The way I keep coming back to this album just to hear Falling Forever/Maria/Happy For You 

68k in the US seems actually really good for Dua! Would be cool if it could even reach 70. 

I think it's a solid album, but definitely not as good as Future Nostalgia. 
Really wish she'd push These Walls over Happy For You. HFY is nice but These Walls has double the streams of every other album track, it's clear it's a favourite. 

24 minutes ago, watermelonshake said:

68k in the US seems actually really good for Dua! Would be cool if it could even reach 70. 

I think it's a solid album, but definitely not as good as Future Nostalgia. 
Really wish she'd push These Walls over Happy For You. HFY is nice but These Walls has double the streams of every other album track, it's clear it's a favourite. 

I mean, I agree they should push TW but the only reason it has double the streams is because it got all the playlisting

 

It's not organically being consumed more

47 minutes ago, ahauntingnearu said:

Literally

 

It's wild to me. It's basic common sense, like a give-in in pop music "theory". Idk how the production and vocals missed the mark so awfully there. 

 

EOAE - nothing

H - belting in breakdown but way too muted

TS - nothing

TW - one minor BG vocal added

WD - nothing

FE - very minor BG vocal added(?)

I - one minor "riff" (please)

FF - best example where each chorus adds new vocal elements (listen to the godly Acapella!) But it's a little too quiet in the mix to tell easily 

AFL - nothing (tho at least this song has a clear build in production)

M - nothing except the high note in the first "Maria!" Of last chorus

HFY - one quiet harmony added in last chorus, but something like the live SNL vocalists would have been amazing

 

We need belting, harmonies, different vocal takes, SOMEthing. Her absolute refusal to do it is just insane lmao

I really like the minor adlibs in French Exit and These Walls but Whatcha Doing having none is pissing me off. Like that final chorus is begging for some dynamics and climax  

2 hours ago, DoubleRainbow! said:

She needs an Anwar Hadid look alike for controversy 

Dear God no. Mr Turner is such an upgrade.

 

Actually, as they seem to have got together, from what is known publicly, during all the LA awards season lunches/dinners etc, it might turn out to be the biggest silver lining ever for her, if all the pandering and hanging around doing Barbie awards nonsense, instead of pushing Houdini ( that we've all rightly panned), turns out to have got her with a certain C Turner, if he turns out long term to "Be The One".

 

(Your daily dose of positivity, in an overlong sentence, with a dreadful pun in it😁).

 

 

Falling Forever

I'm.. fallin' deep..

1 hour ago, ahauntingnearu said:

Literally

 

It's wild to me. It's basic common sense, like a give-in in pop music "theory". Idk how the production and vocals missed the mark so awfully there. 

 

EOAE - nothing

H - belting in breakdown but way too muted

TS - nothing

TW - one minor BG vocal added

WD - nothing

FE - very minor BG vocal added(?)

I - one minor "riff" (please)

FF - best example where each chorus adds new vocal elements (listen to the godly Acapella!) But it's a little too quiet in the mix to tell easily 

AFL - nothing (tho at least this song has a clear build in production)

M - nothing except the high note in the first "Maria!" Of last chorus

HFY - one quiet harmony added in last chorus, but something like the live SNL vocalists would have been amazing

 

We need belting, harmonies, different vocal takes, SOMEthing. Her absolute refusal to do it is just insane lmao

I was reflecting that I heard an interview with Adele a few years back, where she had written a load of songs post one of her mega albums ( 21 I think), and excitedly played them to her manager, who promptly said he wasn't feeling it with them.  So she went back to the drawing board and the result was 25 or whatever next huge album it was.

 

That kind of critical friend is vital and I feel was missing. Somebody surely should've said "look this is good, it's consistent, there's a couple of little gems and a lot of nice, but your two tracks short that are 9's and 10's" go back and have a think.

 

Who is doing that role? 

Pretty stable today on Day 5:

 

#54 (#53) Illusion: 2,191,827 (2,135,437) +2.64%

#65 (#62) Training Season: 1,997,872 (1,970,290) +1.40%
#75 (#72) Houdini: 1,869,095 (1,873,547) -0.24%

#88 (#83) These Walls: 1,763,105 (1,737,080) +1.50%

 

Living for the hushed "mmm... ah!" at 0:07 in "Houdini"! 

Finally listened to the whole album (twice at that) and Happy For You is by far the best song. I'm wondering why she didn't push this sound as it would be very different for her and actually for the theme of the album (always finding the positives)

 

Such a miss for me. Could have actually loved this era. I love all the slower-mid tempo songs than the dance songs because she's known for that and these don't live up to her past hits

Edited May 8, 20242 yr by Gaia

THESE WALLS SUDDENLY MEGA CLICKED-

 

i always enjoyed it but it's hitting insanely good this morning 

1 hour ago, Cain said:

I mean, I agree they should push TW but the only reason it has double the streams is because it got all the playlisting

 

It's not organically being consumed more

This could be said about multiple Dua Lipa songs, to say the least.

 

53 minutes ago, Post Malone said:

This could be said about multiple Dua Lipa songs, to say the least.

 

CXOXO heading for a worse if not same fate as RO btw

2 hours ago, Supervillain said:

I really like the minor adlibs in French Exit and These Walls but Whatcha Doing having none is pissing me off. Like that final chorus is begging for some dynamics and climax  

Right?! I think I actually gasped the first time I heard her go into the last chorus. Like, NOTHING? No difference? I couldn't believe it. It's screaming for a key change.. or, I keep thinking she'll hold a long note like "whatcha doing to me babaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay" or something. 

 

It's such a shame. With EASY tweaks and additions, every single song could have been improved so much. And she kept going on and on about how much work she put into editing them over time? I guess she meant her ... lyrics?

 

1 hour ago, Vermouth said:

I was reflecting that I heard an interview with Adele a few years back, where she had written a load of songs post one of her mega albums ( 21 I think), and excitedly played them to her manager, who promptly said he wasn't feeling it with them.  So she went back to the drawing board and the result was 25 or whatever next huge album it was.

 

That kind of critical friend is vital and I feel was missing. Somebody surely should've said "look this is good, it's consistent, there's a couple of little gems and a lot of nice, but your two tracks short that are 9's and 10's" go back and have a think.

 

Who is doing that role? 

For sure. So weird

3 hours ago, Cain said:

- Her biggest album debut

- Ratings magnet on SOLO SNL episode 

- Headlining Glastonbury

 

Ladies I cannot conclude other than to deem this an absolute smash era 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 minute ago, thinkheknowss said:

CXOXO heading for a worse if not same fate as RO btw

Not to get congrats/sorry'd by @Cain but…

 

Spoiler

CXOXO's campaign so far is low-key and much less attempting compared to Dua's very try hard, autopilot FN 2.0'd one. So it's not like Camila and the label behind her are having their expectations (and budget accordingly) as high and unrealistic as Dua's has been with this album.

 

I mean all of RO's singles were #1 on TTH + cover and on every other literal playlist 3x (meanwhile ILI was only ever like #16 on TTH?). Not to mention the Grammys performance weeks ahead like it was gonna be some CULTURE RESET, interviews since 6 MONTHS AGO spammed everywhere that it was going to be some unheard of psychedelic serve etc.

 

And as far as we know CXOXO was mostly composed by Camila and the two random nearly unknown producers she picked up for the project, unlike RO being not only entirely produced by well known & used producers of their respective genres that are Kevin and Ian and even Danny to some extent, but also RIDDEN with hitmaking songwriters on every single track (Billy Walsh - Circles & Post Malone's career + Die For You & other The Weeknd / Ali Tamposi - Senorita, Havana, Break My Heart, It Ain't Me, smash hit Shameless etc / Tobias Jesso Jr - 25, Harry's House / Caroline Ailin - Dua's career, Julia Michales - self explanatory )

 

So in conclusion, everything about RO's curation as an album and its rollout followed the FN formula while not achieving the expected effect by a long shot - while CXOXO seems to be set to accomplish a different goal, and thus far not even flopping at it with ILI being a moderate hit. You tried it, dupe.

 

3 hours ago, Cain said:

- Her biggest album debut

- Ratings magnet on SOLO SNL episode 

- Headlining Glastonbury

 

Ladies I cannot conclude other than to deem this an absolute smash era 

 

 

 

That guitar that plays when she says French exit and in French is so damn good and summery   French exit is kind of the slow burner on the album

49 minutes ago, Dula Peep said:

That performance is EVERYTHING, ugh 

UK Spotify Today:

 

#60 These Walls (+53)

 

 

Edited May 8, 20242 yr by Kristie Kuwa

These SMASHES coming to save the era

Flop era cancelled. Welcome back, duallah lipa

 

Ultra push These Walls, NOW daddy

 

Training Season is such an uncharismatic song

 

even more anti-climatic in a mid ass album

7 minutes ago, hétérosexuelle said:

Training Season is such an uncharismatic song

 

even more anti-climatic in a mid ass album

Agreeeeed. How did she go from creating banger after banger after banger to these C-side tracks. The only thing radical about these songs are how radically boring they are.