SOUNDTRACK: DUA LIPA-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #121 (December 4, 2020).
I first encountered Dua Lipa a few years ago when I was watching the NPR series Field Recordings. It showed Dupa Lipa in 2016 singing a song from a balcony. An accompanying essay said that she was hoping to “break America.” I said I thought her song was fine.
I guess she has now broken America as she was on lots of best of lists this year (and the blurb lists her as a “global megastar.”
I haven’t actually heard anything from this album (or any of her albums–oh, she only has two), so this is really my introduction to her.
Of Kosovar Albanian descent, Dua Lipa was raised in the UK and rose to super stardom in the three years since her eponymous debut album dropped in 2017.
The band gets a remarkably full sound for having just a bass (Matthew Carroll) and a guitar (Alex Lanyon). Even when Lanyon solos, the recording is robust.
I do find it strange that she has FOUR backing singers, though (Naomi Scarlett, Ciara O’Connor, Izzy Chase, and Matthew Allen). I can’t hear that any of them are doing anything different than the others, making me thing two or even one would suffice, but whatever, it’s good to give musicians a job, right.
And, this is the first time she has been able
to reconnect with her band for their only performance since their tour in support of her sophomore album, Future Nostalgia, was cancelled in March. This vibrant four song set of dance hits, all from Future Nostalgia, will surely have you cutting up the floor in your kitchen while quarantining in the cold weather.
All four of these songs are enjoyable but pretty forgettable. Even though You can sing along by the end of the song, it’s not likely you’ll be humming them an hour later.
“Levitating” has a fun descending vocal melody and a funky bass line. I do rather like th emiddle “rapped” section because I like hearing Lipa’s accent as she says her London o’s in
My love is like a rocket, watch it blast-off
And I’m feeling so electric, dance my ass off
“Pretty Please” is a fun dancer. “Love Again” has a lovely full guitar introduction. And the refrain of “God damn, you got me in love again,” is quite arresting.
“Don’t Start Now” has a cool funky bass line and a catchy chorus–definitely fun to dance along to.
[READ: January 2, 2021] “Our Lady of the Quarry”
This story is written in second person plural (and translated by Megan McDowell).
A group of younger (16 year old) girls are jealous of an older girl, Silvia. Silvia has a place of her own, a job with a salary, and a know-it-all attitude:
If one of us discovered Frida Kahlo, oh, Silvia had already visited Frida’s house with her cousin in Mexico.
Silvia’s hair was perfectly dyed, she always had money and, worst of all, Diego liked her.
The girls had met Diego on their senior class trip:
He was nice to us, but he only wanted to kiss us, he wouldn’t sleep with us, maybe because he was older (he’d repeated a grade, he was eighteen), or maybe he just didn’t like us that way.
They invited him to a party,but Silvia was there and he was dumbstruck by her. He hung out with Silvia all the time after that.
That summer Silvia came up with the idea that of all of them should go to the quarry pools to swim. They all went because they assumed when Diego saw how ugly she was, and how hot they were they he would dump Silvia.
They went to the Virgin’s Pool. It was rumored that the owner of the nearby property shot trespassers or that he set his dogs loose on them. But they went every Saturday with no ill happening.
He seemed to notice them all, he even made them CDs. But just as their hopes were getting raised, it was stated that he was officially dating Silvia.
They tried to do everything to win Diego over.
Natalia told us she’d put menstrual blood in Diego’s coffee … a parapsychology book claimed it was an infallible way to snag your beloved. It didn’t work.
At the end of the summer. Diego and Silvia played a trick on the girls. The two of them said they’d meet the girls at the statue of the Virgin. They swam the length of the quarry, while the girls, who weren’t good swimmers, walked around the edge of the quarry.
When the girls finally got there, the two just laughed at them and swam back.
The girls were furious. Natalia went in to see the statue (the other girls refused). When she came out, she said she’d asked it for a favor.
Then they heard some dogs started barking and snarling.
The story got very dark very fast. It was really good.
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