Dua Lipa - Radical Optimism

After MANY spins of the live album, my main take is that the Future Nostalgia tracks sound a little bit flatter than the Radical Optimism tracks. It’s like the original production of the tracks of the last album helped building those new orchestral arrangements while the more electronic production in the Future Nostalgia songs are not easy to translate to that new sounding space.
I had that feeling with Levitating. Incredible song but the orchestra didn't really add something new or interesting.
 

2014

Staff member
She's on a Christmas special of Carpool Karaoke, now on Apple TV, trailer below:



That split screen of James Corden and Zane Lowe

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The thread is basically a constant loop of people blaming her for the lack of performances and a couple of cigs (including me) saying that a Kelly Clarkson performance was not going to make Houdini smash.

Let’s be real, she had one of the most extensive campaigns this year. Album is great but it just hasn’t clicked.

Yes and no. I think it's true that the material just wasn't as instant as the Future Nostalgia singles, but I also think this campaign proved that in the US she is not a mega star with a devoted fanbase. She is a popular singer who is as popular as her last hit. She isn't quite in the position yet to let the music do all the work. She probably needed a buzzier video (certainly for Training Season which is the worst match of video and song I can think of in recent memory) and she needed a few big performances. And to be doing those when it was an actual current single, not a few months later.

Ultimately the album just isn't that strong. It's really pleasant. She needed more than that at this stage. She'll rebound fine. She's selling tickets, she just needs some radio love.
 
Yes and no. I think it's true that the material just wasn't as instant as the Future Nostalgia singles, but I also think this campaign proved that in the US she is not a mega star with a devoted fanbase. She is a popular singer who is as popular as her last hit. She isn't quite in the position yet to let the music do all the work. She probably needed a buzzier video (certainly for Training Season which is the worst match of video and song I can think of in recent memory) and she needed a few big performances. And to be doing those when it was an actual current single, not a few months later.

Ultimately the album just isn't that strong. It's really pleasant. She needed more than that at this stage. She'll rebound fine. She's selling tickets, she just needs some radio love.
I don’t disagree but again what are the performances she needed to do to fix that? Is a Today Show or a Kimmel performance really going to make her a household name in a few weeks. CBS just aired her special with almost all her album and that also didn’t move the needle. Is there a promo opportunity bigger than your own concert on national TV on primetime preceded by a week long promo trail where she appeared on every CBS show?

Brat had its first TV performance 10 months into the era and it still smashed. Dua’s problem is somewhere else. If anything, her team’s reliance on traditional promo methods is what set her back compared to the very digital and fan driven campaigns like the ones Sabrina, Chappell and Charli did.
 
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Sabrina?! The Sabrina that did SNL, the VMA's, put her showmance in her music video, Live Lounge, The Tonight Show (twice!), CBS This Morning, and just wrapped press for her Netflix Christmas special?That's about as traditional pop star promo as it gets.
This is basically Sabrina’s debut era so it’s normal. What I’m saying is that Radical Optimism has no meta-narrative or any narrative at all as a matter of fact. The era’s online footprint is basically her wiping her Instagram and her dad starting a fake Twitter fan page with cringy tweets. Just compare that to the super focused, online first campaigns that her peers did (including Sabrina) and you get your answer.

Even if it was unintentional, but Future Nostalgia had a bigger pop culture narrative. From her crying on Instagram after the album leaked to the ‘Dua saved my quarantine with the bops!!!’ arc, at least there was something creating a bigger meaning to the era.
 
I am someone who is (pretty much) stuck in the 90s/early 00s when it comes to my music.

Spotify played me a song from someone I didn’t recognise earlier this year and I really liked it. It was Houdini.

Dua (and this album) were then top of my Spotify wrapped. I love this album. I don’t know how it compares to her earlier releases but I do intend to give them a listen.
 

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