Dua Lipa - Dua Lipa

Rating:

Dua Lipa is a pop star born and raised on a stream of bottomless influences.

If you had to apply to be a pop star like any other job, that application form would be a really odd one to look at? Delivering bangers and soaring hooks while jumping right into a world of big and bold colours is not an everyday hobby, so the ability to do all of that from the get-go from a debut album is one to be admired. For Dua Lipa, it’s a world that hasn’t just stumbled into line, but one that’s been the goal from the very beginning - and that wide-eyed aim at the biggest stages can be heard searing through her self-titled debut. Underneath the sing-along hooks though, is a record that bristles and bursts with the moments and lights of late-night life - a modern pop record for 1am cocktails coated in neon-lit hallways.

Undeniable at every turn, there’s an instant magic to heavyweights like ‘Hotter Than Hell’, ‘Be The One’ and ‘Blow Your Mind (Mwah)’ that blend tropical beats and mountain-sized glimpses with ease. That effortless sense of style and dreaming dazzles throughout, in the strutting grooves of the Miguel-featuring ‘Lost In Your Light’ and the Major Lazer vibrations of ‘New Rules’ that both erupt like a fuse of confetti and strobe lights hitting at the same time. If there’s a statement to be made, it’s that Dua Lipa is a pop star born and raised on a stream of bottomless influences, one that can drop the bubblegum sharpness of ‘IDGAF’ at one moment before laying out the vulnerable rawness of the swelling ‘Garden’ and stripped-back ‘Thinking ‘Bout You’ the next.