Review Summary: Training season’s over—and reality sets in.
Let’s be frank—
Future Nostalgia was going to be a tough act to follow. That album, simply put, was a pop album done right. It did not seek to break any mold, do anything different, or create a new musical trend—and that is exactly why it succeeded. The silky bass lines and stripped back arrangements along with Lipa’s sultry alto and teasingly risqué lyrics created an atmosphere that was mesmerizing, alluring, and most importantly
fun. The average listener could appreciate it for its almost hypnotizing ability to make them dance, while the, uh,
connoisseur could appreciate the winding bass lines and shamelessly 80s disco aesthetic. It had something for everyone, and it was a vibrant reminder for all of us to loosen up and dance a little in the year of our Lord twenty-twenty.
So now we’ve arrived in 2024 and Dua Lipa, having firmly entrenched herself in the pantheon of the pop-star elite, has arrived at the true acid test of her career—can she do it again?
Uhhhh… sort of.
Radical Optimism is not a bad album by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, there are a lot of things in this album that feel like natural progressions for Dua Lipa’s creative vision. Unfortunately, a lot of those progressions are also at the expense of what made
Future Nostalgia so endearing.
Radical Optimism (written largely with Kevin Parker of Tame Impala) embraces a richer soundscape than its predecessor. The arrangements are lush and colorful—with a greater variety of instruments and sounds, more depth, and Dua Lipa exercising her vocal cords at a more expansive range than she probably ever has. While the discopop influence is still prevalent in tracks like “Houdini” and “Illusion,” songs like “These Walls” and “French Exit” attempt a more acoustic-indie pop approach, while “Forever Falling” and “Maria” are more traditional ballads.
Radical Optimism is Dua Lipa taking risks and trying new things and, as individual songs, a lot of things work. I cannot say that I was infatuated with the closing stretch of the record, but the care that was taken in making sure the little details popped out throughout the album is noticeable. I’m talking about things like the harmonies in “Training Season,” the slick synth bass at the end of “Houdini,” the nifty drum line in “French Exit” or the acoustic guitar and lovely-but-melancholic chord progression in “These Walls”—and to be clear, it’s not like those disco bass lines have completely faded from the picture (“Whatcha Doing” is a great example). Underneath all the glittery production, Lipa evidently has at least tried to ensure that part of what made her last outing successful is still part of the mix.
The problem with this record lies in the three words “as individual songs” stated in the paragraph above. Part of what made
Future Nostalgia outstanding (as brought up in the review written on this very site) is how thematically cohesive it was. Each song straddled the line between having a unique identity and being part of a unified whole. Where
Radical Optimism falls down is that it does not feel as fluid or complete as
Future Nostalgia did. There are a lot of great ideas, but those ideas don’t necessarily translate into greatness, largely because the album feels a bit drowned in its own creative progression.
I wish I could have written a gushing review saying, “She did it again!” but unfortunately I can’t—and it’s a bit hard to hide my ever-so-slight disappointment. I can say, however, that there are a lot of individual moments on
Radical Optimism that are lovely to listen to, and—despite my qualms—it’s definitely worth a spin.
