Not sure if staying with TAP would've helped. I think that at some point the label (Dua is their most popular artist) thought that the album needs streaming hits and the overall vision was watered down. I just refuse to think that she intentionally "oversold" the album lol it must have changed at some point.

From the timeline Dua has given in her interviews - Illusion, Happy For You and Whatcha Doing were the first songs done for the album in mid 2022, then came Houdini and Training Season in late 2022. And Falling Forever came last (the Ian Kirkpatrick production with other writers) the following year.

 

I do think the psychedelic elements Dua keeps mentioning may have been watered down. She's said the songs were reworked several times. If only we could understand how it went down from the producers Tame Impala or Danny L Harle.

 

Dua was apparently unhappy with the early album sessions with Ian Kirkpatrick when she was still with TAP. And they didn't want her to work with Tame Impala. It's interesting then that Ian and his writers were brought in later for Falling Forever and Anything For Love (unless they were from the early album sessions but recorded late).

She was incredible on SNL so much charisma

my fav bit was the part of people saying she takes too much vacation and replying it's not vacation, it's holidays :D

Number 1 in today's midweeks outselling Taylor 2:1. Sales not revealed yet but I'm expecting Dua to be on 22k-27k so far.

Yay! :w00t: :cheer: Some relief amid all the doom and gloom surrounding the streaming numbers. That should be enough for #1 come Friday I hope

Omg yes, I hope we get sales numbers as well so I can feel confident she’ll be #1!!!

Spotify:

 

Day 1 — 20,485,575 streams

Day 2 — 14,761,140 streams

Day 3 — 11,233,031 streams

Day 4 — 12,764,223 streams

 

+13% increase

 

Metacritic score now up to 73 (19 reviews) surpassing DL1 thanks to a glowing review from PopMatters

 

https://www.popmatters.com/dua-lipa-radical-optimism-review

@1787943435967635915

Ooh I wonder whether she can scrape #2

I don't think she will and will have to make do with Number 3 and a UK number 1.

Day 4 - differences in global Spotify daily streams

 

Happy For You - +16.07%

These Walls - +14.96%

End of an Era - +14.66%

Illusion - +13.72%

Houdini - +13.68%

Training Season - +13.41%

Anything For Love - +12.87%

Whatcha Doing - +12.43%

Maria - +12.43%

Falling Forever - +12.11%

French Exit - +11.60%

I don't think she will and will have to make do with Number 3 and a UK number 1.

 

Basically matching FN in peak then.

This is a great album. It's not quite up there with the quality of FN but I'm really enjoying it and lots of songs still have the potential to really grow.

But can we PLEASE have some appreciation for 'Maria'? I mean, WHAT A SONG! That synth whistle bit gets me every time :wub: I only wish there was more of that sort of thing going on in some of the other songs.

Illusion #13 in yesterday's UK chart update, These Walls #36, Training Season on ACR at #51. Houdini starred out.

 

Training Season Spotify streams is up 10% week-on-week, and Houdini 9%. Not enough for a reset to SCR. Could the label request a manual reset in this circumstance?

As far as I'm aware, a reset will only be given at the request of the label if there's a a new promotional campaign for the single... I'd be very surprised if that would be the case for a fairly recently released single that has seen a marginal increase in steams (almost entirely due to the release of the album). OCC seem to be more relaxed as to what meets the criteria lately, but I can't see them being *that* relaxed 😂 Either it makes the 25% increase it needs, or it stays at ACR I assume.

 

In other news... Still loving this album. My vinyl and cassette arrived, they're gorgeous 😍

She did 37k so far :cheeseblock:

UK Albums Chart update

 

1 Dua Lipa - Radical Optimism (37,305) [29,987 physicals, 6,244 streaming, 1,275 downloads] *

2 Taylor Swift - THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT (20,433)

3 Frank Turner - Undefeated (14,188) *

 

I knew her physicals were gonna pull the numbers :cheer: the little lipas did their job *.*

1 Dua Lipa - Radical Optimism (37,305) [29,987 physicals, 6,244 streaming, 1,275 downloads] *

Unfortunately I don't have Future Nostalgia's Wednesday midweek figures for an accurate comparison (typically I have Monday, Tuesday and Thursday!). All we know for Wednesday is that it had sold 20.3k in total up to that paoint.

 

However these are my estimates for Future Nostalgia's Wednesday midweek sales split:

 

9.4k streaming

7.4k physicals

3.5k downloads

 

Obviously Radical Optimism is massively up on physicals! It's a difficult comparison with Future Nostalgia due to the time it was released (begining of covid), but regardless of that, Dua's clearly gone up a level with attracting strong physical sales. It will end up being well over 30k+ physicals and that is impressive!

 

Streaming for the new album appears to be roughly 2/3rds of Future Nostalgia at the same stage. In fact Radical Optimism's streaming is more in line with Future Nostalgia's week 2 streaming sales (she did around 10k+ streaming sales in week 2 and I'm assuming that's what she'll get in week 1 with Radical Optimism).

 

It'll be interesting to see how this new album holds up. Obviously we know that physicals are almost always frontloaded to the first week. Not to jinx her but I think she should be safe for a second week Top 10. Beyond that it'll mostly be down to how well her streaming holds up.

Interesting breakdown, thank you :heart: Yeah I think like most albums it's gonna have a big drop in week 2, but the 3 singles + These Walls should give it some legs after that and hopefully a nice boost from Glastonbury next month.

Day 5 Global Spotify:

About right that the non-song (Anything for Love) is being skipped.