When her sophomore album, Future Nostalgia, was greeted with overwhelming acclaim at the start of 2020, English pop diva Dua Lipa decided to gift fans with a bonus remix LP, Club Future Nostalgia. With American electronic artist the Blessed Madonna at the helm, the disco-kissed pop perfection of the original receives a sweaty, thumping update in the form of an extended DJ mix. Seamlessly throbbing from track to track, the set revisits each of the impeccably produced songs from Future Nostalgia, sometimes improving them ("Boys Will Be Boys") and other times not quite hitting the highs that the crew targeted, like on the Madonna and Missy Elliot update of "Levitating." The Blessed Madonna goes deep on "Hallucinate" with Mr. Fingers and Paul Woolford and on "Pretty Please" with Midland and Masters at Work, which offer the most interesting takes on the album. Unreleased session cuts "Love Is Religion" and "That Kind of Woman" make their official debuts here, both highlights in their own right. The former, a joyous romp that soars during the choir-backed chorus, could have been a single, while the latter gets Stuart Price's Jacques Lu Cont treatment as a pulsing gem that's woven with Stevie Nicks' "Stand Back." Additional surprises pop up elsewhere in the mix, bringing samples by Jamiroquai ("Canned Heat") and Neneh Cherry ("Buffalo Stance") to the party alongside guest vocalists Gwen Stefani and Blackpink and producers Yaeji and Mark Ronson. Like the original, this is a nonstop party. However, without the boundaries of an official studio release, Club Future Nostalgia transforms Dua's party for one into a full-on collaborative celebration. While first-timers to this era would be best served listening to the parent album first, existing fans who can't get enough of that LP will find Club Future Nostalgia to be an absolute blast.
© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo