User:MaranoFan/AAB

Background

 * Billboard
 * Pitchfork
 * DIY
 * TLOBF

Single reviews

 * Variety - "Few artists have ever fused pop and dance music as fluidly as ABBA, and their influence is writ subtly but large on Dua Lipa’s new single “Training Season”", "Driving but not as in-your-face as its predecessor “Houdini,” the song struts along on a powerful disco beat, with a melody that swerves into almost Middle-Eastern scales, reminiscent of ABBA’s biggest disco hits, “Voulez-Vous” and “Gimme Gimme Gimme.” While the initial influence is subtle, it’s unmistakable, and is driven home later in the song with piano flourishes that recalls ABBA keyboardist Benny Andersson’s on many of the group’s hits, most famously “Dancing Queen.” It’s the best kind of tribute: nothing overt, but a sly, fun wink for fans who notice it."
 * Billboard - "“I need someone to hold me close, deeper than I’ve ever known/ Whose love feels like a rodeo, knows just how to take control,” she sings over a pounding beat."
 * Elle - Full lyrics, "The song lyrically sets out exactly what she wants from people she dates."
 * The Fader - "another upbeat pop track with Lipa looking for "someone to hold me close" and who "knows how to take control.""
 * Clash - "Adding some trippy, Tame Impala aspects to her glossy pop mixture, the lyric is about learning to push back on crap dates, and underline your own sense of self-worth."
 * Uproxx - "letting the men vying for her attention know that she’s not going to train them on how to treat her right."
 * People - "The Grammy winner sings: “You should know I need someone to hold me close / Deeper than I’ve ever known / Whose love feels like a rodeo / Knows how to just take control / When I’m vulnerable he straight talking to my soul, conversation overload / Got me feeling vertigo / I need somebody who can go there / Cause I don’t want to have to show ya / If honey you don’t let me know ya / Cause training season is over.”"
 * NME - "“Are you somebody who can go there?/ ‘Cause I don’t wanna have to show ya/ If that ain’t you, then let me know, yeah/ ‘Cause training season’s over.”"
 * iHeartRadio - ""I tried to see my lovers in a good light/ Don't wanna do it just to be nice/ Don't wanna have to teach you how to love me right," a fed-up Dua sings in the second verse. "I hope it hits me like an arrow/ Someone with some potential/ Is it too much to ask for?""
 * Consequence - "The disco-pop sound on “Training Season” feels in line with Lipa’s previous single, “Houdini,” and with her Grammy-winning album, Future Nostalgia, while the focused, self-assured lyrics recall her breakthrough hit, “New Rules.” “Need someone to hold me close, deeper than I’ve ever known/ Whose love feels like a rodeo and knows just how to take control,” she sings."
 * Nylon - "A flurry of guitar and an insanely catchy hook, this is one of Dua Lipa’s best single releases in a minute."

Album reviews

 * Uproxx - the pop banger
 * BPM - "The second single, “Training Season”, is a better representation of the album’s sonic palette of synths, organic basslines, and guitar flourishes, but one listen to the extended version shows it could do without the immediacy built into it."
 * Sputnikmusic - "I’m talking about things like the harmonies in “Training Season,”"
 * DIY - "‘Training Season’'s vibrant dancefloor pulse"
 * Rolling Stone - "Lipa’s voice sounds stronger than ever on Radical Optimism. Just listen to the sleek, ABBA-esque single “Training Season” and you can hear these raw, velvety pipes bring a song about mediocre dudes to life."
 * Slant mag - "Boundaries and standards are important to a healthy relationship, Dr. Lipa advises on “French Exit” and “Training Season,” respectively."
 * The Guardian - "Training Season, the nimblest of them all, packs frissons of Abba and Eurodisco into its assured takedown of sub-par men. All is well: it’s Lipa’s third album, no radical, root-and-branch reinvention of her very successful formula."
 * PopMatters - "“It hits me like an arrow,” sings Lipa in “Training Season”, adding, “Got me feeling vertigo.”"
 * NY Times - "It’s an album of nonstop ear candy. “Training Season,” her demand for a partner who already knows “how to love me right,” has tickling guitar syncopations and girl-group harmonies popping out of nowhere."

Single reviews

 * Variety - "Few artists have ever fused pop and dance music as fluidly as ABBA, and their influence is writ subtly but large on Dua Lipa’s new single “Training Season”", "Driving but not as in-your-face as its predecessor “Houdini,” the song struts along on a powerful disco beat, with a melody that swerves into almost Middle-Eastern scales, reminiscent of ABBA’s biggest disco hits, “Voulez-Vous” and “Gimme Gimme Gimme.” While the initial influence is subtle, it’s unmistakable, and is driven home later in the song with piano flourishes that recalls ABBA keyboardist Benny Andersson’s on many of the group’s hits, most famously “Dancing Queen.” It’s the best kind of tribute: nothing overt, but a sly, fun wink for fans who notice it."
 * Uproxx - "“Training Season” is a bouncy bop, which marks an early contender for the ladies anthem of summer 2024."
 * Stereogum - "the thumping, ebullient “Training Season”"
 * Nylon - "A flurry of guitar and an insanely catchy hook, this is one of Dua Lipa’s best single releases in a minute."
 * Pitchfork Selects playlist - we’re sharing what our writers are playing obsessively and highlighting some of the Pitchfork staff’s favorite new music.
 * Billboard Friday Music Guide - the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond, "Musically, “Training Season” features Lipa’s strongest instincts — fans of “Physical,” the laser-focused workout from Future Nostalgia, should wrap their arms around this one — but also showcases her personal evolution, singing as a former teen star who has grown into adulthood and knows precisely what she wants."

Album reviews

 * Pitchfork - "A handful of songs reach for ABBA’s wounded-but-persistent pride and golden songcraft: “Training Season” has the vigor of a “Lay All Your Love on Me” or “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!”" both songs are brutally overstuffed and desperately in need of breathing space. Parker (absent on the latter) has a taste for clutter, the rhythm section always firing like pistons, and the too-vigorous effort grounds Lipa’s gift for airborne fantasia."
 * Clash - "Lead singles, 'Training Season’ all seemed deeply promising. Three club-ready bangers that had each indicated another no-skip record from the British-Albanian pop superstar. Social media commentary has levelled that the tracks are sonically interchangeable, but when all three hit so hard, and artists are often begged by fans to give them more of the same, it seemed as if Lipa was saying, if it ain’t broke, why fix it?", "‘Houdini’ and ‘Training Season’ follow, acting as more grounded, self-assured counterparts to Lipa’s googly-eyed opener. Not only are the beats darker, more textured and sexier, but the lyrics have more purpose, bringing us back to the strong and confident pop star image Dua Lipa has long portrayed."
 * The Guardian - If you were desperate to find references to pop’s past, you’d be better served abandoning your copies of Screamadelica and Blue Lines and considering instead the oeuvre of Abba, who haunt the cascading, Dancing Queen piano line of Training Season"
 * DIY - "those previously-dropped tracks (‘Houdini’, ‘Training Season’ and ‘Illusion’) make sense as the more headstrong, after-hours end of an album wholly centred around tumultuous affairs of the heart.", "There are tracks here that can compete - ‘Training Season’ in particular - but there are also ideas that feel lacking."
 * AllMusic - "While not as immediate as its predecessor, Optimism is packed with truly insidious earworms that take a minute to sink in, but then refuse to release listeners, who will be humming "Houdini," "Illusion," and "Training Season" long after the album ends."
 * Consequence - "Two of the album’s pre-release singles, “Houdini” and “Training Season,” hit back to back. Here Radical Optimisim feels like a rave, from the hazy melodic repetition on the chorus to the demanding backbeat. The keyboard spotlight is euphoric."
 * Variety - "In context, though, singles like “Training Season” and “Illusion” bolster the ephemeral, feel-good nature of “Optimism.” To become a main pop girl in such a relatively short amount of time demands perfection at every turn, an impossible task. Lipa’s music, in a vacuum, attempts to approximate that."
 * The Guardian - "Training Season, the nimblest of them all, packs frissons of Abba and Eurodisco into its assured takedown of sub-par men. All is well: it’s Lipa’s third album, no radical, root-and-branch reinvention of her very successful formula."
 * PopMatters - "The three singles are the most stadium-sized hits here, with “Houdini” and “Training Season” at the top, which Parker certainly can add to the list of his main life achievements." Yes, the lyrics still don’t pretend to diaristic vulnerability and frankness of glass-fragile folk ballads.