Dua Lipa

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!

I don't think anyone has made a juice newton connection.
Plenty have made the Olivia Newton John connection though.

lol, i don't know why i wrote that! my mind was free associating i guess; that's what i get for playing with the queen of hearts.

xxp -- alice chater's "hourglass" is another gaga revival, it's been happening for at least a year now

ava max reminds me of marina just as much as she does gaga

Physical is great but not convinced by the other two yet. I'm not really hearing the 09 Gaga sound other than the sheer bombast of the production, to me this "era" is definitely more in key with Sophie Ellis-Bextor's commercial peak of disco revivalism

Physical is great but not convinced by the other two yet.

madness x2

Physcial is my least favourite of the three, but I still love it and think the album is shaping up to be something special.

the greatest song of all time is now on streaming services: https://open.spotify.com/album/0MaGeHimijY3IhEWPkTUEx

Love this remix, real Ewan Pearson meets Aeroplane vibes.

should mention that hearing them back to back on the radio the other day i was struck by the sonic similarities between "blinding lights" and "physical"

Take On My New Attitude

That one part of this reminds me so much of lizzo’s “juice” it feels intentional

should mention that hearing them back to back on the radio the other day i was struck by the sonic similarities between "blinding lights" and "physical"

― monotony, Monday, 24 February 2020 07:09 (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Otm these songs definitely occupy the same space in my head

I would be fine with the next few singles being progressively longer remixes of DSN

is that remix purchasable anywhere?

(at 320 or higher)

itunes?

Is this remix ever so slightly slower than the original?

iTunes isn't 320, sadly.

xp possibly. also fyi this is called a "remix" on spotify but it's just the recording of a live session she did

o rly?

I thought the vocal take sounded different.

yes I posted the YouTube vid in here about a month ago - see here: https://youtu.be/YSoT3T58QFY