To keep her work fresh and energetic, Dua Lipa has moved her sound away from the championing electro-pop of the previous few years. Future Nostalgia is, to borrow a term from the most feral of online individuals, an era. In a time where Ariana Grande is releasing seven different mixes of a single, and an eighth just dropped in the inbox with Mariah Carey covering the track, there is a worrying avalanche ahead for pop music. Latest single Training Season is a marked improvement on Houdini, which slipped into the recesses of the mind when sped-up, alternate and acapella verisons sprung up. It turned out the song was not stronger than the discourse around it – though the same cannot be said for Training Day.
Moody tones and a darker flourish to the appealing sound of a dance-pop star, Lipa has carved out the essentials of this third album. There is little chance of moving further away from Training Season – hopefully not, anyway. A confident instrumental flush stuffed full of whirring electronics and well-paced explorations of failed dates give Training Season a firm core. It is the context of this training season, this preparation for the real deal, whoever it may be, to come through after years and years in the revolving door of dating. Flickers of acoustic guitar and higher pitches of piano keep the repeating lyrics fresh, as does the sudden end to a song which has all the intensity and charm of an artist demanding the world brings it on. Training Season sounds more than ready to take up arms – and rightly so.
Conversational overloads and the string of bad luck which comes through the constant search for someone else are not empowering, it is a fact of life. Training Season is grounded in an all too real experience. There is no fight against it, but Lipa highlights the frustration of having to go through it, as most of us have. Seeking out the right person to spend life with may be a generational expectation pushed down on people, but Training Season does well to remind us it is not all rosy days and wild-eyed love. Harsh truths are unveiled on this second Lipa single ahead of her as-yet-announced third album. It is inevitable. You do not drop stylistic changes four years after your sophomore work for no good reason.
Training Season is a hell of a track for Lipa, who has traded in the light flutters of her dance-pop sound for some heavier, still danceable work, but with a rightful focus on the grim side of life. Flutters of Nu-Disco and electronica pour through the instrumentals, from a solid electric guitar at work to some assured and confident flourishes of deciding who to give your heart to – Lipa collects these memories of bad dates and boring experiences and finds the rage deep within to rally against them. She sets out her desire, more a demand and expectation than an optional want, and rightly so. More people should take note of Training Season and provide themselves with a chance to get to the main event. Training season may be over, but if Lipa has summer in her sights, it could be her season.
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