Dua Lipa has in recent years metamorphosed into a world known musician after building her foundation in modeling. She has switched in between sounds, from pure pop genre and Electronic dance music. She has mastered her sound and that is proved in this eleven track album titled Future Nostalgia.
According to Wikipedia.com “nostalgia” is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. In plain words it is a feeling of reliving a past experience. Dua Lipa used this album to discuss experiences in the present as future nostalgia. However the title of this album is going to go into oblivion in the minds of people who do not have English language as their first language.
Pop music is a sound that had its peak in the 70s and 80s. It can be assumed that the lovers of pop sounds are relatively advanced in age. But Dua Lipa makes these album to blend both the young and the old. She made a good album that can be playable for a while. There is a high tendency for some of the tracks on this album to be skipped because they sound too familiar. Nevertheless it is relatively a good piece of art with musical character and message.
THE THEME
The album is centered on love. In all eleven songs, only “Boys will be boys” was a song made for a different reason apart from love. “Future Nostalgia” which is the opening song on this album talks about a guy who loves a lady but cannot deal with her personality. Dua Lipa tells him that inasmuch as she knows he loves her-that she cannot teach him how to handle her. “Break my Heart” is a song that talks about the fears a lady who has been broken before. She talks about falling for a new guy who could break her heart like her previous lovers. She claims that staying at home and lonely was the only way she could avoided falling for a future heart breaker.
“Good in bed” is a song that talks about lovers who are just besties in bed but bad in every other relationship goals. She talks about the lack of communication in their relationship. In a part of the song, she claims that when they have issue that they always solved it via sex. Forgetting to have valid dialogue that can solve their issues. In one of the best songs on this album titled “Love again”; Lipa talks about how she never believed she will ever fall in love again. Talking about how this certain man affected her emotions, she sings about how she felt weakened by his personality and love.
In summary Dua Lipa talks about one love issue or the other in this album. When it got to the last song titled “Boy will be boys”, she sang about how children are brought up with ill teachings. She sings of how boys are trained with a stereotype message of “boys will be boys” and “girls will be women”. She went against people who propagate this type of school of thought.
THE PRODUCTION
Going through the team of producers of this album, I was amazed at the population. This album was band effort. Attention was given to every detail with each song having different individuals helping out with the backup vocals. The beat making was kept as analog as possible with every piece of instrument played physically.
This album draws its base from pop sound. However there is a high influence of Electronic Dance music and funk beat. One notable element of most of the songs in this album is that attention was given to the baseline patterns. From the way they were played, it was clear they were all played analog style. When blended with the Drum kit, it sounded like we were in the 70s or 80s.
One of the EDM influenced song is the song titled “Cool”. The intro of the song and chorus were all EDM based but the solo was kept basic pop sound. “Levitating” is a funk beat song that has good orchestral mix in it too.
POSSIBLE HITS OR FLOPS
This album has a mix of average song but when you have Warner music label at your backup, you can sell any song. “Boys will be boys” can become a hit as well as “love again”, “cool” and a few others. The problem with this album is that the sounds and stories sang about have been done by other musicians. There was relatively zero element of sound, lyrical and vocal surprise. Dua Lipa’s fan may love the album but it may not win her new fans and respect from people who are not used to her.
