Dua Lipa's third album, Radical Optimism, is yet another adventure in pop music's time machine. Tyrone Lebon/Courtesy of the artist Hide caption
Toggle caption Tyrone Lebon/Courtesy of the artist
Dua Lipa's third album, Radical Optimism, is yet another adventure in pop music's time machine.
Tyrone Lebon/Courtesy of the artist
On New Music Friday, May 3, NPR Music's Hazel Sills and WRTI's Nate Chinen talk about dance-pop superstar Dua Lipa's new album, Radical Optimism, the latest in a string of hotly anticipated new albums for 2024 from big-name artists who've felt like pop-music mainstays over the past few years. (Other contenders for our attention this spring include Ariana Grande, Kacey Musgraves, Beyoncé, and Taylor Swift, with Billie Eilish joining that list in just a few weeks.)
The new songs on Radical Optimism are largely in the vein of Dua Lipa's previous work — her further adventures as the pilot of pop music's time machine, if you like — but that in itself may be a reason to remain combatively upbeat. Her string of hits from her last album, Future Nostalgia, have proven to have incredible staying power; “Levitating” stayed in the top 10 of Billboard's Hot 100 chart for nearly a year; she contributed the hit “Dance the Night” to last year's cultural juggernaut, Barbie. Still, Hazel and Nate say the new album offers some hints of a surprising artistic development in her sound.
But Radical Optimism isn't the only notable album released this week: new records by incomparable folk songwriter Jessica Pratt and the ever-ambitious jazz virtuoso and saxophonist Kamasi Washington express their unique sounds in new and deeply challenging ways.
Featured Albums:
• Dua Lipa, Radical Optimism
• Jessica Pratt, Here in the Pitch
• Kamasi Washington, Fearless Movement
Other notable albums releasing on May 3rd include:
• Willow, empathy
• Mdouh Mokhtar, “Funeral for Justice”
• Steph Richards, Power Vibes
• Charlotte Day Wilson, Cyan Blue
• Luke Stewart's Silt Trio, Unknown Rivers
• 4batz, you made me st4r
• Camera Obscura, Looking East, Looking West
• Ibibio sound machine, pulling rope
• The Lemon Twigs, “Dreams Know Us All”
• Sia: Reasonable Woman
• Chris Smither, “About Bones”
• Frank Turner, undefeated
• Yuja Wang, Vienna Recital