DUA LIPA: Live (AO Arena, Manchester)
Rating: 
Verdict: Lockdown hit comes to life
BONNIE RAITT: Just Like That… (Redwing)
Rating:
Verdict: Bluesy storytelling
Released four days after the country went into lockdown for the first time, back in March 2020, Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia became the soundtrack to thousands of kitchen discos.
A brilliant blend of vintage dance and shiny, brand spanking new pop, it was deservedly crowned best album at last year’s BRITs — and turned its maker into one of our biggest stars.
With pandemic restrictions putting paid to any touring plans until now, Dua was forced to get creative when promoting herself and her new record. There were Q&A sessions on Instagram Live, a live-streamed concert (the money-spinning Studio 2054) and a weekly lifestyle newsletter.
Future Nostalgia was repackaged… twice: first as a remix LP by London-based DJ The Blessed Madonna, and then as a deluxe Moonlight Edition.
Dua Lipa pictured in sparkling pink on stage at the AO Arena, Manchester last Friday night
But none of this could compensate fully for the lack of the all-important live action.
So, when the thrice-postponed Future Nostalgia tour finally opened its doors in front of a sold-out arena crowd of 21,000, it felt like a huge weight was being lifted.
Fans had been holding on for two years to see this show and there was a palpable sense of giddy release as a euphoric evening unfolded, complete with laser beams, confetti guns and even a virtual duet with Sir Elton John.
Born in London to Kosovo-Albanian parents, 26-year-old Lipa isn’t one for soul-baring confessionals. Beyond the usual platitudes (‘Manchester, give yourself a nice big round of applause!’), the singer offered little in the way of chit-chat between songs.
She has somehow become a huge success while remaining oddly elusive.
Lipa has become a sensation yet remains elusive – unlike the lobster which joined her on stage
On the evidence of this 90-minute show, however, she can certainly throw a party — an all-singing, all-dancing party — with professionalism and panache.
Like almost every major pop show since Madonna’s Blond Ambition tour in 1990, this one was split into different acts.
Accompanied by ten acrobatic dancers and an unfussy, four-piece band, and armed with an array of skintight outfits, Lipa made use of an extended walkway to skip energetically between the main stage and a smaller, satellite affair. Singing Future Nostalgia in full, her voice rang out with clarity and power.
Clad in a shocking-pink catsuit and matching long gloves, she raced through a high-octane opening act. There was an incongruous bout of rock guitar, plus dancers on roller skates during Cool. Pretty Please, an unheralded album track, was greeted as if it had been a long-running, No.1 mega-smash. Break My Heart recycled the funky riff from Need You Tonight by INXS.
A seaside-themed second section featured the night’s most bizarre prop. Underneath a pink neon sign advertising fresh seafood and cocktails, Lipa, now wearing a sequined leotard and bathed in dry ice, cowered in front of a giant, inflatable lobster as she slowed the tempo for the bossa nova-flavoured We’re Good.
But soon she was upping the pace again, bringing a fresh perspective to her female empowerment anthem Boys Will Be Boys (‘… but girls will be women’) by adding a choral section and samba beats. There was a nod to Gwen Stefani, one of her heroines, as the latter’s Hollaback Girl was dropped into a dance mix that padded out one of several brief interludes that allowed for more costume changes.
During a show understandably dominated by Future Nostalgia, with just two songs from her 2017 debut, the most significant deviation came in a third act that featured her extra-curricular collaborations with Calvin Harris (One Kiss), the Silk City duo of Diplo and Mark Ronson (Electricity) — and Sir Elton.
A pre-recorded video of the latter was beamed onto a screen, to loud cheers, during Cold Heart, a duet that encompassed Elton’s hits Rocket Man and Sacrifice. The fourth and final act of a fast-paced show was a celebration of her catchiest singalongs. The lyrical themes of Levitating were emphasised as the singer, by now clad in a black catsuit, sang her lines while ‘levitating’ above the crowd on a suspended platform.
Bonnie Raitt’s first album in six years is a strong, sensitive effort by the blueswoman
This opening night wasn’t quite as extravagant as some of the most dazzling pre-pandemic spectaculars — Taylor Swift’s Reputation tour; Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s On The Run II show — but as one of the first blockbusters of a live season that will also see Billie Eilish, Harry Styles and the Stones hitting the road, it brought one of the hits of lockdown triumphantly to life.
Bonnie Raitt set out to try ‘styles and topics I haven’t touched on before’ on her first album in six years, and the Californian is as good as her word as she tackles New Orleans funk, on Here Comes Love, and reggae, on a cover of Toots & The Maytals’ Love So Strong.
But it’s her slide guitar skills and honeyed vocals that make Just Like That … a rewarding return.
Track of the week
Sidelines by Phoebe Bridges
The Pasadena singer goes from strength to strength on her first new song since 2020’s Punisher album. Written for BBC3’s forthcoming adaptation of novel Conversations With Friends, this is a coming-of-age ballad illuminated by drum machine and keyboards.
Made with a band that includes former Beach Boys drummer Ricky Fataar, it plays to her storytelling strengths. The only disappointment is that its title wasn’t inspired by comedian Tommy Cooper’s famous catchphrase. The blueswoman, 72, sings about giving up on a bad relationship on Made Up Mind before celebrating new romance — ‘love potion going to my brain’ — on Something’s Got A Hold Of My Heart.
Raitt, right, who overcame alcohol addiction in the Eighties, addresses her demons unflinchingly on Waitin’ For You To Blow. Elsewhere, there are some compelling character studies.
The title track is a sensitive portrayal of two families on opposite sides of an organ donation. Down The Hall is sung from the perspective of an inmate in a prison hospice.
Despite twice topping the U.S. charts — most notably with 1989’s soulful Nick Of Time — and being widely acclaimed as the singer behind the romantic classic I Can’t Make You Love Me, Raitt has never had a Top 20 record in the UK.
That might be about to change.
Dua plays Utilita Arena, Newcastle, tomorrow, and OVO Hydro, Glasgow, on Sunday. Future Nostalgia tour continues until May (livenation.co.uk).
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