Music — Consumed

2020 · Dua Lipa

Future Nostalgia arrived at a perfect cultural moment, dropping right as the world locked down in March 2020. The album's thesis, cramming decades of dance music DNA into sleek, contemporary production, felt both escapist and essential. Dua Lipa worked with a murderer's row of pop producers to create something that references Moloko, Jamiroquai, and Chic without ever feeling retro or pastiche. The basslines punch, the hooks are surgical, and the sequencing keeps energy consistent across 37 minutes.

What makes the record work is its restraint. Where lesser pop albums pile on features and trend-chase, Future Nostalgia commits to a singular vision: make people move. The production is clean but not sterile, polished but never precious. Tracks like 'Physical' and 'Break My Heart' lift from '80s synthpop and Italo disco respectively, but the songwriting never disappears behind the references. The vocal production sits Dua's voice perfectly in the mix, confident and present without over-processing.

The album revitalized mainstream pop's relationship with dance music, proving you could make something unabashedly fun and escapist without sacrificing craft. It's a clinic in how to update classic sounds for contemporary ears, how to write hooks that stick without pandering, and how to sequence an album that works as both background and focused listening. Future Nostalgia doesn't reinvent the wheel, it just makes the wheel impossibly smooth and impossible to resist.