Jark
PLUMP and RIPE
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2007
- Messages
- 59,235
02. Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia
you want a timeless song, sings Dua Lipa on the opening line of Future Nostalgia, I wanna change the game. at the end of a 2020 which feels like it lasted about 36 months, it's almost surreal to think that this time last year, Dua was only on the cusp of being a megastar. it's hard to think of another popstar who has played her cards so right in recent years. in March, faced with a decision to make about whether to release an album that might be impossible to promote for several months, she and label Warner decided to bring it forward a week and hope for the best. that might be the best decision of her career—she probably didn't know it, but the public's appetite for dance music during a shitty summer spent stuck at home was strong, and she was the first to feed it.
none of this would have mattered if Future Nostalgia was average, or shit, or if Don't Start Now was a freak mutation. but what might've been a good call revealed itself to be a great one when we actually heard the album. at just 11 tracks and 37 minutes long, it's short and sweet. and 2 of those tracks, in a freak display of bad taste, are also utterly unusable, rendering this is in effect a 30 minute pop record. and you will not hear a more thrilling 30 minutes of pop music... perhaps ever. across 9 sparkling, thoroughly relentless dance-pop tracks—each written and produced to the very highest possible standard, delivered with vocal gusto and imbued with such insane replay value that they sound fresher 9 months and 150 plays later than they did on day one—Dua shimmies on the dancefloor and commands you to move with her.
this is pop from a student of the genre. Dua's references, ranging from the '90s funk of Jamiroquai to the '00s glitz of Fever-era Kylie, by way of Donna Summer and Gwen Stefani, are impeccable proof of her love for the game. they speak to somebody who has loved and studied the Kylies, the Madonnas and the other pop queens in the way that we have, and then decided to get up there and do it herself. it's almost whiplash-inducing to witness the glow-up from the awkward breakout star, just turned 21, who "danced energetically.gif" in New Rules, to the confident young woman who commanded the stage at the 2019 EMAs, busting out some seriously HOT CHOREO to Don't Start Now in a perf of life that snapped my neck and rudely snatched the weave from my head.
isn't this what pop music is all about? that rush of seeing it done so well, so right, that in your own, slightly hyperbolic way, you feel like you're literally watching history being written?
that's how Future Nostalgia feels to me. it feels like reliving Kylie's Fever era, years after having made peace with the fact that there'd never be anything else like it. for that, I'm beyond grateful to Dua. and for crafting a series of bangers which have not just met the moment but utterly transcended it, sometimes achieving the miracle of making 2020 feel like a joyous time to be alive, I feel it's not too soon to say that an icon has been born. if nothing else, this era will go down as a major classic. in 5 years, I can confidently say that the giddy euphoria of Hallucinate will not have become passé. Pretty Please will still have me singing along to the amazing bit where the post-chorus layers itself over the original chorus in a breathless call-and-response that's totally outrageous, as though it were the greatest thing ever happen to mankind. and Levitating willl still be carrying me to a higher consciousness.
one day far in the future, I'll look back on this record and this period in time with nostalgia, and think how cool it was that she actually changed the game.
best singles—Physical, Don't Start Now
maxest tracks—Love Again, Levitating, Hallucinate, Pretty Please, Break My Heart
hottest remixes—Levitating (KUU), Hallucinate (Tensnake), That Kind of Woman (Jacques Lu Cont)
further goodies—Don't Start Now (Live in LA), Fever ft. Angèle
joanne score—93
you want a timeless song, sings Dua Lipa on the opening line of Future Nostalgia, I wanna change the game. at the end of a 2020 which feels like it lasted about 36 months, it's almost surreal to think that this time last year, Dua was only on the cusp of being a megastar. it's hard to think of another popstar who has played her cards so right in recent years. in March, faced with a decision to make about whether to release an album that might be impossible to promote for several months, she and label Warner decided to bring it forward a week and hope for the best. that might be the best decision of her career—she probably didn't know it, but the public's appetite for dance music during a shitty summer spent stuck at home was strong, and she was the first to feed it.
none of this would have mattered if Future Nostalgia was average, or shit, or if Don't Start Now was a freak mutation. but what might've been a good call revealed itself to be a great one when we actually heard the album. at just 11 tracks and 37 minutes long, it's short and sweet. and 2 of those tracks, in a freak display of bad taste, are also utterly unusable, rendering this is in effect a 30 minute pop record. and you will not hear a more thrilling 30 minutes of pop music... perhaps ever. across 9 sparkling, thoroughly relentless dance-pop tracks—each written and produced to the very highest possible standard, delivered with vocal gusto and imbued with such insane replay value that they sound fresher 9 months and 150 plays later than they did on day one—Dua shimmies on the dancefloor and commands you to move with her.
this is pop from a student of the genre. Dua's references, ranging from the '90s funk of Jamiroquai to the '00s glitz of Fever-era Kylie, by way of Donna Summer and Gwen Stefani, are impeccable proof of her love for the game. they speak to somebody who has loved and studied the Kylies, the Madonnas and the other pop queens in the way that we have, and then decided to get up there and do it herself. it's almost whiplash-inducing to witness the glow-up from the awkward breakout star, just turned 21, who "danced energetically.gif" in New Rules, to the confident young woman who commanded the stage at the 2019 EMAs, busting out some seriously HOT CHOREO to Don't Start Now in a perf of life that snapped my neck and rudely snatched the weave from my head.
isn't this what pop music is all about? that rush of seeing it done so well, so right, that in your own, slightly hyperbolic way, you feel like you're literally watching history being written?
that's how Future Nostalgia feels to me. it feels like reliving Kylie's Fever era, years after having made peace with the fact that there'd never be anything else like it. for that, I'm beyond grateful to Dua. and for crafting a series of bangers which have not just met the moment but utterly transcended it, sometimes achieving the miracle of making 2020 feel like a joyous time to be alive, I feel it's not too soon to say that an icon has been born. if nothing else, this era will go down as a major classic. in 5 years, I can confidently say that the giddy euphoria of Hallucinate will not have become passé. Pretty Please will still have me singing along to the amazing bit where the post-chorus layers itself over the original chorus in a breathless call-and-response that's totally outrageous, as though it were the greatest thing ever happen to mankind. and Levitating willl still be carrying me to a higher consciousness.
one day far in the future, I'll look back on this record and this period in time with nostalgia, and think how cool it was that she actually changed the game.
best singles—Physical, Don't Start Now
maxest tracks—Love Again, Levitating, Hallucinate, Pretty Please, Break My Heart
hottest remixes—Levitating (KUU), Hallucinate (Tensnake), That Kind of Woman (Jacques Lu Cont)
further goodies—Don't Start Now (Live in LA), Fever ft. Angèle
joanne score—93
I'm not sure my REPUTATION (my reputation's never been worse so~) can take the HIT.
