Dua Lipa - Houdini

The bright disco party is over - time for the after-party.

This is exactly how Dua Lipa's new lead single for an as-yet-unnamed era is perceived. The riot of the evening disco came to an end, the weakest went home, and deeper and more tart sounds came into play.

Even during the first era of Dua Lipa, something in her behavior and desire to work awakened my instinct - I told everyone that from the new generation of pop stars she would produce something interesting and, probably, long-lasting. The release of Future Nostalgia quite elegantly confirmed my words, and the release of Houdini reinforces them even more strongly.

There are so few “traditional” pop stars in the industry who approach the creation of their product more comprehensively, thinking ahead and creating an interesting development line. Lipa is one such pop star. I cannot explain in any other way the involvement of Kevin Parker (Tame Impala) in the project - she sees the full picture and is ready to try and work with not the most obvious producers for the sake of commercial, but much more interesting material; one that her stage colleagues cannot offer.

Houdini can be safely called the term “perfect storm” - the indie alternative and endless creativity of Kevin Parker met with the iron grip and hit sense of Dua Lipa. The result is a stylish, daring composition with a stunning instrumental, playful mood and delivery, reminding me a little of the groove of Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition”.

In my understanding, this can also be safely called an “ideal pop song”, where the diversity of genres [dark pop, psychedelic, EDM] of its creators did not allow it to turn out to be too-sweet-pop-bubblegum-something, withstanding a bunch of nuances for these short three minuses, including a crushing electric guitar solo in the finale. You want to chase this song so that it never hides from you again and disappears like Houdini.

Bravo, Dua Lipa. Bravo, Kevin Parker. Bravo, Warner Music. You all did it.

9.0/10