Album Review: Dua Lipa – Radical Optimism

Radical Optimism?

Girl, so confusing.

When I first listened to this album, I couldn’t help but ask the question ‘Why were “Training Season” and “Illusion” singles?’. Because there are songs on Radical Optimism which I feel would have made far better choices—especially on the approach to the album release. On their own as singles and their own things—the songs are fine. But in the context of the album presented to me, they don’t work and they don’t fit. And this feeling of things not fitting, working or making sense sums up much of my feelings towards Dua Lipa’s third studio album.

Whilst we’re on the topic of the singles, let’s talk about them a little. Because whilst they do not fit the album, they are also pretty representative of it, and we’ll get into how and why.

So. “Houdini”, I really liked. “Training Season” and “Illusion”, I did not like. But when I first heard Radical Optimism in full, I was shocked at how they all came off far worse, because they felt so disconnected from all of the other songs. No matter how you sequence these songs in the album, they just do not work. “Houdini”, “Training Season” and “Illusion” feel like they’re cut from a different cloth from the rest of the album—to such a point that they feel like they were intended for a different album entirely. And maybe they were.

“Houdini”, “Training Season” and “Illusion” compliment one another, but they don’t compliment any other song on the album, and no song on the album compliments them. Lyrically, they’re telling a different story to the ones being told in the other songs. The album cuts are about falling in and out of love, acceptance, and making peace with decisions that you made for the sake of love—in each of these songs Lipa exercises patience. But “Houdini”, “Training Season” and “Illusion” are all about impatience, avoidance and buggering off. And this ‘I’mma head out’ / escape artist theme is something which comes through somewhat in each of the music videos, and a couple of the single cover arts. The singles set a tone for an album that we didn’t get, so already the album is badly set up.

Lipa should have either kept “Houdini”, “Training Season” and “Illusion” off of the album, or worked on more songs which could better connect them to the other songs. The latter would have made the most sense, given that “Houdini”, “Training Season” and “Illusion” were singles and many would have found the omission of them strange. Even though people—such as myself—would have completely understood why. And whilst I’m all for a lean album, Radical Optimism is perhaps too lean, and could have benefitted with a couple more songs anyway—to help flesh it out and feel more complete and rounded.

Dua Lipa – Radical Optimism | Warner Records

No album needs to be beholden to an album title. But it makes sense for an album with such a specific title to have it be reflected in the music SOMEHOW. Yet, none of the singles convey any sense of radical optimism. If anything they convey the opposite. “Houdini”, “Training Season” and “Illusion” are all kiss-off songs about being doubtful of guys who play games and can’t offer you what you are looking for. Having watched interviews Lipa has done to promote Radical Optimism, she really latches onto the album title as though it’s a concept which runs throughout the album, when it…doesn’t. At least not directly. She says the word ‘optimist’ in the album opener “End of an Era”, but that’s as close as the album gets to anything of the album title in any sort of way. Optimism isn’t a theme of “Houdini”, “Training Season” and “Illusion”. It’s not a theme of any of the songs or the story in any of them, even tangentially. The themes of the album and the threads which run through each of the songs is love and a desire to be happy with someone. You could argue ‘She is a radical optimist when it comes to love’, but that also doesn’t come through in the songs. A better title for the album would have been some shit like ‘Hopeful Romantic’, which Lipa also says in the song “End of an Era”. This wouldn’t have made the singles fit the album any better. But it would have at least worked better as a theme which made sense, in the same way that Future Nostalgia did when you heard songs from it.

And speaking of Future Nostalgia…

Dua Lipa – Radical Optimism | Warner Records

I didn’t think Future Nostalgia was that great. I wasn’t a fan of that Barbie song. I did not like “Training Season” or “Illusion”. So I didn’t go into Radical Optimism with these grand expectations that those who loved Future Nostalgia probably did—which I think worked out for me, because I was not oh-so deeply disappointed with how the album turned out. I think Radical Optimism is fine. I was pleasantly surprised in fact, purely because of the expectation set by “Training Season” and “Illusion”. Radical Optimism works better as an album than Future Nostalgia did. But Future Nostalgia had stronger songs which stuck with you, and pretty much defined the album to a point that you forgot the songs on it which didn’t quite work. No one talks about “Boys Will Be Boys” or how bad it was, because the adoration for the other songs smothered it with a pillow. For me personally, Future Nostalgia was just “Don’t Start Now”, “Cool”, “Physical”, “Levitating” and “Pretty Please”. I can barely remember half of the other songs. But with Radical Optimism, I generally do remember it as a package, which is a good thing. Lipa has gotten better at creating a body of work, even with its flaws. But what Lipa is going to need to do is be smarter with her single choices and what makes the cut for her albums. Lipa is an act who is all about singles. So I get why she chose the songs she did—they each have a radio friendly sound, and are close enough to what she’d put out for Future Nostalgia as not to alienate fans of that album, but are also JUST different enough in sonics that they don’t feel like offcuts in the same way that “Dance the Night” felt like a Future Nostalgia leftover.

When I first listened to Radical Optimism, I couldn’t believe she chose the songs she did as singles, when “End of an Era”, “Whatcha Doing”, “These Walls” and “Falling Forever” were all right there. All of which feel like better representations of the album and have better hooks. And any three of them would have felt like a clearer bridge between where Dua was and where it seems she’s trying to reach. I think part of the problem is that Lipa’s kinda locked herself into Future Nostalgia. The Barbie song sounding like a Future Nostalgia cut is exactly why I didn’t like it. At the point “Dance the Night” was released, I was over Future Nostalgia and wanted something different from Lipa. But the success of that album seems to have created this weird conflict, where Lipa feels she can’t shed Future Nostalgia completely, but also feels like the success of it grants her grace to do something a bit different. And there is a balance which can be achieved here, and Lipa achieves it occasionally. The problem is that the scales tip on both sides too often throughout this album, and there is a lack of commitment to…well, anything.

Dua Lipa – Radical Optimism | Warner Records

I commend Lipa’s decision to go with brevity and for there to be some form of narrative which runs through the album. But far too much room was left for this album to be so much more than it is. I have zero notes for the production of this album, and we’ll get to why Kevin Parker does not deserve to be strung up like some rat catcher in King’s Landing. But the lyrics? They leave a lot to be desired.

The lyrics of Lipa’s songs—which she co-writes—have always been really simple, surface level fare. This worked for the first two albums and all of the songs we got in-between. But for her third studio album, Dua and her pen posse needed to give us more. It’s insane to me that Lipa sat with Caroline Ailin, Tobias Jesso Jr., Parker and Danny L Harle—all talented songwriters, responsible for some great songs—and yet so much of what they wrote for this album was flat, half-arsed and such poor reflections of their talent. And this is where Lipa’s press for the album came back and stepped on her foot whilst she was wearing an open toe shoe. Because in every interview, Lipa was going on and on about how deep and introspective some of these songs were, but they’re no deeper than anything she gave us for her debut album. If anything, I think the songwriting on her debut was better than the songs we got for Radical Optimism because they felt more complete as stories, had clearer points of view and had a vibrancy to them that many of the songs on Radical Optimism lack. There is no lyrical growth whatsoever here, and it makes Lipa seem very one note. I want to believe that there’s more to Lipa, and that she just needs the right gaggle of people to pull it out of her. But as it stands, the songwriting on Radical Optimism doesn’t give enough of anything. It’s a pretty vapid album lyrically. And as nice as the production on the songs is, it’s not enough to hide the lyrical short-comings. Especially with how little Lipa brings to the table with her performances. And we’ll get to Dua falling back into giving us nothing.

Lipa is very guarded. So there’s only so much she’s willing to share on a song. But this isn’t a crutch or barrier to writing or putting out great songs. Exhibit A: Kylie Minogue. She’s pretty much the exact same way. She is not the one to give you lots of these really deep songs which go in detail about how she’s feeling or what she’s been through. She definitely has some songs in her discography which do, but these are rarities, and even these songs only let listeners in so far. And that’s fine. Not every artist needs to be a Jazmine Sullivan or an Adele. But one thing Kylie gets is that the songs need to pack a punch. They need to connect in some type of way. And Kylie has to play her part as the vessel of these songs to make them connect. And I thought Lipa understood this too, given her first two albums, but I guess not if Radical Optimism is anything to go by.

The lackadaisical writing also results in the song structures not being great. Aside from the weak hooks, another characteristic of the songs on this album is the lack of a commitment to a bridge or a middle 8. Every bridge and middle 8 on this album is so flat. It comes and goes. There’s no change in Lipa’s delivery. And the structures of the songs come off worse on the extended versions, which stretch the songs to breaking point—highlighting how little actual song there is in some cases. I would NEVER have put out an extended mixes version of this album, unless the extended mixes came with additional verses, vocals and brand new arrangements—which “Houdini” stands out for, due to it featuring all of these things. Although the extended mix of “Houdini” is an anomaly, because I strongly feel that it is an earlier version of the song. Versus the other extended mixes, where the final version of songs were then spliced, copied and pasted into extended mixes. The fact that Lipa didn’t take the opportunity to re-assemble Harle, Jesso Jr., Ailin, Ian Kirkpatrick and Julia Michaels to build “Anything for Love” into a proper full song for the ‘extended mix’ is just ridiculous. And that between all of these people, they couldn’t make “Anything for Love” a full song in the first place!? A complete mess.

Dua Lipa – Radical Optimism | Warner Records

It’s easy to blame the shortcomings of this album on Parker, who produced 90% of it. But the sound of Radical Optimism is one of the best things about it. I am all for an album of Lipa singing over a bunch of Tame Impala beats. It’s the lyrics and Dua’s lack of personality and delivery which make almost all of the songs fall flat. I think that Parker and Harle are a great fit for Lipa musically. Parker for the grooves and the vibes, and Harle for adding that sharpness and gloss which makes the songs pop for radio. So I hope they team up again for her next album, because there is definitely some unfinished business between them. With a different team of writers and somebody in the room to push a bitch, the Lipa, Parker and Harle team could be magic. There are flecks of this magic in this album. The production is tight, which comes as no surprise. One thing Lipa is going to do is put out a well produced album. The music on this album is slick. “Training Season” and “Illusion” are great without the vocals, which is why I listen to the instrumentals. The general issue with the songs is that between the lyrics and Lipa’s delivery, they don’t really go anywhere. And this is why I think “Houdini” is a standout song—it has that amazing bridge, which takes the song somewhere.

I think it’s unfortunate that because of the critical reception to this album not being great and its commercial performance not being that of Future Nostalgia, that there’s a chance Lipa and Warner Records may come away from Radical Optimism with the wrong lesson—Parker is the problem. Allegedly, there was some pushback from Lipa’s management and her record label about working with Parker. And I imagine that in the event this is true, that those who were against Parker producing this album are sat like ‘Bitch, we told you.’ But he is not the problem here. Not by a long shot. And I find it bizarre that the failings of this album are being placed on him and not any of the five other people who had a hand in most of the songs.

BUT. I do think it was a mistake for Lipa to shift over to a new creative team and retain so few of the people who contributed to Future Nostalgia. Part of what made the songs on Future Nostalgia work is that there were a bunch of people involved, who were able to build each song out like a tapestry, and then Stuart Price to sprinkle his magic over the album and help tie it together. And then there was Stephen Kozmeniuk, who wasn’t only responsible for two of Futura Nostalgia’s biggest songs—“Physical” and “Levitating”—but he was a very key figure on Lipa’s debut album too. Perhaps there’s bad blood between Lipa, Price and Kozmeniuk. But if this isn’t the case and things are [turns and looks into the camera] cool, I absolutely would have had Price and Kozmeniuk be a part of this album, in some capacity. Because I can only assume that the two of them are key ingredients to the sauces that made songs on Lipa’s debut and Future Nostalgia hit the way they did.

Lipa’s A&R—with whom she seems to trust and have a good relationship with—should have warned a bitch. Perhaps he did and she just didn’t listen.

Dua Lipa – Radical Optimism | Warner Records

Lipa’s approach as a singer is so boring. She sings every song more or less the same way. You know how Lipa is going to sing a song before she even starts singing it. And it comes off as lazy. Especially compared to the likes of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter and Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft. Two albums released roughly around the same time, where both women are approaching songs in different ways than we’re used to hearing from them. Whilst neither are necessarily doing anything new that they haven’t done in some form before, there is still a sense of newness and playfulness in their approaches. There’s almost a sense of curiosity about how both Beyoncé and Billie approached their albums. You really get a feel for how much they love music and the act of creating it, and trying to keep the process interesting for themselves. Shit. I could even say the same for Minogue and Tension. She sounds like she’s in this new space creatively, where she can be free, have fun and maybe try something a little different. I don’t get this from Lipa at all on Radical Optimism. And it results in the songs sounding so sterile. There’s so little life, texture or feeling in Lipa’s approach. And she doesn’t always match the production. “Happy for You” is a clear example. The music builds into this big sounding, euphoric end to the album. It’s like a beam of light being shot into the sky—bright and vast. But Lipa doesn’t give a performance which matches any of this. The song also lacks a great middle 8 or bridge, and the outro is nowhere near as long as it should be, but we already covered weak song structures and the lack of commitment to bridges and middle 8s.

There seems to be no desire for Lipa to evolve and push through any boundaries. And it’s a shame, because I think she has a really nice voice. Lipa has one of the more distinct, richer tones in pop music, but she doesn’t lean into it enough. Every song sounds like Lipa did one take, whilst she was searching flights on the Skyscanner app. Checked out. So many of the weaker songs on this album could have been elevated MASSIVELY had Dua approached them differently and really put her mark on them vocally, with a vocal producer and arranger to help build this out more. Ailin and Cameron Gower Poole are credited as vocal producers on this album, and I’d really like to know what exactly the two of them were producing. Because it wasn’t Lipa’s vocals.

There is just a sense of complacency Lipa has when it comes to how she sings, and she needs to break out of it. Because when she does, she sounds great. “Whatcha Doing” and “Falling Forever” are both highlights, because you get so much of Lipa’s tone and she is actually giving you something on those hooks to remind you ‘Oh, wait. She actually has a really nice voice.’ And it’s her voice which elevates the hooks of both songs. But Lipa also seems to have a barrier up when it comes to showing any actual personality in her music, which also factors into her delivery. She seems to have this inability to just let go and commit to the feeling and the vibe of a song—which is a problem when you’re working with a vibey producer like Parker, and Harle off the back of working on two of Caroline Polachek’s albums. She sells their material short.

Radical Optimism is not going to win people over how Future Nostalgia did. But I do actually think it’s a better album as a body of work. Future Nostalgia felt like a collection of songs as opposed to AN ALBUM. I like that Radical Optimism has some form of a throughline in terms of the song topics, and that Lipa starts the album in one place and ends it in another. But so much more could have been done to connect the songs together, so that you feel like you’re moving through the timeline of a relationship / or several relationships—as Beyoncé did with Lemonade and Kelela did with Take Me Apart. Whilst there is a thread through each of the songs, the album doesn’t play out like there is a considered and thought out story being told. And this is part of what prevents Radical Optimism from feeling truly complete as a package.

So many of the songs are undercooked. Lipa’s approaches to the songs are uninteresting. And it’s clear that there was no one clear vision for this album.

Dua Lipa – Radical Optimism | Warner Records

Despite Lipa doing interviews and making out that this album was all planned, that there was a clear north star, and that she was particular about going back into the studio and reworking songs—the end result is an album which feels like the complete opposite. As though there was no plan. As though everybody was figuring the album out as they went along. And when they’d all had enough, they said ‘Fuck it. This is the album.’ This album really needed another pass, or a session where everybody took stock, sat with a selection of songs and said ‘Okay. What is this? What do we want this to say? What is missing here?’. Because had this occurred and the right actions were taken from this moment, Lipa easily could have had herself a damn good album. This is where Price’s involvement could have been valuable. But instead, Radical Optimism is just a sum of some parts of an album which could have been, which say so little about Lipa and what she actually wanted to say, if anything at all. And at a time in pop where the likes of Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan and Charli XCX are winning people over with big pop songs full of personality, earnestness and such a clear point of view—Dua is really going to have to step her shit up and give something more than she gave here. She really needs to show that she actually cares about the music, and that it’s not just a side gig to being able to model, dine with Jacquemus and Versace, and be a full-time vacationer.

Highlights:
▪ End of an Era
▪ Houdini 🔥
▪ These Walls
▪ Whatcha Doing 🔥
▪ French Exit 🏆 J’s fave