Dua Lipa’s second studio album, “Future Nostalgia”, opens with the 80s inspired dance pop title track. In comparison to her previous album, Dua Lipa seems to have gone leaps and bounds in confidence and style. Her album is infused with the nostalgia promised in the title and the tracks follow through with a consistent style and sound.
“Future Nostalgia” is a really good start to the album, because it sets the tone and is catchy and upbeat. It talks about the themes of the album, a mix of older sounding music combined with more modern pop.
“Don’t Start Now” was the first track I heard from the album and I was really surprised by it. Dua Lipa is really good at creating catchy songs that end up being played on the radio a lot, and this was reminiscent of one of her biggest hits, “New Rules”.
Dua Lipa sounds much more confident on this album, and with the easy and fun style of the songs, it’s hard not to enjoy this album. The album is very accessible and sounds like a pop album, a mix of familiar and new.
The worst part of the album would perhaps be the lack of lyrical depth. The songs are meant to be fun and not very deep. This leads to songs that you’d put in a playlist but won’t think about much afterwards. There aren’t lines that will make you stop the song to think about them, which can be enjoyable, but throughout the whole album it was a little exhausting to not have a coherent story.
I was excited for the track “Boys Will Be Boys” because the title suggests a message or something to say. It does have something to say but the lyrics are basic and don’t add much to a conversation about sexism. They sound like catchphrases you would see on a mug and come off as a little too childish to be taken seriously.
My favorite song from the album was “Good in Bed” which was one of the only songs that touched on a story or interesting narrative. It was a fun song that didn’t take itself too seriously but went a little deeper into the storytelling than others. I can imagine the couple from that song whereas the other songs are too vague to lend themselves to that.
As a second album, “Future Nostalgia” is a big step forward for Dua Lipa. She has a very distinct sound and manages to make a lot of solid, upbeat, and easy-to-listen-to songs. I hope she can improve in her next work to tell a more intimate story but keep the fun of this album. Overall, for being innovative in sound but shallow in lyrics, I give it a 6/10.