Future Nostalgia Review

Released the week much of the world went into lockdown, a disco record built for crowded rooms became the soundtrack of empty ones, and it survived the irony. Eleven songs, no features, no filler, thirty seven minutes. The bass line of Don't Start Now does most of the work before the chorus even arrives, Physical is an aerobics class with a synth arpeggio for a heartbeat, Levitating glides like roller disco and Break My Heart borrows an INXS groove and earns it.

The references are worn openly, Kylie, Madonna and a whole decade of eighties radio, and what could have been pastiche comes out sharper and more consistent than most of its models. Her voice, low and slightly smoky, has far more personality here than on her debut. The words are the weak spot: functional, flirty, occasionally clumsy, and Boys Will Be Boys, a sincere closer about harassment, lands awkwardly after a record this light on its feet. None of that dents the craft. Few pop albums of the decade are this tightly built from first track to last.