Maps of Music

Radical Optimism (2024)

Where the lyrics of Radical Optimism take you, and where it was really made.

Lipa's US opening week was her biggest yet, but the album spent only fifteen weeks on the Billboard 200, her shortest run of any of her albums.

Key places

Recorded at NRG Recording Studios (2024)

Recording site NRG Recording Studios (Hollywood) — Radical Optimism was recorded at NRG Recording Studios in Los Angeles, one of the studios credited for the album. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recorded at Westlake Recording Studios (2024)

Recording site Westlake Recording Studios — Radical Optimism was recorded at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles, one of the studios credited for the album. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recorded in London at 5dB Studios (2024)

Recording site Wild Bunch Studios (London) — Part of the album was recorded at 5dB Studios in London. The pin sits at the city centre, not the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recorded in Malibu at Woodshed Recording (2024)

Recording site Bob Dylan's garage studio (Malibu) — Part of the album was recorded at Woodshed Recording in Malibu. The pin sits at the city centre, not the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Third studio album by English singer Dua Lipa
• Released 3 May 2024 through Warner Records
• First full-length album in four years, following Future Nostalgia (2020)
• Produced by Kevin Parker, Danny L Harle, Ian Kirkpatrick, and Andrew Wyatt
• Four singles: Houdini, Training Season, Illusion, and End of an Era
• Styles: dance-pop, neo-psychedelia, electropop, and Europop, with elements of soft rock and eurodance

Background

• Future Nostalgia (March 2020) received widespread acclaim and is credited with helping revive disco and dance-pop
• In 2023 Lipa said the next album would move away from disco toward 1970s-era psychedelia
• Lipa announced the album title and release date in an Instagram livestream on 13 March 2024
• The concept of radical optimism was introduced to her by a friend a few years earlier
• Inspired by the energy of London and by 90s Britpop, and by research into psychedelia, trip hop, and Britpop

Recording

• Studios credited with recording the album: NRG Recording Studios and Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles, 5dB Studios in London, and Woodshed Recording in Malibu

Cover

• Photographed by Tyrone Lebon
• Shows the singer floating in an ocean while the fin of a nearby shark seemingly approaches her

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Early life

• Born 22 August 1995 in London, to Kosovo Albanian parents.
• Influenced by her father, lead singer of Kosovar rock band Oda.
• Moved to Pristina after Kosovo declared independence in 2008.

Career

• Signed with Warner Bros. Records in 2014.
• Debut album Dua Lipa (2017) included UK number-one single "New Rules".
• Second album Future Nostalgia (2020) became her first UK number-one album.
• Third album Radical Optimism (2024) debuted atop the UK Albums Chart.
• Has won seven Brit Awards and three Grammy Awards.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Received generally favourable reviews from music critics
• Evening Standard (El Hunt): found real dance-pop gems among the songs but called the project a slightly half-hearted experiment
• Financial Times (Ludovic Hunter-Tilney): noted heavy production layering and effects, but said the songs share a similarly straightforward groove
• Clash (Aimee Phillips): doubted fans would embrace it at once, but saw grounds for the album's future to be radically optimistic
• DIY (Lisa Wright): found plenty of sunny sonic optimism, but not much that is radical
• The Line of Best Fit (Claire Biddles): said the pop side is proven in the dance-pop singles, but the star quality is still lacking
• NME (Thomas Smith): said the album offers little else to latch onto
• Paste (Jaeden Pinder): felt it lacks depth and risk, calling it a series of vignettes rather than a fully fleshed-out record
• The Sunday Times (Dan Cairns): praised its sonic detailing and six tracks as genuinely fantastic songs, but said it is great only in parts
• Some critics judged it inferior to Future Nostalgia and said it fell short of the high expectations set by Lipa
• Common complaints: the production was underwhelming and underdeveloped
• Metacritic: average score of 73 from 21 reviews; few publications, including Billboard, PopMatters, and Slant Magazine, listed it among the best albums of 2024

Records

• UK Albums Chart: debut at number one with 46,300 album-equivalent units, the best opening week for a British female artist since Adele's 30 in November 2021
• Her first number one debut and her second number one album overall
• Returned to the UK top 10 at number three after her Glastonbury performance, selling 9,300 more copies that week
• BPI Gold certification on 19 July 2024 for 100,000 units
• US Billboard 200: debut at number two with 83,000 equivalent units, 51,500 of them pure sales, her highest-charting album in the country
• Fell to number 21 in its second week and spent fifteen weeks on the chart, her shortest stay for any of her albums
• France: debut at number one with 19,501 units, her first French number one; later certified Platinum
• Austria: her first number one album in the country
• Netherlands: debut at number one, her second Dutch number one
• Spain: debut at number one; later Gold from PROMUSICAE
• Also number one in Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, and Wallonia
• Passed one billion Spotify streams on 16 June 2024, her third album to do so

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Lipa opened the 66th Annual Grammy Awards on 4 February 2024 with Houdini and debuted Training Season there
• Her first live album, Dua Lipa Live from the Royal Albert Hall, was released on 6 December 2024
• She performed on Saturday Night Live on 4 May 2024, a day after the album came out
• The Radical Optimism Tour grossed $141.1 million from 59 reported shows
• The special D2C edition includes London sessions versions of Houdini and Training Season

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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