Stream Dua Lipa’s New Album Radical Optimism Co-Produced By Tame Impala
Four years after Future Nostalgia, Dua Lipa’s third album is finally here. She’s been rolling out Radical Optimism for six months now, starting with the release of “Houdini” in November. She’s since released “Training Season” and “Illusion,” but none of the three have reached the top 10. Maybe they’ll pop a bit more now that we can hear the album in its totality.
Early this year, Lipa said in a Rolling Stone feature that the album was inspired by UK rave culture and psychedelia, name-checking Primal Scream, Massive Attack, Oasis, and Blur in the process, though the author of the story helpfully noted, “Mostly, this album is straightforward pop bliss, not unlike her approach to Future Nostalgia.”
Radical Optimism does feature a few songwriting credits for prior Lipa collaborators like Ian Kirkpatrick, Emily Warren, Julia Michaels, and Ali Tamposi. But as Lipa revealed early this year, the “band” who worked on most of the songs with her was an alt-leaning team including Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, PC Music alum Danny L Harle (known for his work with Caroline Polachek), former indie piano man Tobias Jesso (known for his work with Adele), and Caroline Ailin (known for her work with… Dua Lipa). Based on public reception so far, perhaps believing that this particular unit could reproduce the commercial success of her last LP was indeed an exercise in radical optimism? I guess we’re about to find out.
Stream Radical Optimism in full below.
Radical Optimism is out now via Radical22/Warner Music UK.