album Dua Lipa - 'Radical Optimism'

[LCTV]

2 minutes ago, halcyonday said:

she's dropping even on last.fm charts

 

She's #8 yesterday I saw her at #16

[Uncatena]

Hmm on a third listen this does get me a biT more excited. Either way, Illusion slaps and I hope it becomes a sleeper summer hit for her. 

[tjspy]

Let me throw a bit of Radical Boptimism in this depressing thread with my all-time last.fm chart

 

 

Houdini, in only 6 months, almost doubling the #2 

[theweekend]

changing her team and manager was probably the biggest mistake of her career 

 

anyways the album is not growing apart from the ones I liked in the first listening. what the hell is she doing singing happy for you pls??????????????

[itsjokesta]

I feel like I'm the only one that thought she ate last night (looks wise). 

[V_E_N_U_S]

1 hour ago, Kristie Kuwa said:

Going from being THEE Versace girl to these looks when the album is giving SUMMER. 

 

Omg, she and her entire team are absolute dummies

just because the album is summery doesn't mean she has to be in versace

 

the album is giving british summer vacation and all the lowkey casual (festival) vibes are perfect for it

[IBeMe]

4 minutes ago, itsjokesta said:

I feel like I'm the only one that thought she ate last night (looks wise). 

it's a good look if she is going to a cafe with friends but for a performance it was lame but its ok overall...it's just the visuals do not match the sonic sound at all. She's been serving winter UK grunge vibes but instead the record is really a summer rave full of drugs in ibiza type of vibe so people are expecting the color palette to match a little more. 

[IBeMe]

2 hours ago, Owlie said:

she needs to shake it up when it comes to her performances.. it's always the same 3 moves and mannerisms when she's on the mic stand & very similar choreo to what we already saw last era. She's doing fine but it gets a lil too predictable and simple at this point

she's over rehearsed  herself I think. It's a consequence of having been hyper criticized for so long tbh. Now even her "spontaneous" moments on stage are rehearsed and you can tell. She's also getting in her head a lot more again, idk what's going on but I hope she's ok and not dealing with some stuff behind the scenes.

Edited May 6 by IBeMe

[tbhmatt]

I just listened to this all the way through again and I have to say some of the meltdowns and lashings over this album (generally across social media) are deeply unfounded imo.
 

It's an extremely solid pop record, the only miss for me is Anything For Love.

 

These Walls, Watcha Doing, Falling Forever and Maria are extremely solid songs. The album is an enjoyable, easy listen and there's plenty of songs that you want to come back to. 

[Relampago.]

Honestly this era is flying under the radar heavy, it's not an ARTPOP/Witness situation where there's a ton of attention on it flopping. 

 

That being said.. I guess that's a good thing? It means there's no brand damage, but she has done herself absolutely no favors this era. The music is good, the performance is there, but where's the image? I was suspicious of people saying the imagery wasn't matching up, but now I agree. What is a clear vacation/summer album is being touted as a psychedelic era with a grunge aesthetic… why?

 

None of it makes any sense at all. And it's concerning too because if she truly does have more control this era is she actually approving these looks and these aesthetic choices? There are very amateur level mistakes being made this era which I could chalk up to her dad being her manager now but also if she has more control this era I would have at least expected the visuals and looks to be there.

[MissedTheTrain]

I'm enjoying the album but it's definitely a bit lackluster in comparison to Future Nostalgia (and I don't understand what the point of this long drawn out campaign has been when it hurt more than helped)

[Aethereal]

1 minute ago, Relampago. said:

Honestly this era is flying under the radar heavy, it's not an ARTPOP/Witness situation where there's a ton of attention on it flopping. 

Nobody ever expected Dua to have an Artpop situation. ATRL is not that big as in 2013 and Dua is not that hated.

Either way to me the hate train was actually bigger than I expected. 

[Post Malone]

The guitars in These Walls are giving me the brief background music in Spongebob when the narrator says "six hours later"

 

[halcyonday]

 

Joining on the last.fm fun and sharing my overall Dua Top 10. Ignore Whoudini sneaking in.

 

[Kristie Kuwa]

25 minutes ago, V_E_N_U_S said:

just because the album is summery doesn't mean she has to be in versace

 

the album is giving british summer vacation and all the lowkey casual (festival) vibes are perfect for it

The Brits dont want her no more, how about she channels her Albanian roots for once. Maybe then shed at least make a dent in the Mediterranean area  + South America again.

[Kristie Kuwa]

21 minutes ago, IBeMe said:

she's over rehearsed  herself I think. It's a consequence of having been hyper criticized for so long tbh. Now even her "spontaneous" moments on stage are rehearsed and you can tell. She's also getting in her head a lot more again, idk what's going on but I hope she's ok and not dealing with some stuff behind the scenes.

Of course shes dealing with stuff behind the scenes. These numbers are alarming, you bet she got a call from Warner that this doesnt work etc

Labels dont invest millions for such a lacklustre commercial outcome.

[Dula Peep]

The Happy For You stans really won wow... 

[Heldenzeit]

3 minutes ago, Dula Peep said:

The Happy For You stans really won wow... 

YES I DID 

[Relampago.]

3 minutes ago, Kristie Kuwa said:

Of course shes dealing with stuff behind the scenes. These numbers are alarming, you bet she got a call from Warner that this doesnt work etc

Labels dont invest millions for such a lacklustre commercial outcome.

Yeah, there's definitely some serious conversations happening behind the scenes. This isn't a slight underperformance, this is something that the label will lose tons of money on.

 

I kinda wonder how Warner will see this. Will they see it as a misstep and be more involved in the next era, or will they see this as a sign that Dua isn't going to be the megastar they expected her to be and they'll lower the budget and leave her to her own devices?

 

I mean, she is still Dua Lipa, maybe not quite a household name yet but still has massive hits under her belt, so I can imagine they'll try to make the next album another huge commercial album and avoid all risks next time. We'll see how that plays out. 

[Cain]

1 minute ago, Relampago. said:

Yeah, there's definitely some serious conversations happening behind the scenes. This isn't a slight underperformance, this is something that the label will lose tons of money on.

 

I kinda wonder how Warner will see this. Will they see it as a misstep and be more involved in the next era, or will they see this as a sign that Dua isn't going to be the megastar they expected her to be and they'll lower the budget and leave her to her own devices?

 

I mean, she is still Dua Lipa, maybe not quite a household name yet but still has massive hits under her belt, so I can imagine they'll try to make the next album another huge commercial album and avoid all risks next time. We'll see how that plays out. 

I wonder what their strategy for DL4 is going to be? She can't go back to disco cause that would be seen as redundant and also flop

 

She also can't fully dive into alt music (if that was the direction she was trying to go in)

 

She would have to come with something unexpected yet still smashworthy 

[Burqa]

6 minutes ago, Cain said:

I wonder what their strategy for DL4 is going to be? She can't go back to disco cause that would be seen as redundant and also flop

 

She also can't fully dive into alt music (if that was the direction she was trying to go in)

 

She would have to come with something unexpected yet still smashworthy 

R&B/Urban. People have been craving this sound from her for a long time and with Rih's absence I think she would find success. 

She doesn't really take much to record the albums, only around a year. FN was mostly made in 2019 and RO was made from summer 22 til summer 23. It's just that it takes years for her to find the sound she wants for the album, which is crazy cause RO isn't even THAT different from FN

 

So I don't see her releasing DL4 til 2026

Edited May 6 by Burqa

[Burqa]

 

can you imagine Abel on a Houdini/Sacrifice type of bop on the deluxe? @Mark Rih 

[Relampago.]

15 minutes ago, Cain said:

I wonder what their strategy for DL4 is going to be? She can't go back to disco cause that would be seen as redundant and also flop

 

She also can't fully dive into alt music (if that was the direction she was trying to go in)

 

She would have to come with something unexpected yet still smashworthy 

She needs to cut the positive, hippy **** out first of all. That worked for FN because it was COVID and people needed the happiness + we had just come out of a period of very dark music smashing in 2019 with girls like Lana, Billie, etc being popular.

 

If you ask me, the music is mostly fine. I don't think anything on this album ever had a hope in the world to be another Levitating/DSN, but Houdini could have done a lot better with a sexy, dark club girl aesthetic. Instead we got bargain bin Hung Up. 

 

So with that said, I would love to see her do something along the lines of Make You Mine by Madison Beer or Crumbs by Rebecca Black or something similar to what Billie will probably do with HMHAS. She needs to get away from all upbeat and glittery sounding dance pop and move into a dark house/techno field. She could even throw in some alt-leaning songs ala Too Sweet or Do I Wanna Know? because I think her voice would work incredibly well with that type of sound. 

 

This is exactly what took Rih from just a little island girl to a megastar without needing to do a huge pivot musically or be overly personal in a way that felt forced. Dua NEEDS her GGGB era immediately, not having Radical Optimism be that was a huge mistake. 

Edited May 6 by Relampago.

[Owlie]

49 minutes ago, IBeMe said:

she's over rehearsed  herself I think. It's a consequence of having been hyper criticized for so long tbh. Now even her "spontaneous" moments on stage are rehearsed and you can tell. She's also getting in her head a lot more again, idk what's going on but I hope she's ok and not dealing with some stuff behind the scenes.

true, I think she's over rehearsed Don't Start Now especially, movements from it slip though all of her performances nowadays. I also noticed that she's back to overthinking during the choreo. Let's hope she finds that confidence again and hopefully reaches out to a new choreographer to teach her something new 

[Relampago.]

4 minutes ago, Burqa said:

 

can you imagine Abel on a Houdini/Sacrifice type of bop on the deluxe? @Mark Rih 

Literally a dream, my two faves

 

They would eat up a Whatcha Doing remix