Dua Lipa

"don't start now" builds to something so great during its prechorus only to let it all come crashing down during that clunker of a chorus

I've grown to like it on the strength of the prechorus alone but otm

counterpoint: the chorus is also good

otm

if you don’t like the chorus

don’t show up

otm

:D

« Don’t Start Now » is very good. The WHOLE of it !

i am very much in love w/it

I was on the fence with this song as well, but I’ve fallen for it now, a process set in motion by ufo posting the Fallon performance.
All the parts people have identified as great (pre-chorus, chorus, the way the verse starts) actually felt like clunkers to me at some point. That disco break after the second chorus is the real highlight though.

Loved Don’t Start Now but having difficulty getting into the Future Nostalgia

the new single "physical" is out friday. she's also been delivering the goods with performances of "don't start now" - esp. this one w/ its extended intro:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSoT3T58QFY

I love how much she changes up the arrangement for every performance and sells it every single time.

Hope this new single comes with the album announcement. Probably my most anticipated album of the year along with Jessie Ware.

holy shit @ that performance

literal roller skating to a roller skating jam

future nostalgia the album of the year 2020 out april 3

https://i.imgur.com/KBU0GrA.png

still don't love "don't start now" but at least she's not playing around

Everything about this already feels so perfect.

I love the enthusiasm over on Popjustice. People already calling it this decade's Emotion.

caved and heard the new single, it's sort of like...gaga in imperial mode? very different to the other two songs but just as good

instantly iconic cover art

this is about to be a moment

wait, this reaction is being provoked solely by the cover art? there isn't even a new track?

the track leaked, it's out tomorrow

cover art was shot by the same photographer as the one for caroline polachek's pang, btw

anyway...lights out! follow the noise!

https://open.spotify.com/album/5Vzq1wKBUXMxEZl3NPjJpS

everything feels very early 00s uk pop which feels a little weird (like, "ah we're at 00s revivalism already") but it's a good thing

none of these singles have been amazing (though the live performances of "don't start now" have been quite great) but they're all quite solid and very well produced so if that keeps up for the whole album i expect it'll be pretty good

if you basically mean Xenomania, I agree, and it kind of makes sense in that that whole sound was itself such a diverse blender of past and contemporary signifiers that it doesn’t feel as tied to a particular time or context in the way that, say, a Neptunes-style production would.

This seems counter-intuitive in that the ~songs themselves~ from that period feel very specific to that era and really did not survive beyond the era within broader popular consciousness, but perversely that means Dua Lipa’s efforts are more likely to be accepted on their own terms rather than tagged as, I dunno, a tribute to the third Sugababes album or something.

“Physical” more Girls Aloud of course.

xenomania in part certainly, but i was thinking more kylie, sophie ellis-bextor etc. that sort of disco-with-modern-production sound

i get more of a The Fame Monster vibe from "Physical" more than Xenomania - there's a raggedness to the vocal performance that distinguishes it from something like GA. "Don't Start Now" on the other hand is a lot more pointed and precise, so I hear SAB etc there for sure

this one I have a hard time imagining getting too worked up over

yeah this is defo gaga sounding, which is funny because I really didn't expect that particular revival for a good while. It's good tho, I like it

hashtag physical

I believe the two of you haven’t met -

Ava, this is or something

or, this is Ava Max

(xp)

but anyway: hashtag physical

Oh I have heard Sweet but Psycho on the radio quite a bit but kind of dismissed it as a kind of unpleasant outlier

kind of

I wasn’t

It wasn’t exactly pleasurable to me either, but it was my wtf-isn’t-it-much-too-soon-to-do-the-regaga moment

stuart price has a credit on the record which definitely helps someone's thesis itt

"physical" does remind me of gaga but also doesn't feel that far removed from say "can't get you out of my head"

not really feeling "physical" so far (tho for the record i was never a big fan of gaga's music even at her peak)

Where the Gaga and Xenomania (or more specifically Girls Aloud) comparisons don't quite scan for me is that those productions were absolutely laden with tinsel and tack, whereas Physical has a very specific Drive-soundtrack type filter laden over it. Gaga in particular was unabashedly cheesy in a way that sounded very jarring at the end of the 00s. Physical is going for a kind of dated robotic cool and the Stuart Price production credit absolutely makes sense in that context.

Also "this decade's Emotion" is a pretty absurd thing to say about a pop star who in commercial terms has already eclipsed CRJ several times over.

Both singles do feel like a swerve away from that very specific late 10s Spotify pop sound and towards a kind of classicism though.

"this decade's emotion" is exactly the sort of ridiculous thing i'd expect from stans on popjustice. i don't really think it makes much sense in any regard but i understand what they're trying to say

price isn't on "physical" though, only a few yet-to be released album tracks.

popjustice denizens freaking out about something is pretty much meaningless as they've spent the past five years or so foaming at the mouth every time a thin white woman serves up dance-pop with any commercial ambition whatsoever, only to lose interest each time said woman proves incapable of reaching the hot 100 more than twice. good for them that dua's finally coming thru, tho

hello is this 911 because i would like to etc

the snowqueens of futurepop

The reaction on Popjustice is partly because the thread on Dua was started five years ago when a lot of people fell in love with her from the first release of Be The One (when it wasn't a hit). I followed that thread and people were crazy invested in her through every single and collaboration (and that's about eight singles) before the album even came out. It often looked like she might get dropped and be another popinjustice as often happens (see also Annie -- a hero on that forum). The first album was delayed three times and came out a whole year after its initial release date. It's strange to think about what a struggle it was to get that album out and remember that the label who were desperately looking for that hit, just put it out anyway with the Miguel single which was that album's biggest failure.

When New Rules went to number one, it was a rare moment for those posters where everything worked out. Dua seems to be getting everything right this time round and I really don't begrudge the Popjustice crowd for getting so excited. The Emotion comparison is just the idea of a perfect pop record that's perfectly executed (the quality of music, not the release I'm guessing) It looks like Dua is going to get the bigger commercial success, but it's worth remembering that in the U.K I Really Like You was actually a huge hit. It was only when Run Away With Me flopped and that ridiculous staggered release strategy when Emotion started heading for cult status.

has nobody made the juice newton connection with this song yet or is it just obvious on the face of it?
Anyways, this is loads of fun!