Club Future Nostalgia is a remix album by English and Albanian singer Dua Lipa and American DJ the Blessed Madonna.
Intending to "take the party up a notch", Lipa enlisted the help of the Blessed Madonna to put together an "old-school" mixtape with remixes of songs from the album, alongside samples.
[4][5] The two of them met at the Glastonbury Festival in 2019, and the Blessed Madonna remixed Lipa and Silk City's "Electricity" in October 2018 before they ran into one and other at NYC Downlow.
The Blessed Madonna started by creating a list of samples and remixers that she wanted for the album, many of whom had already been approached by Lipa's team, including Paul Woolford, Jayda G, Gen Hoshino, Larry Heard, and Yaeji.
[5][8][10] The Blessed Madonna worked on Club Future Nostalgia from her home studio in London, with a workflow that consisted of breaking down the remixes into sections, creating new versions of them, and going back and forth with engineers while waiting on features.
Finally, the Blessed Madonna had Mark Ronson call in and request Neneh Cherry's "Buffalo Stance" (1988), which was used to create a radio interlude.
She ultimately found Dimitri from Paris' edit of the band's "Cosmic Girl" (1996), which only existed on vinyl during the production of the album, and mashed it up with "Break My Heart" to create a remix.
[10] Yaeji wanted to pull out different moods and emotions for her "Don't Start Now" remix, which she found difficult to reimagine due to the fact that the song is her favourite of Lipa's.
[5][7][8] The "Kiss and Make Up" remix was created after Lipa expressed a desire to include some of her past features and collaborations, which caused the Blessed Madonna to combine vocals from the song with parts of "Rise" (1979) by Herb Alpert.
[7] After all the remixes were finished, the Blessed Madonna edited each track by chopping and deconstructing them to create a DJ Mix, while also adding sound effects, ad-libs, and the samples.
Reminiscent of a 3am Glastonbury Festival DJ set, the remix incorporates Hot Chip-style synths and Daft Punk-inspired whirrs.
[13][15] Horse Meat Disco introduce simple new melodies for the remix while it also includes strutting beats and funk-laced instrumentals.
[7] A mashup of "Break My Heart" and a Dimitri from Paris edit of Jamiroquai's "Cosmic Girl", which is a DJ Mix only track, is an upbeat remix with unbridled energy, which makes the former funkier.
[16][17][18][19] It has a dance-orientated production that consists of futuristic synths, a pounding bass, and vocodered backing vocals, reminiscent of Daft Punk.
With his remix, Mr Fingers created a skeletal ambient track,[6][8] where he reduces Lipa vocals down to a whisper, and incorporates a "gurgling" bassline, slinky synths, and West End disco beats.
[24][25] The "Don't Start Now" remix by Yaeji is driven by an ASMR-esque drum beat, and makes use of a G-funk deep bass and a stop-start rhythm.
[13] Like its predecessor, Jacques Lu Cont's remix of "That Kind of Woman" also has a club feel, and incorporates Kylie Minogue-style disco and Balearic genres.
[6][11][15] The DJ mix edition of Club Future Nostalgia closes with a remix of "Break My Heart" by Moodymann, who looped Lipa's vocal phrases and adjusted his sound to fit hers.
A Detroit house and modern dance track, the remix includes a bass lick, cowbells, and ambiance, as well as clinking bottles and laughing sound effects.
[23] Roisin O'Connor at The Independent stated that the album makes one dance, as well as acclaiming the remixers for removing inhibitions from the liberated songs.
[11] AllMusic's Neil Z. Yeung commended Club Future Nostalgia for being a "sweaty, thumping update", "nonstop party", and "absolute blast", but also thought that some tracks did not hit the proper heights of what everyone wanted.
[24] For Slant Magazine, Sal Cinquemani criticized the album for lacking the "joyous, adrenaline-fueled arc" of the best DJ sets, but admired its unintentional virtual dance floor gateway.
He elaborated, criticizing the remixers for heavy editing that makes the album feel "oddly uneven" and fun, but less than the value of its parts.
[22] Tom Hull, who had praised the original album, found Club Future Nostalgia inessential but "glittering with ear candy" and was especially impressed by the Neneh Cherry rap sample on "Good in Bed".