As she rises from the frothy waves of throbbing disco beats, the queen of disco, Kylie Minogue, establishes one basic truth: we may go gaga over Gaga, and do it again and again with Britney, but when it comes to dance-pop, we just can’t get Kylie out of our head! With her eleventh studio album, the diminutive songstress celebrates her dance-floor roots, and in doing so, revels in beauty and love in a mood very different from her dark predecessor album, X.
While her collaboration with hefty names in the electronica genre, like Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters, Madonna collaborator Stuart Price and Calvin Harris seem to create a mark, this time around, it’s Kylie being Kylie all over again, and unabashedly so! While the album isn’t as high-tempo as and grungy as X or as downtempo as Light Years, it walks the tight-rope between the ends of the spectrum as deftly as she did on her biggest success till date, Fever.
The album’s strength lies in that it showcases a more unified soundscape than Minogue’s previous outings. Keeping the tracks sleek, elegant and very easy on the ears, it runs the danger of being lightweight candyfloss fare, but never loses dignity.
The most notable track on the album is ‘All The Lovers’, whose squiggly synths create a reverberating tone similar to ‘In Your Eyes’ and ‘Secret’. Frothy, addictive and intensely hummable, the song is a hands-on winner! With ‘Get Outta My Way’ she exudes a brazen confidence coupled with an electro-pop femininity that reminds us greatly of Madonna’s Music phase. While it isn’t exactly an Alison Krauss critic-pleaser, it rouses and grooves deftly.
Tracks like ‘Put Your Hands Up’, ‘Closer’ and ‘Can’t Beat The Feeling’ remind us time and again of the Fever-era, and her fusion of 80’s disco hangover with 21st century Europop and electro-pop. ‘Illusion’ takes a very MGMT/Phoenix-esque turn, with dance-pop infused with a taste of alternative electronica. One can find roving similarities between this number and MGMT’s ‘Kids’.
One major misstep on the album, however remains ‘Everything is Beautiful’, where she uses her vocals, which isn’t exactly her strongest talent! Sounding like another number from the bounty of Britney’s ballads, its words are laughable and are painfully immature. ‘Better Than Today’, is also highly passable, with no replay value whatsoever.
However, for every bad song, she comes up with a track like ‘Aphrodite’ that marks her genius with fast, groovy beats. This track showcases why she has such mindboggling enduring power akin to Madonna’s! However, while Madonna rules owing to her chameleon-like ability to change, Minogue exists and endures because of her loyalty to her listeners and her sound. She gives them what she is good…nopes…GREAT at! She makes us dance and practise those precious pelvic thrusts that Bollywood has taught us! “I'm fierce and I'm feeling mighty, I'm a golden girl, I'm an Aphrodite”, she croons alluringly, in a passionate fit of seductive narcissism! And this time it seems to be clothed in brazen Gaultier regalia!
While the album doesn’t take any experimental routes at all, it remains an addictive listen! At the end, while she proclaims proudly “Dance, It’s all I wanna do”, we figure that’s all we would want to do, too. Therein lies the magic of Minogue… in coercing us to groove to the glittering disco lights and the shimmering dancefloors, with never a dull moment to spare!
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