Review: Dua Lipa — Future Nostalgia

Since the release of her self-titled debut album, Dua Lipa has been cementing herself as one of the more attractive commodities for many producers, and it has helped her keep her name in the ring. It’s with that exposure that has allowed her to become a major force in her genre.

Her new album Future Nostalgia keeps the intrigue with a new approach that threshes past a lot of basic familiarities of her previous album into a new wave of retro dance floor music that is sure keep many dancing and grooving to pop and disco overtures.

Future Nostalgia evokes a lot of musical influences from sounds of the 80s, 90s, and 00s. Though a lot of it sounds familiar to that of what you’d hear at clubs, it compares a lot to some of Kylie Minogue’s work amongst others. But it all blends together to establish a new take on retro-dance floor music. “Break My Heart,” for example, takes you get up your seat with vigor or even “Physical,” a true club-banger.

The amount of flare the album has throughout is never eclipsed nor does it for the factions. Every track takes a new approach and always feeling different and unique for the better, even if they are all many types of pop influence. “Don’t Start Now,” is a eurodance-pop track that captivates most of the vibe of the album, even if some tracks are more slow and ballad like.

Future Nostalgia sees Dua Lipa at her most astute creatively and most personal. It is lyrically mature, which her previous album had traces of. She maintains catchiness to keep the listeners enthralled by the content she sings about. She takes an aim at sexual harassment themes on “Boys Will Be Boys,” a baroque-pop ballad, while still maintaining the things that work.

Where the album truly hits the nail on the coffin is the ballads, which isn’t new territory for Dua Lipa. With tracks, released prior, like “Be The One,” that brings to life a unique electro-pop ballad she makes a lot her own, like “Cool,” a synth-pop ballad.

Dua Lipa has higher mountains to climb, despite releasing a true masterpiece. What Future Nostalgia does, is place a marker on her career timeline that will definitely age gracefully.

10/10