strings backing an echoed church choir. Aa good song hides in there somewhere among the clever taglines (“And that was sarcasm, in case you needed it mansplained”), but for an album that establishes Lipa’s dance-pop crown, it’s a lackluster finale.
If Future Nostalgia has another weakness, it’s that its coolness sometimes feels too unattainable. Nearly all of the album’s 11 tracks clock in between a neat 3:00-3:30 runtime; the production’s all clean polish, edges sanded down. As Lipa sings on “Cool,” she’s completely “in control of what I do.” There’s moments where you want her to lose that control, and no other song ever quite achieves the limitless intensity of “Physical.”
In many ways, Future Nostalgia feels like a transitional album. Lipa is just 24-years-old; Future Nostalgia sees her fully commit to a concept and find her niche in a crowded pop scene, but it’s premature to call the album a career-defining moment when her career has just begun. If anything, Future Nostalgia ramps up excitement on where else she can go in the realms of dance and house music. And the disco heaven of the Live in LA remix of “Don’t Start Now,” which turns the already stellar single into a hypnotizing six minute track with immersive live band production, shows there’s still plenty of new territory to explore.
While Lipa had no way of knowing Future Nostalgia would release during an unprecedented global pandemic, its 37 minutes of unadulterated joy show an artist who knows she’s at the top of her game, and her attitude is catching. During the Instagram live session where she tearfully announced the record’s early release, citing coronavirus (but also likely in response to a leak), she said, “I hope it makes you smile, and I hope it makes you dance. I hope I make you proud.” She checks off each goal with ease and creates the perfect soundtrack for the much-needed solo dance parties that’ll have to tide us over until Future Nostalgia can be celebrated in its full club setting.