Is Dua Lipa officially in her Jaws era? It certainly looks like it, between the artwork for her third album Radical Optimism ‒ which shows her swimming with a shark, and looking surprisingly chipper about the whole thing ‒ and the distinctly naval visuals for new single Illusion.
While lead single Houdini took things in a grittier direction, bursting with warm, creaky analogue synth-sounds, Illusion ‒ like her second preview track, Training Season ‒ feels far closer to the carefully curated polish of Dua Lipa’s breakthrough second album Future Nostalgia.
Sonically, it borrows heavily from a very distinct strain of Noughties dance-pop that belongs on the Waltzers; The Shapeshifters’ 2004 club hit Lola’s Theme is the most obvious example (possibly because they filmed the music video in a fun fair) as well as other club anthems like Lady (Hear Me Tonight) by the French house duo Modjo, Spiller and Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Groovejet If This Aint Love), and the Daft Punk spin-off project Stardust.
Though Illusions polishes things up, with the help of co-producers Danny L Harle and Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, there’s plenty of overlap with that era production-wise; punchy stabs of piano, bright bell-dongs, a liberal use of high filter pass, and the bouncy four to the four thump that underpins French house music are all present and correct here.
Still, Dua and her co-writers (as well as Harle and Parker, she worked with her New Rules collaborator Caroline Ailin, and singer-songwriter turned Adele co-writer Tobias Jesso Jr) take a while to hit their stride here.
The more minimal opening verse suffers from odd phrasing: “I been known to put ma lover on a pedastaaaallll,” Dua drawls, the Americanised delivery feeling quite grating. “I think it’s time to take my rose-coloured glasses arrrrrrf.” Unfortunately, she sounds like she’s auditioning for a panto set in a cowboy ranch.
Once the chorus hits, though, it’s full steam ahead for this straightforward but effective club banger, which borrows the same pool Kylie Minogue used in Slow for her music video. Though it gets the job done with zero fuss over 3 minutes, we’re going to need a much bigger boat to topple the album’s strongest single yet, Houdini.
