The synthpop superstar's new single understands the Barbie assignment perfectly, delivering unadventurous plasticky pop that you can't help but dance to.
Three summers since the disco-inflected pop masterwork Future Nostalgia propelled her to stratospheric stardom, Dua Lipa’s back for more. At the request of superproducer Mark Ronson and director-of-the-moment Greta Gerwig, ‘Dance The Night’ is the English-Albanian’s contribution to the soundtrack of the much-anticipated Barbie (out July 21; realistically already the movie of the summer). It’s clear what the brief was: “more of the same, please”.
A riot of swooning strings, elastic bass and irresistible double handclaps (via ‘Levitating’!), ‘Dance The Night’ glistens with disco swagger. Dua teases ‘Turn the rhythm up, don’t you wanna just / Come along for the ride?’, clearly revelling in the song’s groovy catwalk stomp. There’s an almost imperious coolness to the whole affair, but with more than a dash of Barbie camp added into the mix.
However, this might be the song’s undoing. ‘Dance The Night’ is so firmly rooted in creating a mood, in conveying glamour, in providing a cute disco bop to soundtrack the Barbies and Kens as they walk the runway, that there’s almost nowhere for the chorus to go from there. That’s not to say it’s an especially bad chorus, just that for what should be the zenith of the song, it feels a little one-note. Dua’s swooping ‘watch me dance’ hook nicely mimics the portamento strings, but there isn’t anything new here that wasn’t already in the verses. Whilst the lyric ‘My heart could be burnin’, but you won’t see it on my face’ should be playful, the insistent vocal rhythm makes it feel nagging, and strays too close to the rhythm of the verses. Nonetheless, we’ll concede that whilst it might not be the most showstopping chorus, what it lacks in innovation it makes up for in luxe polish. It’s rare to hear a pop song sounding quite so glamorous.
We don’t blame Gerwig or Ronson. Future Nostalgia was one of those rare albums that truly stands as a monolith in the soil of pop music, and it’s understandable that they’d want to emulate that success to promote Barbie. The issue is that ‘Dance The Night’ doesn’t repeat that success. Devoid of the character of ‘Physical’, the charisma of ‘Cool’ or the commitment of ‘Don’t Start Now’, the song misunderstands what made Future Nostalgia such a supernova success, instead resorting to a grab-bag of disco clichés. Simply put, it sounds like someone else trying to make a Future Nostalgia track.
Although, ultimately, what were we expecting? It’s an insubstantial morsel of well-made pop music, but nobody was anticipating a ‘Believe’ (or indeed a ‘Don’t Start Now’). Soundtrack singles just clearly aren’t the Moment they once were, and at least ‘Dance The Night’ benefits from truly understanding the assignment. In all its plasticky luxe sheen, the song pairs nicely with the vibe of the Barbie trailers, and though it may be a vapid retread of Dua’s past glories, when the past glories are so good you’re at least guaranteed to have some fun with this song. I will be bopping. Slightly disapprovingly, but I will be bopping, all summer long. What can I say? Life in plastic… it’s fantastic!
Dua Lipa, ‘Dance The Night’ (Atlantic; Warner). Out now
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