Kevin releasing his worst work the year after Dua did the same with the album they worked on together... idk what that means but nature sure isn't healing
Yeah, Radical Optimism was a clear step down from its predecessors but still delivered. Deadbeat tripped over its own feet right off a cliff.
i honestly found a good chunk of Dua's first album to be forgettable. some great songs on it, but not something i return to a lot. Be the One is criminally underrated
Yeah Radical Optimism is her 2nd best, which isn’t bad considering Future Nostalgia is one of my favorite records of the decade
I never really revisit that album, it isn't bad or anything just very vanilla and bland with very little variety, she just kinda coasted through it and I'm not as interested in the watered down version of her music when the rest exists
her S/T record felt a lot like she was making music that appeased the pop masses, that sort of late 2010s, generic-sounding pop fodder that you'd originally see from artists like Bebe Rexha, Rita Ora, and the like (even though it's much more listenable than most pop music made by men nowadays). Future Nostalgia's appeal wasn't the COVID-era component as much as it was her settling on a particular sound and just crafting the best music she could in that space. it was the same way i felt about E•MO•TION when it came out, and it's probably the same way i'd feel about the new Zara Larsson record based on a ton of comments i've seen on this site (she's another artist whose prior output i've found somewhat forgettable, but i'm willing to give the new record a chance)
I think I went into this with such low expectations that I wound up not minding a lot of it. It is nowhere near the quality of his previous records, but also feels like something I could throw on and zone out to. Which isn't what a lot of people want from him, I know, but I've come to appreciate records like that more these days. Nowhere near my top 10 or anything though