Dua Lipa is the kind of pop star who can subtly slip into a new era and a new sound without rolling out a whole new persona. Other chart-topping pop queens often adopt a method-acting approach to recording and promotion, diving headfirst into new genres and reflecting their auditory evolution with a full visual transformation (think: Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Taylor Swift).
Lipa, meanwhile, seems to breezily release new music at her own pace, never altering her look or sound enough to alienate her base. Some hair dye here, a sun-kissed photoshoot there. But the thread of her glam dancefloor sensibilities is still evident.
For her third album, Radical Optimism, Lipa plays down the disco vibes of her wildly popular sophomore effort, Future Nostalgia, and Barbie soundtrack standout "Dance the Night," but they aren't gone for good. Optimism's lead single, "Houdini," would not feel out of place on Nostalgia, and the thumping bass of "Training Season" provides both a sonic and thematic follow-up to the hard-pounding "Physical."
Sonically, she is still a shimmery club kid, though now instead of sweating primarily under mirrorballs, this album lets her move the dance party to locales without velvet ropes.
"I remember when I was working on my first album, I was making notes on what my third album was going to be," Lipa told TIME last month. "It's mad to think about, but I remember speaking to my close friend and A&R Joe [Kentish], 'Maybe album three, I could work with [Tame Impala's] Kevin Parker.'"
She successfully manifested that particular wish -- Parker is a writer and producer on seven of the 11 album tracks, including all three of its released singles. And while his synthesized, psychedelic rock sensibilities can be heard on tracks like "Whatcha Doing" and "Illusion," Lipa's other supposed influences, namely Britpop and rave culture, are less obvious.
"I found myself looking through the music history of psychedelia, trip-hop, and Britpop," Lipa said in a March press release. "It has always felt so confidently optimistic to me, and that honesty and attitude is a feeling I took into my recording sessions."
Perhaps, then, the widespread critique that this album doesn't live up to its influences is misguided. For those who were around for the '90s wave of melodic rock typified by bands like Oasis, Blur, and Pulp, they won't hear their beloved genre on Radical Optimism. Lipa is not rock and doesn't claim to be, and though she did namecheck Massive Attack and Primal Scream as influences for this album, it always seemed a stretch to think her sound would literally venture into the darker, heavier trip-hop or psych-rock those bands put out.
Their vibes though -- that's what was intended to translate. Lipa, now 28, was in diapers when Britpop was fading. Her musical influences may more clearly align with British Pop proper, but the very definition of Britpop is broadening as this generation's artists reshape its message in their own image.
"With their diverse perspectives and hopeful songwriting," The Guardian reported last week, "this new wave of artists [including Lipa, Nia Archives, Rachel Chinouriri, and AG Cook] is moving Britpop away from its association with laddism and jingoism, and closer to the original anything-goes feeling."
That "don't give a fuck-ness," as she told Rolling Stone, is more readily apparent, both in her lyrics and general demeanor. She's not going to deal with dudes who can't hold their own ("Training Season") and will walk out on paramour who isn't worth it ("French Exit"). But she seems softer too.
The hard-pounding dance beats of Nostalgia standouts "Physical," "Break My Heart," and "Don't Start Now" have been replaced with lovelier, dreamier songs like "Happy For You," "These Walls," and "Anything for Love." And her voice, which is strong enough to carry her bangers, proves itself agile enough to both issue warnings ("If these walls could talk / [They'd say] You know you're fucked" on "These Walls") and sincerely thank a lover's ex ("Deepest affect always comes from a cause / I'm better too from the ones that I've lost / Now he is everything I'd ever want / I wanna thank you for all that you've done," on "Maria").
But perhaps the most IDGAF moment on the album is also the sweetest. "Anything for Love" -- the shortest of the bunch at just 2:21 -- opens with a stripped-down, raw entreaty to the universe. "I'm not interested in a love that gives up so easily / I want a love that's set on keeping me / When it hurts, we don't even think to cut it off," Lipa croons. It's a gorgeous, heartfelt intro for what ultimately serves an airy, jazzy aside.
It's a small step off the dancefloor -- a toe in the adjacent infinity pool, if you will. Lipa has a sturdy foothold in the industry as a disco-pop princess, and it's smart that she didn't feel the need to scrap that groove for a whole new identity on this release. Future Nostalgia was always going to be a tough act to follow, and perhaps Dua felt she needed the affirmational ideology of radical optimism, in addition to the fuck-it-all mindset of Britpop, to pull it off.
Whatever the case, Radical Optimism does its job, and does it well. You can dance if you want to, or use its tracks as a soundtrack to go hand-in-hand through your parklife. Lipa leaves room for interpretation, both of her music and her musical influences, but she glitters either way.
