Pop music has become a much more respected art form in the past decade. Records like Taylor Swift’s 1989, Carly Rae Jepsen’s Emotion, and Robyn’s Honey have attained the acclaim usually reserved for more critically favoured musical genres. Dua Lipa’s an obvious candidate to cross from mainstream radio to critical credibility. She enjoyed a provocative duet with St. Vincent at the 2019 Grammy ceremony, while her unusually low voice for a female vocalist and eastern European heritage make for an interesting pop star.
Lipa was born in London, but her parents are from Kosovo, where her father was the lead singer and guitarist in a rock band. She’s also dabbled in other art forms – she’s worked as a model and is due to appear in the 2022 film Argyll.
2017, 7.5/10 Dua Lipa started recording her debut album back in 2013. The long gestation period, coupled with the variety of guest stars, producers, and co-writers means that it feels more like a compilation than a studio project. Hearing it after the tightly constructed pop of Future Nostalgia makes it less impressive. Nevertheless, it successfully introduced Dua Lipa to the world – at the time of writing it was the most-streamed album by a female artist on Spotify, probably abetted by the large volume of tracks on the extended editions.
Dua Lipa is a little generic in places, but the songs are generally strong. Lipa’s low register is effective on songs like ‘Hotter Than Hell’ and ‘Begging’. I enjoy Lipa’s vocals on the forays into acoustic material like ‘Homesick’ and ‘Thinking ‘Bout You’, but most of the appeal is in the dance-pop tracks ‘Be The One’ and ‘New Rules’. Miguel guests on ‘Lost In Your Light’, while Coldplay’s Chris Martin contributes surprisingly enjoyable vocals on ‘Homesick’.
Dua Lipa is a very solid pop album, but she would take things up a few notches with her followup.
Future Nostalgia
2020, 8.5/10 Future Nostalgia is Dua Lipa’s sophomore album. Its pop has a clear influence from 1980s synth-pop and traces of disco, like the string stabs in ‘Love Again’. Lipa particularly excels at upbeat pop songs, my favourite of which is ‘Levitating’ – the descending vocal melody suits Lipa’s range, and the hand-claps are invigorating.
There are other terrific pop tunes too – ‘Cool’ uses the husky textures of Lipa’s voice to great effect, while ‘Break My Heart’ samples INXS’s ‘Need You Tonight’. The opening title track steers close to disco, with Lipa charismatic in the rap section, while ‘Don’t Start Now’ has a funky bassline and a glistening verse melody.
The upbeat pop songs are great, but Future Nostalgia wavers when Dua Lipa diversifies. The lustful simmer of ‘Pretty Please’, the gimmicky ‘Good in Bed’, and the limp closer ‘Boys Will Be Boys’ are all flat spots in an already brief record. There’s also a sense that Lipa hasn’t yet developed enough of an individual personality – her lyrics don’t go far beyond generic tales of lust, even if the record’s got enough great tunes to stand proudly.
Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia doesn’t quite have the consistency of other recent acclaimed pop albums, but it hits some great high points.
Best Dua Lipa Songs
Levitating Don’t Start Now Cool New Rules Future Nostalgia Be The One
Aphoristic Album Reviews is almost entirely written by one person.
Graham Fyfe is probably the only music blogger to appreciate both Neil Diamond and Ariana Grande. Based in Fleet Street (New Zealand), he's been writing this blog since around 2000. Aphoristic Album Reviews features reviews and blog posts across a growing spectrum of popular music.
Review Pages
Read about the discographies of musical acts from the 1960s to the present day. Browse this site's review archives or enjoy these random selections:
Not to be confused with the Sun Records boss of the same name, Sam Phillips started her career in 1980s Christian pop. She used her birth name, Leslie Phillips, in the 1980s and was marketed as the Christian Cyndi Lauper. Based on Phillips’ raspy voice and appearance, I’m surprised they […]
While there’s a natural progression between each of Talk Talk’s five studio albums, the distance between their 1982 synth-pop debut The Party’s Over and 1991’s jazz and ambient-influenced Laughing Stock represents one of the most stunning transformations in popular music; a band that was originally pigeonholed as a one-hit-wonder went […]
Formed in Swindon around songwriters Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding, XTC started their career as a glam band. Their recording career started in 1978, with a pair of abrasive new wave albums. Once keyboardist Barry Andrews was replaced by guitarist Dave Gregory, XTC became a more conventional, guitar-based band and built […]
Syd Barrett was the creative force behind the original lineup of Pink Floyd. When his behaviour became too erratic, often attributed to schizophrenia and the use of psychedelic drugs, the group recruited David Gilmour as a live replacement. The group hoped to keep Barrett as part of the group as […]
The consequence of reviewing new releases each week is that I already have too many records for one page. Here’s part two, continuing from part one. Manchester Orchestra | Cass McCombs | Melody’s Echo Chamber | The Microphones | Midlake | Ela Minus | Victoria Monét | John Moreland | […]
Portishead formed in the city of Bristol, where a vibrant, multi-cultural music scene spawned trip-hop in the early 1990s. Trip-hop took the beats from hip hop, and slowed them down, adding textures and songs. Alongside Portishead, essentially the entire trip-hip scene originated in Bristol, with Massive Attack and Tricky also […]
Blog Posts
I add new blog posts to this website every week. Browse the archives or enjoy these random selections:
There’s a stereotype in popular music of youth and charisma, but not everyone fits the mould. Here are five very talented individuals whose personal style choices are more suited to the public library than to the pop charts. Lisa Loeb I’ve never heard anything else that Loeb’s released, but ‘Stay […]
A quirky alternative rock band from Boston, Massachusetts, the Pixies effectively bridged two eras in guitar rock; the underground bands of the 1980s like Hüsker Dü and the mega-selling 1990s alt-rock bands like Nirvana and Radiohead. The four-piece guitar band is known for extreme dynamics, often juxtaposing quiet verses with […]
A game I like to play on my cycle commute from work is figuring out the best band of each ten year era. For instance, The Beatles and Bob Dylan are contenders for 1960-1970, while 1985-1995 has a few contestants, including Pixies, Sonic Youth, and Public Enemy. I’ve been covering […]
The New Pornographers emerged in 2000, a conglomerate of talent from nationally successful Canadian bands like Zumpano, Destroyer, and Limblifter. While A.C. Newman is the group’s main creative force, the band spotlighted Neko Case’s warm, sumptuous voice and Dan Bejar’s offbeat songs on a handful of tracks on each album. […]
My grandmother was a dedicated L.M. Montgomery fan. She had an entire display cabinet filled with Montgomery’s work and made the pilgrimage from Christchurch, New Zealand, to Canada to visit Prince Edward Island. The appreciation of the Anne books has passed down the generations – I’m now reading them to […]
Sandy Denny is best-known to rock fans for her guest vocal on Led Zeppelin’s ‘Battle of Evermore’, and her contribution to acclaimed Fairport Convention records like Liege & Lief. But she also carved out a solo career as a singer-songwriter in the 1970s. Denny’s an impressive vocalist, warm and expressive, […]
Dua Lipa always creates her signature energic song, that’s what makes fans really enjoy her song