Dua Lipa, the new album Radical Optimism

Scratching the surface of the numbers ‒ impressive: more than 280 platinum records and three Grammy Awards won, but also the latest Houdini which is the most played international song in recent weeks even on Italian radios, which are basically autarchic – there is Dua Lipa it still has some problems. The comparison with Taylor Swift it's inevitable, not just because of the timing, not even if they agreed on a showdown between pop stars to take place here and now; but for the different way in which they understand their role. And no, it has nothing to do with writing the stickiest songs of the other, and even if Swift didn't exist the question would remain open.

Now, The Tortured Poets Department it's a secret diary, it has killer melodies, yes, but its strength lies in feeling like a confession between friends, in making Swift feel Human and close to the fans; so in the world there are people, lots of them, who would throw themselves on the fire for her, and would do so even if one day she didn't get the right melody. With Dua Lipa it is not the same: a sheet of glass divides us from it, there are no people fighting crusades to defend or attack it. It's a question of how values, stories and narrative universes in general are conveyed – and Swift, as a storyteller, is a master at this. Ok, there's a bit of a female emancipation story going on Barbieto which it is related with Dance the night; and then the image of the pop star in control of himself and his music (more than what happened before, despite the chauvinism of the sector), the battles for rights… But they are generic claims, there is not an element that make blood nor a blockbuster like Beyoncé's latest, so the risk is of finding yourself faced with one beautiful and perfect diva, but cold and one-dimensional. When fashions overtake it, what will happen? Either you always ride the wave, and it's not easy for anyone, or you invest in depth.

The new album Radical Optimism ‒ third of his career, he leaves today four years after the successful factory that he was Future nostalgia ‒ is presented as “the album of maturity”, and this it does: it invests in depth, to demonstrate that Lipa is not just disposable numbers and songs, as perfect as you want but which leave no trace inside. It's his way of telling us he's growing up. The fact that she launches herself into an album, even though she wouldn't need one nowadays, a series of good singles would be enough, is indicative. It's as if a song with an iconic reach like Dance the nightwith his nu-disco style taken up here, had closed a circle and at the same time opened up to a second phase.

The directive to say that now we are serious is purely musical, with the production in hand Kevin Parkerbrain of the Tame Impala and architect of a fascinating and psychedelic indie-rock with little in common with high-ranking pop alone. Let's not expect any twists, eh: there are the usual dance-pop pieces (and therefore with the right and deadly choruses, the cuts, the Instagrammable phrases scattered everywhere), but the background is still more refined, dense, stratified. In a word: adult. Her presence as a headliner at the next Glastonbury festival – where pop meets what remains of rock, with ten thousand compromises but always maintaining a certain credibility – says a lot about this new path, in which she is trying to position yourself Better. But that doesn't mean it's enough.

In fact, along the way Radical Optimism he stops halfway: aware of not being able to play everything in the smell of cellars and rehearsal rooms which he also aspires to in order to give himself a tone, however sincere, he then moves on to the concept; but there, where Parker's interventions are only correctives that add salt and depth but do not affect the way Lipa talks about herself and is perceived, she short-circuits. Because Lipa, that is, continues to make the most classic and traditional pop: a music that she makes you dance, gives signals of “freedom” and “hope” (the real key words of the project) and removes bad thoughts; he also flaunts it, and there is nothing more noble, but it is difficult to feel empathy for songs like this, which out of ambition are born and end up on a dance floor or in the background of a queue at the supermarket, and with which we therefore associate good memories , sure, but not great emotions. Swift is a bigger pop star than Lipa, in this sense, because she plays in a league of her own: her songs are all sentiment, and in fact paradoxically the radio (Italian, first of all) doesn't play her very often; nevertheless.

Here, the feeling is that Lipa now he doesn't know which league to play in. Or rather: someone who wants to do it in the big leagues, but is in a transition period and doesn't know how to do it. Because a basic message to give, to say, Radical Optimism it would also have it, in addition to the great art of selling illusion, entertainment and leisure. And that is: already from the title, she tells what is in fact a life philosophy with which the singer came into contact, that is, to face the chaos that surrounds us as something inevitable, and from there cross it with serenity, convinced we can govern it. Here too: it's a theme of hope, but she doesn't fully understand why she should be the one to say it, what is wrong with her apparently perfect life and what makes her credible for such a voice. The autobiography is there, but it doesn't really impress.

Obviously it will be a success like its predecessors and the songs to come, because these eleven songs are programmed to destroy and what's more, wearing luxury clothes, from Parker's direction to Lipa's own interpretation, so full, intense, dominant. What's more: the fact that you didn't end up in a spin and that you didn't deny the original formula is a strong point, which gives hope for a future in which there is room for everything. But she also proves that There's still something missing to be more than a hit machine: simply, a reason to become attached to it; maybe giving up some killer chorus.