Dua Lipa — Home — What’s Cool?

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, many musical artists whose upcoming projects were originally slated to be released during this time are being forced to delay and postpone their albums until we return to a sense of normalcy. Hoping to avoid that trend, British songwriter and 2018 Best New Artist winner Dua Lipa decided to release her new project early, and I’m glad she did. Future Nostalgia is an edgy, groovy, and much-needed disco-pop project packed full of catchy and uplifting tracks. I was very impressed by this album.

I always find myself comparing new albums to similar sounding projects. In this case, Charli XCX’s Charli from 2019 and Lady Gaga previous work both come to mind. Dua Lipa has created an easily recognizable and popular sound which has taken off on apps like TikTok. The thing is, this project wasn’t just made to be radio-friendly. Each track offers something unique and original, and its production is next level.

Coming in at under 38 minutes, this album was clearly refined and hand selected to be replayable and enjoyable on every listen. Toward the end of the project I think the album slightly loses focus both sonically and thematically, but the 5 or 6 song stretch of absolute pop smash-hits in the middle of the project overshadow that slight flaw. It’s hard not to keep this album on repeat, especially right now.

While this album isn’t perfect, and I don’t find it quite as enticing or original as last year’s Charli, it’s still incredibly entertaining and well-made. If you need something fun to listen to, this might just be it. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Good tracks: “Don’t Start Now”, “Cool”, “Levitating”, “Hallucinate”, “Love Again”, “Break My Heart”

SCORE: 8/10