The idea of nostalgia is a dangerous thing. It’s a place where we become comfortable believing that it was a better place, with the rough edges sanded down to make this smooth and wonderful place where everything was perfect. We long to return to that time because the present is so painful, presenting obstacles that we are unsure that we’ll ever beat. As much as we look backward, there’s also this need to look forward, beyond our current obstacles to a future where everything has worked out. Just as much as we know the past as this comfort zone, the future seems so bright, especially with Dua Lipa in it.
The pop star has had a phenomenal few years, managing to ascend to the top of the charts and fill our lives with some of the most enjoyable pop songs. She had so much to live up to with her follow-up, and with “Future Nostalgia” she has found a way to not only entertain, but confirm that we need to forget what we know. She’s only getting started on a bigger journey. With this album, Dua Lipa claims that she wants to create a “dancercise” record, where you can get up and move to every song, breaking a sweat and feeling your soul come to life. You are rejuvenated by the end, feeling this deeper catharsis as the track ends.
With her sound, she seeks to make an album that can be placed alongside her heroes. With the production, she is nostalgic as she pulls references to everything from disco and electropop to more modern works like the confessional style of Lily Allen. What she’s creating is this confident persona, singing about her love life while exploring in candid detail how she’s a 21st-century woman. Over the course of 38 minutes, she creates a record that lives up to the dancercise title, managing to feel both like a physical and spiritual awakening. Considering that we’re living in a time of COVID-19 and self-quarantine, any reason to get up and move is welcomed, and boy does this do the trick.
 |
| Another thing to do during the self-quarantine |
The album begins with the title song, which proudly begins with the boast “You want a timeless song, I wanna change the game.” It already shows the two sides of this album ready to collide. How does one look into the future without pulling on what has worked in the past? It’s the quest of Dua Lipa that becomes clear by the pre-chorus where suddenly it’s clear what’s going on. The divide isn’t just of lyrics and genre that will be explored in more elaborate detail, it’s one that will push her confessional style to something greater.
She declares “I know you ain’t used to a female alpha,” and it becomes clear how big she sees herself. This isn’t just going to be an album full of love songs. It’s going to take on the patriarchy, most notably in how men have treated her in the past. This album is her form of deeper expression and she’s using her future to remember her past. There will be a fondness for those boyfriends who came before, but for now, she is blazing trails and moving forward. She is going to lead the world, showing off her strength. So what if it intimidates the listener? It’s time that women are taken seriously, and she does it by propping up her heroes while finding her own voice in this great big universe.
That isn’t to say that what follows is specifically a journey of a woman traveling alone through the world. What she wants is a man that will respect her, going on a journey as she taps into her emotions, asking what is important in the world.
After getting an insular view of Dua Lipa’s life, she returns with “Don’t Start Now,” which pushes the disco style forward as she recalls a past lover. She has moved on in her life, but there is the sense that he isn’t so sure about it. Still, she knows better as she sings in the chorus:
Don't show up, don't come out
Don't start caring about me now
Walk away, you know how
Don't start caring about me now
It’s bittersweet, but it comes from the sense that he doesn’t know what he lost. Think Gloria Gaynor for a new generation. After all, he’s clearly walked away before. It shouldn’t be that difficult. Dua Lipa knows what it’s like to be without him, and it leads to the remainder of the album, which finds her on a journey into the pains and joys of romance. Still, there must be a reason that this is the second track, where she’s thinking about somebody who is gone from her life. There is a nostalgia that isn’t as twinged with sorrow, but more relief. Her life is better now, especially since she’s free to do whatever she wants.
The record proceeds through a cosmic landscape of ideas. There is something jubilant about hearing her fall in love with other people. The music rattles with life as she starts to find this deeper value in the people in her life. Songs like “Cool” and “Physical” recall the free form way that she’s looking for excitement, wanting to do nothing more than party. While her feelings are contemporary, the style feels reminiscent of Olivia Newton-John, especially with her song recalling one of John’s most popular hits.
There is this lust underneath, but most of all there is this desire to live. There is something majestic about lines like:
Let's get physical
Lights out, follow the noise
Baby, keep on dancing like you ain't got a choice
It’s moments like this that Dua Lipa best captures the sense of being lost in a moment, wanting to just lose your inhibition. It becomes so surreal that it eventually gets into her soul with songs like “Levitating” finding her incorporating space imagery that only shows how lost in the romance she truly is. As cornball as it comes across, comparing their love to the stars and moonlight updates familiar imagery into more of a sci-fi image, seeing mystical worlds full of these wonders. The future looks so bright, she has to wear shades. It makes sense why later on in the album on “Hallucinate” she claims that
I hallucinate when you call my name
Got stars in my eyes
And they don't fade when you come my way
It’s at this point where the album would be fine as just a collection of songs. However, there is a bigger story on display. This is one about the journey in and out of relationships. It’s a good chance that you could put this record on a loop and it would be about several different people. It starts with a two-track separation before falling deeper into a love that is clearly so passionate that it comes with flowery language and lust that drives us to move closer, finding the connection within each other. It’s the nostalgic style becoming sweet, the music overwhelming big emotions in us.
Then, there is the back half, where the love starts to turn sour and suddenly we’re presented with an unconventional three-act structure. This isn’t the start of another great relationship, but instead the progression of an average one.
In a lot of ways, “Break My Heart” feels like the perfect cheeky single to release right now amid the Coronavirus. On top of being catchy, the chorus has a line that has been presented to us by government officials for some time now:
I would've stayed at home
'Cause I was doing better alone
But when you said, "Hello"
I knew that was the end of it all
It’s doubtful that this song is about catching the Coronavirus, though feel free to make your own Tik Tok about it. Beyond that, she is contemplating whether the man will break her heart, believing that she can do anything to fix him. There is so much affection even at this moment where it sounds like life is at its most uncertain. Still, she keeps dancing, trying to move on with power. After all, wasn’t she the one who said on “Future Nostalgia” that she was a female alpha? What does she need to feel insubordinate for?
The one-two punch that ends the album is a mix of a more conflicted vision of love. Where a lot of the other elements featured can be read as platonic, here we get Dua Lipa getting into the sexual politics. “Good in Bed” is maybe the most telling and explicit song, recalling Lily Allen at most brazen, as she suggests that the reason she’s sticking with her man isn’t because of any personal connection. It is all sexual. Along with a comical blip in the chorus, she draws a line between bittersweet revelations and this sense of ecstasy. After all, who doesn’t want that kind of sensation in their lives? It may come at the cost of not having everything else she envisioned on the album, but it depends on what joy you want in your life.
Up to this point, the record has been full of personal observations that find Dua Lipa looking back on her own life with as much fondness as regrets. She has crafted an album of delightful dance numbers that connect at the idea of human connection. We all have these dreams of feeling fantasy in our everyday lives. We want to know of something that lies just out of frame. And yet, it’s not always the case. He may be good in bed, but will he make you “Hallucinate” when you’re older, stuck in a marriage that’s gone stale? It’s your call.
The album ends with a stark shift in style. With baroque pop, she creates a feminist anthem in “Boys Will Be Boys” where she takes on the idea of sexual harassment. She is standing up against the men who abused her. As the choir joins her on the chorus, it’s the sound of every woman standing up for their own human rights. Boys don’t need to be this way, so why encourage such terrible behavior? It’s a moving number that features lines like
Sick intuition that they taught us, so we won't freak out
We hide our figures, doing anything to shut their mouths
We smile away to ease the tension so it don't go south
But there's nothing funny now
In times of divided politics, there are few things as rejuvenating as hearing pop stars use their platform for greater causes. Something as simple as pointing out the negative impacts of sexual harassment shows a different side to this album. As much as it’s about Dua Lipa’s nostalgia for love, it’s also about how it can be improperly used to cause her pain, leaving this vulnerability that takes away her power. She needs to learn that it’s okay to stand up strong with others and let their voices be heard.
As far as pop records go, Dua Lipa comes in full force. She is unafraid this time around, mixing the fanciful images with deeper meaning as she tries to make sense of this world. She’s as drawn to her past as she is becoming a stronger person in the future. It’s a look forward and backward, managing to never create a dull moment that moves swiftly through 11 songs. By recalling the masters that came before, she places herself in a comfortable camp of performers, and in the process has found a way to give her career a deeper meaning. Every song electrifies with infectious hooks, and one can only hope that this is the sign of a great career to come.
Comments
Post a Comment