Dua Lipa's Radical Optimism
Radical Optimism left me feeling radically pessimistic, as the pop superstar took the safe route and chose not to push boundaries.
Wow, I haven't written an album review in a long time. (I haven’t written anything that’s seen the light of day for that matter), but no excuses today! Let’s get into Radical Optimism.
Dua Lipa’s third studio album Radical Optimism was released on May 3rd (two weeks prior to me writing this) and it was a strange lead-up to the album. The British pop star announced “Houdini” as her first single and hyped up the release of said single about 18 times online which had people believing this was the album release. Now since I am a seasoned vet of following releases from famous musicians I knew not to fall for this nonsense. They always go single first when they’re this popular it seems.
Houdini is a nice track. It’s fun and catchy, a typical Dua track. She then repeated the same process with the second single “Training Season” which has also grown on me a bit. She would tweet cryptic things like “Training Season this Friday. Lock in.” This was before we knew the album title, which I’ll get to. I had people sending me “new Dua album Friday?” Dua, please just specify if it’s a single or the album. It’s not that hard.
The problem likely lies within my circle of music enjoyers are album listeners and nobody with taste actually cares about the release of singles. However, Dua refused to state it was just a single until after Training Season came out. This was around the time we got the title of the album, Radical Optimism.
Now the issue here is this is the worst title for an album since the 1975’s infamous I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it in 2016. I think I may have reviewed that album actually. Radical Optimism, woof. I can’t believe people bought into this nonsense. Firstly, with a title like that, you know the album is gonna be radio candy appease the record label music. And that’s exactly what we got.
When Dua released Future Nostalgia in 2020 I was fairly unfamiliar with her and this became likely the best party album from the COVID era. It feels like everyone I know loved at least a track or two from it. “Don’t Start Now” was the biggest hit, but songs like “Hallucinate”, “Physical”, and “Fever” left a lasting impact on the dance pop genre. I still think that album is awesome and it skyrocketed Dua into an almost universal approval rating amongst pop listeners and people who are really dug into new music.
Fast forward four years. With Radical Optimism and its singles, it became fairly clear to me that Dua was going to continue to chase that approval rating over any sort of new, progressive sound.
While maybe not *quite* as big as some of her contemporaries like Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, and Beyoncé, Dua clearly is a lot less divisive.
I can’t point to a track on Dua’s new album that makes me feel like Dua is trying anything. Early in the release process, news broke that Kevin Parker of Tame Impala would be handling a lot of the production on Radical Optimism which made me excited because I thought we’d get some psychedelic rock and pop elements with Dua’s admittedly strong singing voice. We got none of that.
In terms of memorable tracks it’s the two singles, which are solid, but not spectacular, and the song “Maria”, which features the most interesting production on the album. It has a great flute (I think) section and the most fun chorus and Dua’s best vocal range on the project.
In terms of unmemorable tracks, there are many. I will highlight two. How about “These Walls”? It’s a much worse and less interesting version of the song of the same title that Kendrick Lamar released in 2015. It’s like she asked “How can I make this cool song way more pop, but also not fun?”
“French Exit” is a terrible song title and is as unmemorable as they come. I don’t even remember what happens in that song and I listened to it a number of times. “Happy For You” is a decent song with nice production but with horribly corny subject matter in the same vein of Dua’s “Good in Bed” from Future Nostalgia.
Also sandwiched in this mess were the rumors earlier in the year that Dua may headline Coachella. Shortly before the lineup was released, Dua’s camp cited “the timeline not aligning with album release” as her reason for not headlining the festival. Which is completely stupid because all she had to do was get the album out 3 weeks sooner.
The whole album cycle reeks of the label telling Dua, “You’re not allowed to push boundaries. Everybody likes you and we aim to keep it that way.”
Let’s compare Dua to some of her contemporaries:
Taylor Swift: While the music is hit and miss for me, I applaud Taylor for throwing anything at the wall because she knows a lot of it will stick. Her fanbase is insane and her talent level and true hunger to be the biggest star in the world sets her apart.
Olivia Rodrigo: Started as a fun story because she was so young and clearly knew how to make a hit. But now she’s 21 with two legitimately good albums under her belt which both Tik Tokkers and critical music fans seem to enjoy. If I were Coachella next year, I’d rather have Rodrigo than Dua.
Beyoncé: Released a country inspired album because she knows the culture is hot right now. Always pushes herself with vocal range and her albums are always an event. I’m finally starting to tap in and I get the point. Knows she’s talented enough to be ambitious with the creativity and still make good songs.
Billie Eilish: Probably the best comparison to Dua in terms of approval rating, but the music is decidedly different. Billie's approval rating definitely gets on my nerves at times. Like every industry head seems to push her as number 1 no matter what, but When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go? remains as boundary breaking and interesting as any pop album in the last decade for me.
Ariana Grande: While I think Ari’s latest, eternal sunshine is a little less interesting than her previous, Positions, it still boasts an impressive display of vocal range and booming production that Radical Optimism falls so short on. “we can’t be friends” is the type of pop hit I like. Big, cinematic hook with building production - similar to that of many tracks on Future Nostalgia.
I think the problem with Dua stems from knowing she can do better. It feels like the singles from Radical Optimism will get plenty of airplay but the album cuts are far less memorable and most of us will forget about this album a few years down the line.
I’m two weeks in and besides a few tracks there are like 10 albums from the past couple months I’d rather listen to at the moment.
Rating: 4.5/10
Things I’m loving rn:
-Watching ball.
-New music releases - Despite this dud from Dua it feels like there’s something new and exciting every week.
-Copping new stuff - It’s time to cop some new stuff, just for the sake of new stuff. I’ve been sustainable enough for long enough.
-The trailer for “It Ends With Us” - The film adaptation to the worst book ever is coming in August. I will be there opening weekend for a special hate watch.
-Looking at old fashion photos from 2010-2014 ish - Wow, this was an ugly era for us. It’s almost like a good pair of pants didn’t exist at this time.
Thanks for reading, hope to talk to you soon. Bye <3