These Walls (Dua Lipa song)

"These Walls" is a song by English-Albanian singer Dua Lipa from her third studio album, Radical Optimism (2024). It was written by Lipa, Andrew Wyatt, Danny L Harle, Billy Walsh and Caroline Ailin, and produced by Wyatt and Harle. "These Walls" received favourable reviews from music critics and reached top 40 in the United Kingdom and Norway.

Background
In an interview with Apple Music's Zane Lowe, Lipa said she wrote "These Walls" on 16 January 2023. She said she got the idea of the track from being able to feel the energy of two people who have been arguing when you walk into a room. "Rooms capture things and they hold on to things", she said. "I think this song is a really good example of addressing the inevitable, it's that conversation that no one really wants to have, but you have to do it". "These Walls" was released on 3 May 2024 by Warner Records, on Lipa's third studio album, Radical Optimism.

Composition
Lipa wrote "These Walls" with Billy Walsh, Caroline Ailin, and its producers Andrew Wyatt and Danny L Harle. "These Walls" is a dance-pop, indie pop, and soft rock breakup song. It is the only track tacked with the "explicit" label on Radical Optimism. It opens with Lipa illustrating a couple that's gotten used to shutting each other out. "Maybe we should switch careers'/ Cause, baby, you know no one beats our poker faces/ And when the night ends up in tears/ Wake up and we blame it all on being wasted", she sings. But the chorus is where Lipa gets real, singing that "if these walls could talk" they'd say, "enough, give up, you're fucked". She continues, "It's not supposed to hurt this much/ Oh, if these walls could talk/ They'd tell us to break up".

Critical reception
"These Walls" received positive reviews from music critics. Neil Z. Yeung of AllMusic called "These Walls" a "chilled-out, dance-pop bop that lightens the spirit". Writing for The Observer, Kitty Empire noted that "These Walls" is the "pithiest" of the non-single tracks on Radical Optimism. In Variety, Steven J. Horowitz wrote, "'These Walls' is the album's most arresting song, on which Lipa bemoans the growing distance from a lover with a knowing nod: 'They tell us go and face your fears / It's getting worse the longer that we stay together / We call it love but hate it here / Do we really mean it when we said forever?'". Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine called the track "the most serenely devastating break-up song in recent memory", due to its blend of tropical melodies with more lovelorn lyrics. According to Helen Brown of The Independent, the song is "so sweetly peppy that non-Anglophones are unlikely to realise is a breakup song".

Commercial performance
Within its first week of availability, "These Walls" became the most commercially successful non-single song from Radical Optimism. It debuted at number 40 in the United Kingdom, becoming Lipa's 27th top 40 chart entry on the UK singles chart. It also debuted at numbers 39 in Norway, 44 in Ireland, 54 in Sweden and 65 in Canada.