When her sophomore album,
Future Nostalgia
, was greeted with overwhelming acclaim at the start of 2020, English pop diva
Dua Lipa
decided to gift fans with a bonus remix LP,
Club Future Nostalgia
. With American electronic artist
the Blessed Madonna
at the helm, the disco-kissed pop perfection of the original receives a sweaty, thumping update in the form of an extended DJ mix. Seamlessly throbbing from track to track, the set revisits each of the impeccably produced songs from
, sometimes improving them ("Boys Will Be Boys") and other times not quite hitting the highs that the crew targeted, like on the
Madonna
and
Missy Elliot
update of "Levitating."
The Blessed Madonna
goes deep on "Hallucinate" with
Mr. Fingers
Paul Woolford
and on "Pretty Please" with
Midland
Masters at Work
, which offer the most interesting takes on the album. Unreleased session cuts "Love Is Religion" and "That Kind of Woman" make their official debuts here, both highlights in their own right. The former, a joyous romp that soars during the choir-backed chorus, could have been a single, while the latter gets
Stuart Price
's
Jacques Lu Cont
treatment as a pulsing gem that's woven with
Stevie Nicks
' "Stand Back." Additional surprises pop up elsewhere in the mix, bringing samples by
Jamiroquai
("Canned Heat") and
Neneh Cherry
("Buffalo Stance") to the party alongside guest vocalists
Gwen Stefani
Blackpink
and producers
Yaeji
Mark Ronson
. Like the original, this is a nonstop party. However, without the boundaries of an official studio release,
transforms
Dua
's party for one into a full-on collaborative celebration. While first-timers to this era would be best served listening to the parent album first, existing fans who can't get enough of that LP will find
to be an absolute blast. ~ Neil Z. Yeung