Then there’s last year’s stone-cold banger ‘Don’t Start Now’, a kind of counterpart to ‘New Rules’ that finds her delivering instructions to an ex: “ Don’t show up/Don’t come out/Don’t start caring about me now.” It’s powerful pop perfection. But it’s her decision to open herself up to that possibility, making herself vulnerable but stronger for it. On ‘Break My Heart’ – which she recently described on recent Instagram Live as “my forte, dance crying” – she questions whether a new love is going to leave her nursing a broken heart again. The confidence in her voice gives you no reason to doubt her.Īll the way through this album, the pop star is in the driving seat, both behind the scenes and in the situations she describes in the lyrics. “ No matter what you do, I’m gonna get it without ya / I know you ain’t used to a female alpha,” she asserts on the title track. The female experience is one colours ‘Future Nostalgia’ from start to finish, be that through a sense of empowerment or observations on the inequality women face. Lipa has long been known as an outspoken artist, standing up for what she believes IN including women’s rights.
dance star White Town, while ‘Break My Heart’ interpolates INXS’ hit ‘Need You Tonight’. ‘Love Again’ follows suit, sampling ‘Your Woman’ by ‘90s alt.
‘Pretty Please’ strips back the layers to focus on gently throbbing bass, synth flashes occasionally making their presence felt and updating things from ‘70s disco to late ‘90s/early ‘00s dance-pop. ‘Levitating’ struts on a rubbery bassline and syncopated handclaps, the 24-year-old pop star singing of a love “ written in the stars”. Lipa even hit the studio with legend Nile Rodgers and, although his contributions didn’t make the final cut, you can hear his influence throughout. That includes the likes of Outkast, No Doubt, Prince, Blondie, Jamiroquai and Moloko, but the album’s predominant sound is disco.
Things aren’t quite as straightforward as that this time around though – on the new record she gives us her 2020 vision through the lens of the music she grew up listening to. As if to reinforce that, the latter has recently seen a resurgence on the bite-sized video app TikTok.Īnd now? “ You want what now looks like / Let me give you a taste,” she purrs on the title track from her second album. She built gigantic choruses off of online acronyms (‘IDGAF’) and rewrote the rulebook for getting over your shitty ex in the digital age (‘New Rules’). Dua Lipa’s self-titled 2017 debut album presented us with a thoroughly modern pop star.
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