Dua Lipa Album Review: ‘Future Nostalgia’ Is The Modern Retro Dance Album We All Need Right Now

26 March 2020, 17:18 | Updated: 26 March 2020, 21:54

Dua Lipa’s second album ‘Future Nostalgia’ will be the soundtrack to your spring and summer because, trust us, you’ll be listening to this all year.

We’re so glad Dua Lipa brought forward the release date of ‘Future Nostalgia’, because her newest EP expresses the positive vibes the nation is going to need in the coming weeks.

Bringing a ray of sunshine to all who need it right now 24-year-old Dua has created an album you can’t help but move to, making synth-driven dance tracks scattered with only upbeat sounds.

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The pop star said she took inspiration from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s with ‘Futura Nostalgia’ and the modern retro theme is what makes each and every song so timeless.

Full of songs that will make an ideal soundtrack for the hopes of summer memories we’re all holding out for at the moment, ‘Future Nostalgia’ was a perfect summary for this album at this time especially.

The fact Dua even has the album’s title tattooed on her arm promises how much of a hit this is set to be.

Dua dropped four singles in the run up to the album’s release - ‘Don’t Start Now’, ‘Future Nostalgia’, ‘Physical’ and ‘Break My Heart’. ‘Don’t Start Now’ and ‘Physical’ were both Number 1 on The Official Big Top 40 in the UK, with ‘Don’t Start Now’ reaching Number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US.

The opening track, of the album’s same name, which Dua released earlier this year, kicks off the tone of the album with a funky sound everyone already knows the words to, while ‘Don’t Start Now’ is the one we’ve had on repeat since it dropped.

‘Cool’ provides the synthy 80’s revival a lot of artists are favouring at the moment, much like The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights’ and Little Mix’s upcoming ‘Break Up Song’.

Chatting on The Official Big Top 40 Dua described writing ‘Levitating’ during a “giddy, massive sugar high after eating doughnuts in the studio” and we think this is an anecdote that needs to be included in the album’s synopsis.

The next half of the album continues the dance vibes, slowing down the tempo just a touch with ‘Pretty Please’ – which is still a huge bop – before ‘Hallucinate’ will have you picturing yourself in a scene from an early noughties nightclub.

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BREAK MY HEART VIDEO IS YOURZ TO KEEP 💔 Thank you to everyone that made this possible and worked so so hard during the crazy -8 degrees weather 🥶 while also holding my hand through the worst flu of my life. We pulled through and made something we really hope you’ll love!! Thank you @hscholfield we made anuuutha one ❤️‼️

A post shared by DUA LIPA (@dualipa) on Mar 26, 2020 at 6:32am PDT

Dua said she felt a lot freer to say what she wanted on this album and this is proven in cheeky track ‘Good In Bed’ which had us reminiscing the likes of pop classics such as Lily Allen’s ‘Smile’ and Kate Nash’s ‘Foundations’, while ‘Boys Will Be Boys’ – which, like Taylor Swift’s ‘The Man’, is something accurately timed in a post-#MeToo era.

There are a number of different samples on the album; ‘Physical’ takes lyrical inspiration from Olivia Newton-John’s 1981 hit of the same name, ‘Love Again’ samples ‘Your Woman’ by White Town and ‘Break My Heart’ samples the INXS classic ’Need You Tonight’.

‘Break My Heart’ is also likely to become a viral sensation given the lyrics of the chorus include ‘I should have stayed home’.

There’s nothing more you could want from a pop album, and Dua’s ‘Future Nostalgia’ is definitely a collection of tracks we all need to get us through the next few months.

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