Dua Lipa's new album is called 'Radical Optimism.' Here's everything you need to know.
Dua Lipa announced her third album, "Radical Optimism," will be released May 3.
The album will have 11 tracks, including the singles "Houdini" and "Training Season."
Lipa worked with Tame Impala, among other producers. She was inspired by Brit-pop and rave culture.
Dua Lipa is gearing up to release a new album, the hotly anticipated follow-up to her pandemic-era pop classic "Future Nostalgia."
Lipa announced on Wednesday that her third album, "Radical Optimism," will arrive on May 3. She also unveiled the cover art, photographed by Tyrone Lebon, and the full 11-song tracklist.
"A couple of years ago, a friend introduced me to the term 'Radical Optimism,'" Lipa said in a press release. "It struck me — the idea of going through chaos gracefully and feeling like you can weather any storm."
RADICAL OPTIMISM
MY 3RD STUDIO ALBUM
OUT MAY 3RD 2024
SHOT BY TYRONE LEBON
!!!!!!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/J4Noe4RWh1— DUA LIPA (@DUALIPA) March 13, 2024
The tracklist includes the album's lead single, "Houdini," released back in November.
The synth-laden bop, coproduced by Kevin Parker and Danny L Harle, is buoyed by Lipa's signature confidence: "Prove you got the right to please me / Everybody knows / Catch me or I go, Houdini."
The album will also feature "Training Season," released as the second single in February. (Lipa performed a medley of both songs at the 2024 Grammys.)
"Training Season" was inspired by an epiphany in Lipa's dating journey — a resolve to raise the bar for potential partners.
"I had been on a string of bad dates, and the last one was the final straw," she said in a press release. When she went to the studio the next morning and her friends asked how it went, Lipa said she'd had enough.
"I immediately declared 'TRAINING SEASON IS OVER,' and like the best 'day after' debriefs with your mates, we had a lot of laughs and it all quickly came together from there," she said.
Most of the album was made with a small group of collaborators
In contrast to "Future Nostalgia," which was created with a wide variety of songwriters and producers, Lipa's next project was kept mostly contained.
In addition to her trusted cowriter Caroline Ailin ("Don't Start Now," "New Rules"), Lipa teamed up with Parker, Harle, and Tobias Jesso Jr. to craft eight of the album's 11 tracks. During an interview with Rolling Stone, Lipa referred to these four collaborators as her "band."
"I remember thinking it was a genius move to get that combination of people together," Parker told the magazine. "Like, hats off to her."
Parker is better known by the name of his solo project, Tame Impala. The musical polymath and critical darling has also worked with Lady Gaga ("Perfect Illusion"), Travis Scott ("Skeletons"), and The Weeknd ("Repeat After Me").
Harle is a respected indie-pop producer, best known for working with Caroline Polachek and Charli XCX, while Jesso Jr. is a folksy musician who's written songs with Adele ("When We Were Young," "To Be Loved"), Niall Horan ("Slow Hands"), and Florence Welch ("Hunger," "The End of Love").
Jesso Jr. called his experience working on Lipa's album "the pinnacle of my writing career."
Lipa was inspired by Brit-pop bands and UK rave culture
Lipa cited British rock bands like Blur, Gorillaz, Massive Attack, Oasis, and Primal Scream — predominantly popular in the '80s and '90s — as the biggest touchstones for her new music.
Again, this contrasts "Future Nostalgia," which was heavily influenced by campy pop and disco.
"This record feels a bit more raw," she told Rolling Stone. "I want to capture the essence of youth and freedom and having fun and just letting things happen, whether it's good or bad. You can't change it. You just have to roll with the punches of whatever's happening in your life."
Lipa also described the new album as "a psychedelic-pop-infused tribute to UK rave culture," according to Rolling Stone's Brittany Spanos.
She was particularly inspired by "I'm Free" by Liam Gallagher, formerly of Oasis fame. Her new collaborator Harle was credited as a "rave consultant" on the 2022 song, which incorporates a breakbeat drum pattern popular in electronic and garage genres.
"Dua really enjoyed that," Harle told Rolling Stone. "Dua likes going to a rave."
Asked if she's interacted with Brit-pop stars like Damon Albarn or Noel Gallagher, who've both criticized modern pop stars like Taylor Swift and Harry Styles, Lipa said she hasn't met them — and isn't bothered by their comments.
"It's more like the music element, the aspect of it that I'm really connected to," she explained. "They're obnoxious for sure. That's their whole thing."
The album will include breakup stories and single-girl adventures
According to Spanos, Lipa's new album "captures a period of major changes in her life, including the end of a relationship and her forays into dating."
After releasing "Future Nostalgia" in 2020, Lipa broke up with her longtime boyfriend, Anwar Hadid. Later, she split from director Romain Gavras after about eight months of dating.
During a phone call with Rolling Stone in December, Lipa confirmed she was single — though more recently, she's been spotted out and about with actor Callum Turner.
Ailin told Spanos that Lipa would come to the studio equipped with real-life stories about her dating escapades, ready to transform her anecdotes into art.
"Dating, I think overall, is just a little confusing," Lipa said. "It's either through friends of friends or people you trust where you can meet new people, because [dating] is not really so straightforward when you are, I guess, a public person."
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Read the original article on Business Insider