FEATURE:
Kylie Minogue’s Debut Album, Kylie, at Thirty-Five
PHOTO CREDIT: Grant Matthews
Ranking the Icon’s Ten Best Studio Albums
_________
WE have just celebrated…
the fifty-fifth birthday (on 28th May) of the iconic Kylie Minogue. Someone who is still at the top of her game and a huge success, here is someone who will go down in Pop history. Her new single, Padam Padam, was a big success on the charts. The song has well over ten million streams on Spotify, and it reached the twenties in terms of chart positions - and it could go even higher still. It would be even higher if radio stations like BBC Radio 1 played the song!Regardless, it was her highest-charting chart position since 2014. Padam Padam peaked at number one on the UK Singles Sales and Download Charts. On 22nd September, TENSION will come out. It is the Australian legend’s sixteenth studio album. I will write about the album when it comes out, but the feature today is about her debut, Kylie. That was released on 4th July, 1988. Because it is coming up for thirty-five years, I am celebrating that big anniversary by ranking her best ten studio albums. Kylie will feature…but you will have to keep reading to see where it ends up. Maye not her very finest album, it is still very important, as it introduced the world to an artist who would soon conquer the globe!
I have fond memories of Kylie. Featuring classics like I Should Be So Lucky and The Loco-Motion, you certainly cannot fault it. I think I heard the album not long after it came out. I must have been five or six. Minogue was one of those artists I bonded with easily and passionately. The catchiness of her songs was matched by her infectious personality and awesome talent. Like most artists, there was an evolution between the earliest work and her later stuff. You can hear that shift and sense of independence on 1994’s Kylie Minogue. Going fully in a new direction on 1997’s Impossible Princess, many might say her peak was when Light Years was released in 2000. That was followed by the extraordinary Fever of 2001. TENSION promises to be a big and Dance-focused album that will be similar to 2020’s DISCO, but also look back at Light Years and Fever. I think that Minogue has explored so many different sounds and put her stamp on them all. It is a hard task decision when it comes to choosing which albums are the best! It is not necessarily the fact that her earliest work is easily below her mid and late-career work, because she is so consistent and diverse. Here is my ranking of her ten best albums. Ahead of the thirty-fifth anniversary of her debut, Kylie, I have the unenviable (but self-imposed) task of ordering…
HER ten best studio albums.
________________
TEN: Kylie
Release Date: 4th July, 1988
Producers: Stock Aitken Waterman
Labels: Mushroom/PWL/Geffen
U.K. Chart Position: 1
Standout Tracks: I Should Be So Lucky/Je ne sais pas pourquoi/Got to Be Certain
Review:
“Minogue herself is vocally vital on every composition and that makes everything believable. It’s true that her voice was not as well-rounded with experience as it would become on her future projects, but there’s an unflappable joy to it too, as heard on “I Should Be So Lucky” and “Got To Be Certain.” Both selected as two (of six) singles from Kylie, they’re now regarded as undisputed classics of the period. Kylie’s two standout performances include “Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi” (I Don’t Know Why) and “Turn It Into Love.” Shockingly mature, they feature much more substantive construction sonically in relation to melody and the like from Stock-Aitken-Waterman, and Minogue acquits herself to them accordingly.
Still active as Charlene Mitchell on Neighbours, Minogue was preparing to seize on its viewership and flip it into a built-in buying base in the United Kingdom and Australia. Further, with Stock-Aitken-Waterman behind her, Minogue had support to penetrate other international markets where Neighbours was an unknown quantity culturally. Through deals with Mushroom Records in Australia, Pete Waterman’s own PWL Records label in the United Kingdom and Geffen Records stateside, Minogue released Kylie in early July of 1988. Modest returns greeted Minogue in America off the back of “The Loco-Motion” and “I Should Be So Lucky” becoming hits there. In England, Australia and other global areas, Kylie was a record-breaking smash.
Minogue would give one more “by the letter” album to the public with Enjoy Yourself in 1989 before emancipating herself from the gilded cage of Stock-Aitken-Waterman’s pre-fab pop with her third affair Rhythm of Love (1990). Three years on from Rhythm of Love, her union with deConstruction Records laid the foundation for Minogue to position herself as an artistic force to be reckoned with on wax. However, it all began here with Kylie, an unassuming, but charming collection of well-intentioned commercial pop that gave the actress who aspired to musical greatness a chance to achieve it” – Albumism
Key Cut: The Loco-Motion
NINE: Golden
Release Date: 6th April, 2018
Producers: Ash Howes/Richard ‘Biff’ Stannard/Sky Adams/Lindsay Rimes/Jesse Frasure/Jon Green/Alex Smith/Mark Taylor/Eg White/Samuel Dixon/Charlie Russel/Seton Daunt
Labels: Darenote/BMG/Mushroom
U.K. Chart Position: 1
Standout Tracks: Stop Me from Falling/Sincerely Yours/One Last Kiss
Review:
“After a long career full of many course corrections and detours, it seemed like Kylie Minogue was locked into being a shiny, glittery dance pop icon for life. A label change and some personal turmoil in the form of a soul-shattering breakup sent Minogue looking for something new musically. When planning her first album for BMG, a label rep asked if she had ever thought of recording country music in Nashville and she jumped at the chance. For 2018's Golden, Minogue went to Music City, got to work writing songs with some seasoned pros, and ended up co-writing all the songs on the record. It's heartbreaking and uplifting in turn as she makes sense of where her heart has taken her, set to the tune of fiddles, guitars, and woodsy backing vocals along with the more traditional synths, drum machines, and club beats one usually hears on a Minogue album. She and her team of musicians, writers, and producers straddle the line between twang and glitter on just about every song; sometimes, it leans more in favor of line dancing, sometimes the glitter ball takes over, especially on the shimmering "Raining Glitter." Sometimes, like on "Live a Little" or the very hooky single "Dancing," it's the best of both worlds. It's an interesting mix that puts her in line with much of what's happening in mainstream country. Certainly, the difference between most of Golden and, say, Kacey Musgraves' 2018 album is almost non-existent. The amazing thing about the album, and about Minogue, is that she pulls off the country as well as she's pulled off new wave, disco, electro, murder ballads, and everything else she's done in her long career. Her voice may not have the depth of some of the great Nashville singers, but she has tons of personality, and when she cuts loose there's more than a little Dolly Parton in her artistic DNA. She also does a fine job on ballads -- letting the heartbreak flow on "Radio On" and sounding like both Tegan and Sara on "Sincerely Yours." Golden is an odd detour for Minogue, and it's hard to imagine that the record will get much traction on the country side of the equation -- there's a strong chance her less devoted fans might find the new sound a little too much. As an artistic statement, it's pretty darn bold, though, and proves that she's still game for just about anything and able to make whatever she does sound exactly like herself” – AllMusic
Key Cut: Dancing
EIGHT: Aphrodite
Release Date: 30th June, 2010
Producers: Andy Chatterley/Cutfather/Daniel Davidsen/Jim Eliot/Børge Fjordheim/Pascal Gabriel/Calvin Harris/Sebastian Ingrosso/Magnus/Nerina Pallot/Stuart Price/Lucas Secon/Damon Sharpe/Fraser T. Smith/Starsmith/Peter Wallevik/Xenomania
Label: Parlophone
U.K. Chart Position: 1
Standout Tracks: Get Outta My Way/Aphrodite/Better Than Today
Review:
“Though Kylie Minogue’s last studio album X, released in 2007, garnered a positive reception from the critics, Minogue herself wasn’t too happy with the final project. “We could definitely have bettered it, I’ll say that straight up,” she admitted to The Sun. Well, Minogue should be more than pleased with her newest release Aphrodite, which harks back to her sunny, disco-tinged tunes that made her star worldwide.
This time around, Minogue worked with songwriters and producers such as Jake Shears, vocalist of The Scissor Sisters, and Stuart Price who has worked with just about everyone on the pop/dance genre, in order to get that quintessential “Princess of Pop” sound as found in her earlier albums Light Years and Fever.
The album opens with the first single, “All The Lovers”, a breathy yet emotional puff of swooning syncro-pop which sets the pattern for the rest of the tracks. Other notables include “Closer” a slinky, sexualized ode to ABBA with dramatic overtures ( and done with more authenticity than Madonna), Shears’ flamboyant “Too Much” which I’m sure you’ll be hearing in every gay bar and hipster club this summer, “Can’t Beat the Feeling” a track with a summery 70’s feel thanks to the addition of a cowbell, and finally, “Aphrodite”, a hard-hitting standout with some of the catchiest, 80’s-thumped rhythms that you’ll find anywhere. It’s hard to listen to that song and not want to start busting moves in your living room, it’s that good” – Consequence of Sound
Key Cut: All the Lovers
SEVEN: Rhythm of Love
Release Date: 12th November, 1990
Producers: Stock Aitken Waterman/Keith Cohen/Stephen Bray/Michael Jay
Labels: Mushroom/PWL
U.K. Chart Position: 9
Standout Tracks: Better the Devil You Know/Shocked/Rhythm of Love
Review:
“The sound: It's still perky early Kylie pop, but there's a definite progression here: a slightly dancier sound, more sax, guitars and rapping, and – gasp! – tracks produced by people other than Stock Aitken Waterman.
Standout track: Each of the four singles is a corker, but 'What Do I Have To Do?' clinches it thanks to that whooooooooosh! of an intro.
Hidden gem: We're partial to Secrets, on which our hitherto innocent heroine plays the philanderer. "I was so afraid if I told you," Kylie confesses, "Your broken heart would force you to leave..." Aww... You just want to give her a big old hug, don't you?
Lyrical nugget: On 'Shocked', is she... would she... could she be singing "I was f**ked to my very foundations"?
Fascinating fact: The video for 'What Do I Have To Do?' features a cameo from a certain Danielle Jane Minogue.
Our verdict: It's got the odd dud - stand up, 'One Boy Girl' - and the pop rush fades towards the end, but this is definitely KM's best effort yet, thanks largely to the continued brilliance of those singles. If you can't find something to bop to here, you need to get yourself on the NHS waiting list for a new pair of Dancing Feet” – Digital Spy
Key Cut: Step Back in Time
SIX: Body Language
Release Date: 10th November, 2003
Producers: Baby Ash/Chris Braide/Cathy Dennis/Johnny Douglas/Electric J/Julian Gallagher/Kurtis Mantronik/Karen Poole/Rez/Richard Stannard/Sunnyroads
Label: Parlophone
U.K. Chart Position: 6
Standout Tracks: Secret (Take You Home)/Promises/Chocolate
Review:
“If Light Years was the comeback, and Fever the confirmation, then Body Language can best be described as Kylie's "big step forward." Sure it's still simple dance-pop, but this time she (and a team of producers and writers -- including Kurtis Mantronik -- it must be said) has put together an album that works as a piece. It's stylish without being smarmy, retro without being ironic, and its energy never gets annoying. In other words: a near perfect pop record. Instead of opting for more of the light dance- and disco-pop of the last two releases, Kylie has sought to expand her horizons. Adding elements of electroclash, '80s synth pop, bouncy club beats -- even a dash of Eminem-style raps! -- she's found the formula that not only makes her vocal shortcomings irrelevant but gives her the edge on the rest of the divas on their newfound quest: maturity. While Madonna, Xtina, and Britney have attempted to achieve maturity through trashiness and not really all that shocking behavior (i.e., that MTV Awards kiss), Kylie maintained a low profile, retained a sense of class, and put together what may well be the best album of her career. Simply, Body Language is what happens when a dance-pop diva takes the high road and focuses on what's important instead of trying to shock herself into continued relevance” – AllMusic
Key Cut: Slow
FIVE: Kylie Minogue
Release Date: 19th September, 1994
Producers: Steve Anderson/Dave Seaman/M People/Pete Heller/Terry Farley/Jimmy Harry
Labels: Deconstruction/Mushroom
U.K. Chart Position: 4
Standout Tracks: If I Was Your Lover/Put Yourself in My Place/Automatic Love
Review:
“Confide In Me, was world's apart from anything Kylie had recorded before up to this point. A Brothers In Rhythm production combining elements of trip hop, indie pop and a seductive almost spoken vocal, and at almost 6 minutes in length, it was hardly radio friendly. But, this was to the song that would launch Phase 2 of Kylie's music career in the late Summer of 1994. By this point, it had been 18 months since the Deconstruction signing and 21 months since Kylie last bothered the charts. It was a major risk to showcase such a 'new' Kylie to her audience, but then again, that was the whole point. And in any case, that risk would pay off and then some. Confide In Me, would ultimately become the most successful Kylie single of the 1990's, spending 4 weeks at #1 in her native Australia, where it was her 1st chart topper since the early days of 1988. Elsewhere, it became at top 20 hit in most places and even bothered the top 40 of the US Dance charts. In the UK, is stalled at #2, where for the 3rd and final time, Wet Wet Wet would keep a Kylie single of the top spot with their own final ever week at #1 with mega hit Love Is All Around.
Just a weeks later on the 19th September, came the album itself. Simply called Kylie Minogue, with a black and white photo of a bespectacled Kylie in a business suit for it's artwork, it seemed the bio for this 'relaunch', was simplicity was best. Aside from Brothers In Rhythm whom were responsible for 4 of the 10 songs that made it to the final track listing, came work from the likes of M People, Pet Shop Boys and Jimmy Harry, the later responsible for the arguably the signature Kylie ballad, the breathtaking Put Yourself In My Place. Chosen as it's 2nd single in late November and backed by a stunning video of a red headed Kylie stripping off a hot pink spacesuit ie Barbarella style, it may have only made it to #11 in both the UK and Australia, but it's overall chart span was not too shabby in the long run and won an an Best Video Award the 1995 Aria Awards. For many long term fans, Put Yourself In My Place is just a Kylie classic and well loved as Confide In Me. No surprise then that these two tracks would be the winner and runner up respectively in the Kylie Deconstruction rate hosted by @P'NutButter back in 2015.
In the long term, Kylie Minogue would only do moderately sales wise, going Gold in both the UK and Austraila after initial top 5 placements of #4 and #3 respectively. It's long term sales was certainly not helped by the long 8 month gap between Put Yourself In My Place and what would be the albums' 3rd and final single, Where Is The Feeling. This of course being due to filming commitments of Bio-Dome. Unlike the jazzy, joyous near 7 minute album original, for it's single remix, Where Is The Feeling was radically remixed by Brothers In Rhythm into a a dark, broody and at times menacing, spoken vocal track, backed by an equally dark black and white video. Hardly radio friendly , and with the interest in the album now long gone, Where Is The Feeling spent just 3 weeks on the chart in July 1995 in the UK after reaching #16. It's only other place it would chart it would be Australia (#31), thus becoming Kylie's least successful single ever at that point. Plans for any more singles were scrapped and the era was officially over. Little did she know that the bumps on the Deconstruction road were set to get a lot more rocky...
In the end Kylie Minogue managed to do what Deconstruction and indeed Kylie herself set out to do. It proved that there could be a Kylie beyond the Hit Factory, and it gave her best career reviews at the time. 25 years on, it hasn't lost it's touch of class either and whilst it may be one of the most neglected of Kylie's 14 studio albums, it sure is perhaps her most sophisticated and greatest vocally. Not to mention containing two all time greats in Put Yourself In My Place and Confide In Me. For all these reasons alone, let's celebrate it upon it's Silver anniversary” – Pop Justice
Key Cut: Confide in Me
FOUR: DISCO
Release Date: 6th November, 2020
Producers: Sky Adams/Duck Blackwell/Teemu Brunila/Linslee Campbell/Jon Green/Kiris Houston/Troy Miller/Nico Stadi/Biff Stannard/PhD
Labels: Darenote/BMG
U.K. Chart Position: 1
Standout Tracks: Say Something/Where Does the DJ Go?/Celebrate You
Review:
“DISCO’ wears her influences on its sleeve. Hell, it’s there in the title – this is sheer, unashamed, upbeat disco, a fusion of vintage and modern flavours, one that would feel equally at home with the glitz and the glam of Studio 54 and South London dress-to-sweat dugout Horse Meat Disco.
‘Magic’ is an effervescent opener, its gentle pulse peeling you away from the raw pessimism of 2020’s ongoing dystopia. ‘Miss A Thing’ moves the tempo up a notch, adding a dash of Daft Punk’s retro-fetishism for good measure. ‘Real Groove’ more than delivers on its title, with Kylie channelling house abandon against those lush keys. – ‘Monday Blues’ dials back the disco elements in favour of summery pop, its slight Mediterranean flavour providing the perfect dose of escapism. ‘Supernova’ meanwhile is an absolute Giorgio Moroder style onslaught, its slinky Euro-centric perversions adding a dose of strings to her lyrical double entendres.
‘Say Something’ leans once more on those bubbling electronics, recalling Robyn’s ‘Honey’ is its cutting edge digi-pop. The catalogue of Nile Rodgers permeates the Chic-style beat that drives ‘Last Chance’, something that ‘I Love It’ amplifies in its symphonic, orchestral glamour.
‘Where Does The DJ Go?’ is perhaps a prescient question with lockdown part deux now upon us, while stylistically its a homage to the twilight reinvention that frames ‘Saturday Night Fever’. ‘Dance Floor Darling’ offers up raw 80s chart sonics with its buzzsaw guitar chords, a slo-mo transition piece that knocks at the door of club bumper ‘Unstoppable’.
Closing with the unashamed pop of ‘Celebrate You’, ‘DISCO’ is the sound of Kylie Minogue re-connecting with her roots. 2018’s ‘Golden’ was a country-pop crossover marked by matters personal, the lyrics delving into highly personal areas of her life. ‘DISCO’ by way of contrast is sheer escapism from start to finish, an exit point from the darkness that has fallen over 2020.
It’s not subtle – at some points the references may as well be put up in fluorescent lights – but that’s OK, since the aim is to be direct, to move people, and to entertain. As an ode to the pleasures of the dancefloor, Kylie has delivered her most unashamedly fun record in almost a decade. 8/10” – CLASH
Key Cut: Magic
THREE: Light Years
Release Date: 22nd September, 2000
Producers: Steve Anderson/Guy Chambers/Johnny Douglas/Julian Gallagher/Mark Picchiotti/Steve Power/Mike Spencer/Graham Stack/Richard ‘Biff’ Stannard/Mark Taylor
Labels: Parlophone/Mushroom
U.K. Chart Position: 2
Standout Tracks: On a Night Like This/Please Stay/Kids (with Robbie Williams)
Review:
“One thing you can't accuse Kylie Minogue of is not trying. We've had the permed pop Kylie, followed by the good-girl-turned-bad phase, initiated by a sexual awakening at the hands of Michael Hutchence. Next up was a brief fraternisation with the darker world of indie-pop, which spawned the sublime Some Kind of Bliss, penned by James Dean Bradfield of Manics fame, but very little else. And finally the credible dance diva moment, which led to a less than earth-shattering album (originally called Impossible Princess, but changed to Kylie Minogue) for Deconstruction followed by the sound of silence. The pop world held its breath to see what the second queen of reinvention would come up with. When Madonna, Kylie's blueprint, gave us the techno scribblings and scary warblings of Ray of Light, it could only be a matter of time before Ms Minogue hit back. On the similarly named Light Years, she's finally done just that.
Armed with skimpy hotpants and ironic phrasing, Minogue has recreated disco for the new century and made an album that celebrates being a girl. Not since the Spice Girls has the capacity to fill a dress been so celebrated. Which is why it's strange that Light Years has been packaged with male hormones in mind. Every wannabe pop princess that opens up the cover to relish the wry lyrics inside will be greeted with a soft-focus, head-to-knees pic of Minogue wearing nothing but a towel. Chances are, though, her feet are wearing the sparkliest, sexiest pair of kitten heels in the world, because ladies, behind the FHM mentality, all she really wants to do is dance.
Spinning Around sets the tone, with a giddy dancefloor hedonism that doesn't sound out of place next to Minogue's 1989 hit, Hand on Your Heart. And that's the point. For while she's singing "I'm not the same" one second, the next she's admitting to discovering her rightful place in the world. Because, for all her other musical dabblings, Minogue is pure, unadulterated pop, and where once she saw this truth as her weakness, now she's realised it's her strength. "And did I forget to mention/That I found a new direction," she sings, "And it leads back to me."
On a Night Like This and So Now Goodbye keep up the tempo and disco antics - you can feel the heat from the swirling multi-coloured lights as you listen to them - adding empowering notions of grabbing the best looking man in the club, then ditching him when you feel like it. But Minogue knows better than to think she can do it all alone. It was the less than subtle tweakings of Stock-Aitken- Waterman that gave her success and now she has turned to some more male musical heavyweights to get her back on track. Spice Girls collaborator Richard Stannard adds some polish to the flamenco flavoured Please Stay, while the songs co-written by Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers give Minogue the best lines.
There's the fantastic Kids, a duet with Williams also featured on his new album, and Loveboat, a homage to the 1970s TV show of the same name. The latter is a female response to Williams's Millennium - it sounds very similar but has a less cynical approach to love. The familiar references to martinis, bikinis and 007 are all there - Williams really should try joining a new video club - but so too are the verbal come-ons that'll either make you squirm or laugh out loud. "Rub on some lotion," Minogue pleads breathily, "the places I can't reach." More amusing still is Your Disco Needs You, a call to arms that the Village People would be proud of. Minogue has her tongue firmly in her cheek for this camp slice of epic disco that will doubtless become the obligatory soundtrack to every Christmas office party.
It's only when Minogue deviates from the fun that the album falters. Bittersweet Goodbye is an overblown ode to love that seems like an excuse for a video featuring satin sheets, while the title track is suitably spacey, though it still left me singing Brotherhood of Man's Angelo at the end. Ultimately, Minogue shines brightest in the blinding lights of a club and Light Years is an album that should be played as you force your boob-tube into place and drain the remnants of that can of hairspray before you go out. This time round Kylie's got it right” – The Guardian
Key Cut: Spinning Around
TWO: Impossible Princess
Release Date: 22nd October, 1997
Producers: Kylie Minogue (uncredited)/Dave Ball/James Dean Bradfield/Brothers in Rhythm/Jay Burnett/Rob Dougan/Dave Eringa/Ingo Vauk
Labels: Deconstruction/BMG/Mushroom
U.K. Chart Position: 5
Standout Tracks: Cowboy Style/Some Kind of Bliss/Breathe
Review:
“The world didn’t seem to know what to do with a cirrous voice singing about serious things. Minogue’s high-femme take on ennui had little similarity to Madonna’s late-’90s Earth Mother reincarnation, and even less in common with the grit and gristle of Grammy favorites like Alanis Morissette or Sheryl Crow. Minogue emphasized her comfort with higher registers on Impossible Princess’ most intimate songs like “Breathe,” an isolation chamber of airy subtlety, and “Say Hey,” a minimal techno trip cocooned in the purrs and sighs of self-pleasure. But the double standard ate at her. In 2020, she spoke of feeling like an imposter, asking rhetorically, “How are you being successful if they’re telling you that you can’t sing and your voice is not a valid voice?”
The notion of a pop star snatching the reins from label bigwigs to make a personal album is cliché. But Minogue’s late ’90s weren’t so much a matter of wresting control away from her bosses as working through their neglect. Deconstruction label head Pete Hadfield was unwell, and as a result the record company’s A&R department “hadn’t really been present for much of the album’s development,” wrote Minogue’s creative director William Baker in the 2002 book Kylie: La La La. “Creative control of the project was left with Kylie and Stéphane.” Minogue and Sednaoui were well-connected in the music world, but famous friends are no substitute for a seasoned A&R. A wider network of co-writers could have helped shape Minogue’s clunkier lyrics on songs like “Through the Years” and “Dreams”; additional producers might have opened the throttle on slight almost-anthems like “Cowboy Style” and the Japanese-edition bonus track “Tears.” The lack of support got to Minogue, who said in a 2000 interview with Rolling Stone Australia: “On some songs, lyrically it’s obvious to me now that I am saying, ‘I’m not waving. I am, in fact, drowning. Hello? Is there anybody there?’ At the time I felt like there was no one to help me.” A few months after the release of Impossible Princess, Deconstruction dropped her.
While Impossible Princess is Kylie Minogue at her most impish and spectacularly strange, it also offers insight into her private growing pains at a time when she felt abandoned by the music industry. Isolated and in a state of psychic turmoil, she threw off the burden of speaking for everyone and spoke only for herself. She is the girl who knows too much, who needs saving from herself. In its bracing honesty and crafty embrace of unexpected sounds, Impossible Princess shares a sibling bond with contemporaneous albums like Janet Jackson’s The Velvet Rope and Madonna’s Ray of Light, forming a trilogy of A-list experimental pop records in 1997-8 that addressed their artists’ fears, anxieties, and dreams. Minogue’s album is rather more scattered—fascinatingly so—but you can’t blame mainstream audiences for being reluctant to unpick a Gordian knot. Crucially, it has no euphoric floor-filler like “Together Again” or “Ray of Light,” moments of transcendence that drew pop fans to albums of wisdom and weight.
In her later music, Minogue avoided anything like Impossible Princess. She followed the record by signing to Parlophone and releasing 2000’s Light Years and 2001’s Fever, critical and commercial juggernauts that showcased Minogue at her dance-pop zenith. Understandably, she is no longer interested in creating music about her struggles. Not when civic duty beckons. In 2007, following a battle with cancer, Minogue released her tenth album, X, a collection of glossy electro-pop performed in structural outfits that resembled armor. Some wondered if she had considered bringing her private trauma into her music once again. “If I’d done an album of personal songs it’d be seen as Impossible Princess 2 and be equally critiqued,” she said. “I didn’t want every song to be about being ill. I wanted to do what I do” – Pitchfork
Key Cut: Did It Again
ONE: Fever
Release Date: 1st October, 2001
Producers: Steve Anderson/Rob Davis/Cathy Dennis/Greg Fitzgerald/Pascal Gabriel/Julian Gallagher/Tom Nichols/Mark Picchiotti/Richard Stannard/Paul Statham/TommyD
Label: Parlophone
U.K. Chart Position: 1
Standout Tracks: Love at First Sight/Can't Get You Out of My Head/In Your Eyes
Review:
“The sound of Fever is firmly rooted in the great disco sounds of the ’70s. There are no heavy techno or electronica overtones here. This is not a “Kylie 2001 model version 2.0”. Minogue has been keeping pace with the disco pulse for a number of years now. Hopefully this won’t be seen in the US as a ploy to be hip through retro fashion, as this truly isn’t the case at all. But it’s not entirely a bad thing to invoke a bit of classic Donna Summer, T.S.O.P., or Rufus. Indeed, Minogue has a whole lot of soul to sell on Fever, and she never misses once when aiming for her targets.
Lyrically, Fever is all about dancing, fucking, and having a good time. And really, hasn’t that been the same mix of topics that made for all the best disco? Why pretend that dance music should make one socially aware all the time? Look at what happened to Dee-Lite when they got heavy with the politics on their sophomore and third efforts — they lost the fans. There’s nothing wrong with injecting some messages into the lyrics every now and then, but dance music has essentially always been about having the Good Time. A great beat, a nice hook, and some easy to remember lyrics. Fever delivers truckloads of just that.
“Just slide . . . get your body down, down, down / And glide . . . I gotta feel you all around / Boy you got me wantin’ more, more, more / Just give it all up for love, babe” sings Minogue on the opening track “More, More, More”. A well-used backbeat thumps away in time to Kylie’s pulsing exposition as she makes clear just what it is she damn well wants as the disco bass gooses itself into a frenzy and the keyboards focus in on the kill. “Here am I and deep inside I’ve got a little spot for you” is Kylie’s promise to the listener. Rrowr.
While that’s all fine and funky, it’s the second song “Love at First Sight” where Fever really takes off. Where “More More More” is a nice intro to the album, it doesn’t really hint at just how genius the entire experience of listening to Fever will be. But “Love at First Sight” opens itself up to the listener with a sexy as hell melody and is one of the sexiest, funkiest classic disco songs that never was . . . until now. Against a muted backbeat and electric piano intro, “Love At First Sight” suddenly explodes into a giant, swirling sound that just begs you to get up and dance.
“Everything went from wrong to right / And the stars came out to fill up the sky / The music you were playin’ really blew my mind / It was love / At first sight”. See? So simple the lyrics are, yet still so easy to connect with, no matter if you’re 16 or 45. Then Minogue hits us with the giant chorus that exclaims “‘Cause baby when I heard you / For the first time / I knew / We were meant to be as one . . . ” as the sounds all of a sudden swirl back down into the drowned, muted sound leaving Kylie by herself for her a moment to sing before punching through the mix once again to elevate the listener to transfixing heights. Stunning
Minogue keeps up the sexual come on into the hit “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” that features that familiar Robin S. type of bass line which in turn propels the song along. It’s trim and funky, certainly something that couldn’t miss anywhere. But then the album shifts again and presents the title track, which should effectively make anyone a Kylie Minogue fan at first listen.
It’s another unbearably sexy song, as high synth notes pinpoint the rhythm, letting Kylie find her spot in the song for the perfect alluring line. And she delivers it in spades — again. “I’m ready for the news so tell me straight / Hey doctor, just what do you diagnose? / There ain’t a surgeon like you any place in all the world / So now, shall I remove my clothes?” As Jason Lee put it so perfectly in Mallrats: Damn that’s hot!
The thing that should certainly be pointed out regarding the sexuality found on Fever is that it always comes with a wink. Yes, it’s a bit naughty, but it’s never excessive. Like the rush one feels after a great first kiss and leaves them wondering what might happen next, the songs here work on the same kind of titillating level. They promise a lot, but never reveal too much. A nice peek at the legs in sultry stockings versus a full-on topless appearance, if you will. And that truly makes all the difference, and is what makes Fever work so beautifully.
It’s this formula of seductive groove alternating with a full on dance blast that works its way through the album. On “Give It to Me”, Minogue instructs us to “Take it slow / Slow down / Move to the rhythm that is in my mind” while the music goes in the opposite direction and tells your body to push it a little more on the dance floor. And then there’s the elegant, atmospheric “Fragile” that is possibly the best seductive number on an album filled with them.
“But I get butterflies / Water in my eyes / ‘Cause I’m fragile when I hear your name / Fragile when you call / This could be the nearest thing to love / And I’m fragile when I hear you speak / Fragile feeling small / This could be the closest thing to love” coos Kylie at the chorus. And once again, it’s so simple and direct and goes straight for the heart. Who hasn’t felt that way before when falling hard for someone? It’s critical as well for Kylie to show this side of herself to the listener, as it shows her to be just as vulnerable as anyone else, even amidst all the sexy promises that the other songs gave.
“Come Into My World” is also a plea for love, even if Minogue begs the listener to “Come . . . come . . . come into my world” and instructs to “[take] these hands that were made to touch and feel you”. And on “In Your Eyes” she simply confesses at the end of the song that she wants to “make it with you”. But the bed is not the only place to “lose it” as is shown on the track “Dancefloor”. Anyone who ever spent some time killing a few nights at the clubs will undoubtedly feel right at home with such sentiments as “On the dancefloor / Gonna lose it in the music / On the dancefloor / Got my body gonna use it / On the dancefloor / The best that you never had but now you’ve lost me / So come on watch me getting over you”. Cattiness never sounded so good.
As the rest of Fever plays out through “Love Affair”, “Your Love”, and “Burning Up”, not once does it miss. The formula for the mix was well calculated before the grooves were created and the album plays like a dream. If this doesn’t give Minogue her just dues here in the States, then it will be a shame. For Kylie has paid attention to what makes great dance music. She followed the recipes laid down so long ago that were surefire and has come up with a classic album of her own. It scores harder than Madonna’s Erotica could have ever dreamed of, and seduces better than any lightweight phony R&B currently choking the charts. Fever reminds us that it’s still cool to just have fun and let loose, and that the dance floor is still a place where everyone can come together for a while and just enjoy themselves. Don’t miss out on this one. There probably won’t be a better album like it all year long” – PopMatters
Key Cut: Come into My World