Dua Lipa – IDGAF

“Radio 1 managed to put together a really good girlband.”

Tim: Dua Lipa, from the same group of musicians as Ariana Grande as ‘people who sound like typefaces’. This has been doing the rounds for a few weeks now but is still great, and you can probably guess but there’s a rude word in the chorus.

Tom: And it’s the seventh single from the album! Seventh! Do singles even mean anything more?

Tim: That’s the proper version, at least. But here’s the thing: I think the radio edit sounds better.

Tom: Interesting. Why’s that?

Tim: Well, have a listen. It’s not online as standard, but you can see what happened when Radio 1 managed to put together a really good girlband, made up of Dua Lipa, Charli XCX, Zara Larsson, MØ and Alma (who I’d never heard of but is apparently off Finnish Idol and does actually have some pretty good tracks).

Tim: Now obviously there are some slight differences in the styling with the female backing vocals, but I do prefer that chorus. Not just because it sounds less gratuitously unpleasant, and more playable in a public space, but more because of the implications: she gives so little of a that she can’t even be bothered to finish the sentence.

Tom: I disagree there — it just seems unresolved to me. I accept there’s no other easy way to do a radio edit of the song, but there’s just too much of a gap there.

Tim: I don’t mind that it doesn’t resolve, because I don’t think it harms the song at all. And the rest of the song? Shouty, brash and enjoyable. I like it.

Dua Lipa – Be The One

“I genuinely have no idea.”

Tim: Writing yesterday’s intro gave me a nudge to actively check out what’s currently going around Radio 1, and I discovered this, press play and then thought “oh, Dua Lipa’s the one who did this one, I do know it”.

Tim: It’s tricky to review, because I’ve almost certainly heard it subconsciously so many many times before actually thinking about it properly, so I know exactly where it’s going, and exactly how it should sound.

Tom: Well, it’s new to me — I’ve been travelling around so much right now that I’ve no idea what’s on any playlists — and I’m not convinced by it.

Tim: It all sounds right for me, though, and really quite enjoyable – but is that because it’s a good track, or because it’s been drummed into my brain my unconscious listenings? Would I like it if I was listening to the first time? Or would I skip it, think “nope, next please”? I genuinely have no idea.

Tom: This is one of the downsides of our reviewing songs on first-listen, Tim: we ignore the growers. And here’s a strange thing: I’m sure I’ve heard that chorus somewhere before. Is it just because I’ve heard this in the background, or is it because it’s a riff on some older song? I’ve no idea.

Tim: Well, what I do know, despite this growing existential breakdown, is: having possibly heard it multiple times a week for the past month or so, I do quite like it.