"I want people to see a piece of me. I want people to have an insight into everything that's happened over the last few years while I was writing the album and actually really get to know me. It's been good because when I released 'New Love' and 'Be The One', I had people say, 'That really relates to me'. I want people to have that feeling and I want people to know that they're not alone in all this and that we all go through the same f**king shit. That's the main goal. For this album I want to be as truthful as possible, then all the club shit can come later. "
Dua Lipa, See in Blue (2016)
With "New Rules", the seventh (!) single from her recently released self-titled debut album, 'dark pop' London singer-songwriter Dua Lipa proves that emotional honesty and a club banger can go hand-in-hand. Lipa has noted that the track is “the breakup song I wish I had when I was breaking up with someone"; it offers apt advice that prescribes self-reliance in the face of separation anxiety, e.g. the witty "if you're under him, you're not over him." Unlike the similarly inspired "Hotter Than Hell", Lipa's vocals are understatedly murmured in the chorus ('I got new rules, I count 'em/ I gotta tell them to myself') instead of revelling in their full prowess. The house-influenced electro beats serve as the song's hook, encouraging abandon on the dancefloor after Lipa advises romantic caution.
Lipa's smoky contralto is as distinctive and captivating as ever: an effective distraction from the relatively generic and unspecific quality of her lyrics. "New Rules" is undeniably catchy, but Lipa's desire for her music to be relatable appears to have made her depiction of heartbreak applicable to practically every ambivalent young woman in a less-than-ideal relationship. The accompanying music video, which was filmed at Miami Beach's Confidante Hotel by Henry Scholfield, presents some remarkable choreography that embodies the vulnerability that you experience after a break-up, as well as the need for peer solidarity to prevent you from a romantic relapse. With friends like Lipa's crew, it's much easier to leave the phone ringing, keep the boy you love outside, and sever any pretense that this one-sided relationship could, at the very least, amount to a friendship.
