Disco
Rating: 2. Rating scale: 0 to 5.
Dua Lipa
”Radical optimism”
(Radical22/Warner)
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In the brilliant BBC series “Disco. Soundtrack of a revolution”, which can be seen on SVT Play right now, paints the picture of seventies dance floor soul as a dancing rebellion. In the shadow of the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War, and in constant conflict with that time’s open oppression of women, blacks and homosexuals, the dance floor became a free zone: “when life gets hard – you party harder”, as it is called in the film.
English-Albanian superstar Dua Lipa’s third album “Radical Optimism”, just like the previous two, takes its point of departure in disco, in a clear love for Giorgio Moroder-produced Donna Summer hits and the early eighties disco mutations boogie and hi-nrg.
It’s nice that way. She has a versatile voice and a luxurious and velvety, if very anonymous and generic, wall of sound to lean against. It is not difficult to understand that singles such as “Houdini”, “Illusion” and above all the excellent “Training season” have been big hits. All three of them offer danceable and incredibly effective disco pop that sounds good on the radio or for a spinning session.
But do they affect anyone? Doubtful. Only when the crescendo is reached in the closing “cry-on-the-dancefloor” ballad “Happy for you” does Dua Lipa manage to achieve something that actually sticks and becomes more, rather than very much less, than the sum of Lipa’s influences.
Unfortunately, it won’t be much more than a slightly retrospect utility disco. Lipa adds neither anything new nor particularly original to the generic disco nostalgia.
During its short heyday, disco was in constant forward motion. Mentioned subgenres such as boogie and hi-nrg were clear evidence of that. Lipa’s selective and careful updates to the genre, on the other hand, rarely contribute anything that an average Eurovision entry could not do. Considering the deep, fascinating and beautiful source from which Dua Lipa’s influences spring, one should be entitled to demand more.
Best track: “Happy for you”
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