After months of it simply being called “DL3,” Dua Lipa has revealed the title, cover, tracklist and release date of her third full-length album.
Titled “Radical Optimism,” the album will be released May 3 and consists of 11 songs, including the two preliminary singles, “Houdini” and “Training Season.” In an intriguing twist on the title, the cover art features the singer in the water, just feet away from a shark.
The singer also unveiled a rather startling new look in a new promotional photo where her eyebrows are barely visible (although her eyebrows appeared to be perfectly normal when she announced the album in a brief Instagram Live appearance on Wednesday afternoon).
Photo: Tyrone Lebon
The announcement describes the album as inspired by the energy of Dua’s hometown, London, and the rawness, honesty, confidence and freedom of ‘90s Britpop.
“A couple years ago, a friend introduced me to the term Radical Optimism. It’s a concept that resonated with me, and I became more curious as I started to play with it and weave it into my life,” Lipa says in the announcement. “It struck me – the idea of going through chaos gracefully and feeling like you can weather any storm. At the same time, I found myself looking through the music history of psychedelia, trip hop, and Britpop. It has always felt so confidently optimistic to me, and that honesty and attitude is a feeling I took into my recording sessions.”
Her core collaborators on the album are the same as on “Houdini” and “Training Season”: Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker; Caroline Polachek/ Charli XCX collaborator Danny L. Harle; Tobias Jesso Jr. (Adele, Harry Styles, Miley Cyrus) and Caroline Ailin (who’s cowritten several Lipa hits).
There’s been little advance word about what the new album sounds like. She recently told the New York Times that it’s inspired by “1970s style psychedelia” (although there’s little indication of that here). In early 2022 when Lipa told Elton John on her “Dua Lipa: At Your Service podcast” that it was halfway finished, but speaking with Variety late that year, she said, “It’s taken a complete turn as I’ve carried on working, and I really feel now that it’s starting to sound cohesive. So I’m going to keep writing in the early months of the new year and see where that takes me. The album is different — it’s still pop but it’s different sonically, and there’s more of a lyrical theme. If I told you the title, everything would make sense — but I think we’ll just have to wait.”
Tracklist:
1.End Of An Era
2.Houdini
3.Training Season
4.These Walls
5.Whatcha Doing
6.French Exit
7.Illusion
8.Falling Forever
9.Anything For Love
10. Maria
11. Happy For You