Dua Lipa’s Training Season: A Fun Ride on the Pop Carnival Ride

Have you ever gone to the fair and rode that swing ride? You know the one. It’s the ride where swings are hanging off 15 foot chains as the whole ride spins at ungodly speeds 100 feet off the ground. Equal parts terrifying, the most joy you ever had in your life and exhilarating. Whether you love it or hate it, you are never bored. I love it! That feeling that you could slip out and die mixed with screaming for joy…can’t beat it. It lasts about 90 seconds and you can’t wait to stand in line for 45 minutes to do it all over again. There’s no specific reason for wanting to ride it again, you just wants to experience that feeling again. Dua Lipa’s Training Season is the musical version of the swing ride. I feel unbridled energy and joy listening to it, can’t really tell you a lot about it when the song’s over, but I can’t wait to hear it again.

These type of pop songs I call “cotton candy songs.” They are incredible in the moment, but you instantly forget about them when they are finished. Dua Lipa’s track sticks around a little longer than most cotton candy tracks, but ultimately it is a thrill ride that doesn’t hang around. Musically, the track is what you would expect from 2024 Dua Lipa, which is an explosion of clubby disco influenced pop energy. There is some great percussion mixed with dance club synth and an infectious beat. The breakdown in the verse really showcases the disco influence with some keyboard and syth washes that gives you the vibe that you are surrounded by people in roller skates bathed in the light of a mirrorball. This is a high energy track from beginning to end with some high octane pop.

Lyrically, you can tell me this song is about the Voyager 2 mission to Saturn and I would believe you. I have no idea what is going on. I think it is about hitting the clubs and hooking up with people…..maybe…I do think the “training season” vibe of going to the clubs looking for love gives more sexual agency to Dua Lipa and other women than most pop songs of the this style. Having said that, the song is more of a vibe with the lyrics giving you something to hum to. That’s not to say Dua Lipa’s vocal is on point, which it is. She has an amazing pop energy to her vocal, while still having enough nuance to set it apart from the countless women vocalists on pop stations.

Dua Lipa is having a moment with blockbuster tracks and movie rolls filling up her 2024. This entire record is what you would expect from Dua Lipa, which is tons of pop energy and something you can listen to front to back with no regrets. Even though this does not reach the heights of Barbie‘s track Dance the Night, it’s a solid follow up to such a breakout hit.

Listen to Dua Lipa’s Training Season