Dua Lipa has us doing “a full 180” with her newest album “Future Nostalgia.” Our heads are spinning in circles as we try to prevent ourselves from going insane after listening to her album. Not only is this album less of a bop than her first self-titled album “Dua Lipa,” it is outdated and lost in its time. Rather than producing old fashioned music, Dua should take her own advice and “Don’t Start Now.” 

“Future Nostalgia” does a wonderful job at mimicking an upbeat vibe from the 80s and 90s, but the intense bass sounds disrupt the vibe that a typical teenage audience enjoys. In this era, teenagers are looking for albums with songs that they can vibe to, and this album does not provide that chill atmosphere. Instead, the songs radiate confusion as Dua shifts between an independent woman who preaches her dominance over the ignorance of man and a vulnerable girl begging for the assistance of her lover. This lack of certainty and stability in her music is demonstrated throughout the album.

Desperate for that modern sound, it seems as if Dua looked at Oliva Newton John’s single, “Physical,” for inspiration of her own song. The songs are not only similar in title, but the techno background noise, fast tempo and the focus of the songs remain constant throughout. This conveys to the audience that Dua relied on an entirely different decade to find her sound and a different artist to write a song. 

Similarly, several of her songs sound awfully familiar as if their tempos and melodies were borrowed from other songs of existing artists. An example of this could be found in Dua’s “Hallucination,” where the lyrics “my m-m-m-mind/ m-m-m-mind” sound very similar to the famous BTS song “Boy with Luv” in which the lyrics are “oh my my my, oh my my my.” This lack of originality does not settle well with critics, and it caused many BTS fans to be angered.

BTS fans were not the only ones to be upset by this album. In fact, the close release of “Future Nostalgia” disappointed many 5 Seconds of Summer fans, and a battle for the number one spot in the charts has caught the attention of many. 

Despite the controversy this album has caused, Dua’s songs do not deserve the hype that has been generated. An artist’s album should be meaningful and consistent, and “Future Nostalgia” lacks all the components necessary for a successful work of music.