Dua Lipa has, in the last year or so, crossed over into a new threshold of fame. She’s now, alongside a small handful of her global superstar contemporaries, unavoidable. The anticipation around this new record Radical Optimism, her third full-length, has been empathic, with the teaser singles generally suggesting a well-rounded and expressive album, especially the effortless and undeniable pop hit “Training Season”.

Before the release of the album, Lipa spoke about the desire to root the project in British sub-sounds, such as trip-hop and Britpop. It’s odd then, that there’s little to suggest such. The artist instead in large remains inside the disco-tinged pop parameters that she has become synonymous for. Although there is vitality and signs of musical growth on the likes of “French Exit”, cuts like “Illusion” feel stuck in the basic formula of UK mainstream pop that after more than a decade of prominence, is slowly fading in wider influence.

What the album lacks in character and artistic progression, it makes up for in star-quality and meticulous execution. It has stadium-ready hooks aplenty, while Lipa delivers soaring vocal performances atop spritely, brightly-hued palettes that are infectious and don’t come with the pretence of challenge, with production contributions from the likes of Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker. It’s a euphoric body of work, heady hedonism bleeding through in tracks like “Falling Forever”, which will certainly have thousands of Glastonbury-goers singing along this June during her headline slot.

Radical Optimism may not quite live up to the towering hype that it built over the past few months, but it’s a worthy and well-crafted entry to the pop canon, and will certainly not harm Lipa’s seemingly sewed-on fate to be one of British music’s biggest contemporary exports.

Listen to Radical Optimism…