Single Review: Dua Lipa – Illusion

With “Houdini”, “Training Season” and “Illusion” all out—I can safely say that something is off with these post Future Nostalgia Duolingo songs.

“Training Season” was extremely underwhelming, despite how promising the preview sounded. “Illusion” on the other hand sounded underwhelming from the preview, but I remained [turns and looks into the camera] radically optimistic that perhaps the full song would wow me.

Y’all. I was not wowed.

Not even a little bit.

This review of “Illusion” could also be a review for “Training Season”, because I feel the same way about both songs—they sound incomplete. When I first got done listening to them, I was like ‘Oh, that’s it? That’s the song?’.And it’s really unfortunate, because with both “Training Season” and “Illusion” I can hear the potential for greatness. But they do not deliver enough on that potential to be all that they could be.

Both “Training Season” and “Illusion” were released with extended mixes, which was crazy, because there is barely enough in either song to hold attention for just about three minutes, let alone five. At least the extended mix for “Houdini” felt more than just sections copied and pasted to up the runtime, with the inclusion of an additional verse and slightly different production—leading me to believe that the extended mix of “Houdini” is actually an cut version of the song, which makes its existence cool.

It’s crazy hearing Dua mention in interviews how particular she was about the lyrics of these songs, and how she and her posse of writers would keep refining every part of a song until it felt right. Yet we’ve ended up with two singles back-to-back which were in dire need of refinement. And as much as I like “Houdini”, even that song could have done with another couple of passes and tweaks.

“Training Season” at least had a cool sound going for it, courtesy of Kevin Parker, whose sound was a huge part of what made me fall for “Houdini”. And whilst you can still very much hear his imprint on “Illusion”, Dua’s performance contributes massively to the song sounding generic. If “Illusion” were a Tame Impala song, it would have been better, because of how Kevin Parker would have sounded on it. But the way Dua sings the song just makes the whole thing sound so flat and void of any levels, especially given that we’ve heard her perform in this exact same way on songs like “Love Again” and “Hallucinate”—which she also made sound flat as hell. And I know it’s her dragging “Illusion” down, because the instrumental is actually fire and sounds better without her. “Illusion” sounds like every other song that’s been played on UK radio for the past couple of decades. At least the same couldn’t be said for “Houdini” and “Training Season”.

Dua Lipa – Illusion | Warner Records / Radical22

I am tired of how little Dua is bringing to her own songs. I let a bitch slide a little bit with Future Nostalgia. But that Barbie song was it for me. “Illusion” really highlights that Dua is very reliant on the production and arrangements of a song doing the heavy lifting. And there’s nothing wrong with this if you’re an artist who is at least aware of this. Kylie Minogue is a great example of such an artist. She knows that she relies on production and leans into it—approaching songs by fitting into them where and how she can in a way which works best for the song, and embodying the character of it. Dua does not do this and she never truly holds a song together or owns it as a result. You could give her songs to anybody and the song would be no worse off. Dua is often such a non-factor on her own songs. Everytime I run back the instrumental of “Illusion”, I see a list of other artists in my mind who could and would have done this song the justice it deserved. Needless to say it would have been great in the hands of Kylie. And Agnes also would have done wonders with it.

Dua Lipa – Illusion | Warner Records / Radical22

Dua giving the least works fine for a song like “Levitating” where the production is selling the whole thing and almost forcing the melody by way of there being some melody in the music itself. But with “Illusion”, there is no obvious melody in the music and there’s a lot of space in it. The production on “Illusion” is still great. But it doesn’t feature enough to surround Dua and lift her in the way that a song like “Don’t Start Now” did. “Illusion” was a song which needed Dua to really expand and take up more space in the song. And if she felt she wasn’t able to do this, then she shoulda asked Kevin Parker and Danny L. Harle to throw more shit in the song to better support her. Or just asked Kevin to contribute more vocals to the song.

I get that low energy and not giving much is kind of Dua’s thing. And on some songs, it works. But on others, it doesn’t. And “Illusion” is a song for me where it doesn’t. It needed more in the way of vocals and more in the way of performance, because the music of “Illusion” as it is can only do so much. If Dua isn’t willing to give PERFORMANCE and she’s not willing to stay in the studio to lay down her own background vocals instead of travelling everywhere, then she needs to just pull a Jennifer Lopez. It’s crazy to me that she played this song back after all of her vocals had been put together and said ‘Oh, that’s fine’, when there is SO much space in the song and there is so clearly more work which needed to be done to elevate the melodies and performance to a point that they soar the way the music sets them up to.

Dua Lipa – Illusion | Warner Records / Radical22

“Illusion” isn’t bad. But it isn’t exactly great either. Not only is it forgettable, but it’s a waste of such a good piece of music. Because in the hands of somebody else, “Illusion” coulda been a monster of a song.