Posted February 10, 200719 yr http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/pic200/drP200/P252/P25201KYOC1.jpg Kylie Minogue Biography by Ed Nimmervoll Although she's only managed a few hits in the U.S. since her arrival as a singer in 1987, Kylie Minogue is both Australia and Europe's biggest selling female pop singer over that period and a pop culture icon in those areas. Her image on the cover of magazines is guaranteed to produce extra sales. But a singing career was never what Minogue had in mind for herself. Minogue was born on May 28, 1968, in Melbourne. In 1979, she began her acting career in the Australian TV drama series Skyways, eventually gaining a starring role in a children's series, The Henderson Kids, before achieving national fame in the five-days-a-week soap opera Neighbours. Around the time Minogue joined, Neighbours also started airing in the U.K. A major celebrity on the basis of her Neighbours popularity, Minogue had agreed to give a charity performance in the company of other personalities, choosing to sing Little Eva's "Loco-Motion. Someone hit on the idea of submitting a tape of the performance to local record company, Mushroom, who didn't think much of the demo, but saw the potential in releasing a single by the extremely popular young TV star. In their wildest dreams no one imagined a national number one record with the recorded version of "Loco-Motion" (July 1987). At that time, Mushroom Records had formed a business relationship with London hit factory Stock Aitken and Waterman (Dead or Alive, Mel and Kim, Samantha Fox, Bananarama, Rick Astley) who also saw potential in working with the popular actress, but she wasn't a priority. In fact, when Minogue turned up at their London studios they had forgotten she was coming and quickly wrote her a song while she waited. The result, "I Should Be So Lucky," gave Minogue the second of her six Australian number one singles and the first of her five English number ones. Now she became a priority for Stock Aitken and Waterman. As was their way, Stock Aitken and Waterman wrote and produced her records and they controlled her video image. Their re-recorded "Loco-Motion" put Minogue in the Top Ten in the U.S. In Australia, the U.K., and Europe, Minogue was scoring hit after hit and quickly left Neighbours to meet the demand on her. If she was ever just along for the ride, Minogue took her first step towards control over her career with her 1990 single "Better the Devil You Know," not letting Stock Aitken and Waterman see the video she was making for the song until it was completed. SAW insisted on casting her in a girl-next-door mode, while Minogue opted for a saucier Madonna-like image. It ensured her continued success and reputation as a celebrity beyond the pop charts. With her fourth album, Let's Go to It (1991), the singer also insisted on lyrical input. Kylie Minogue ended up leaving Stock Aitken and Waterman and recorded two albums, Kylie Minogue and Impossible Princess, with London dance label Deconstruction. A romantic relationship with INXS singer Michael Hutchence had encouraged her to experiment musically. While the backbone of both albums was the Brothers in Rhythm team Minogue was keen to work with a variety of people. One unlikely collaboration saw a duet with Nick Cave, especially written by Cave for his Murder Ballads album. "Where the Wild Flowers Grow" featured a nude Minogue floating dead in the water for its video. While Impossible Princess represented another major career turning point in Australia — Minogue's transition to a concert performer — in Europe the album was not considered a success. In 2000, she was encouraged by the Pet Shop Boys to switch to their label, Parlophone, and she re-emerged as the pop princess of old with the critical hit Light Years. The single "Spinning Around," went number one in both England and Australia. Her reign in music continued in 2001. Minogue issued Fever in October on the heels of the successful single "Can't Get You Out of My Head." Such hype around the song allowed it to become an global smash, earning Minogue two Brit Awards in February 2002 for "Best International Female" and "Best International Album" for Fever. Shortly thereafter, Fever was released in the U.S. on Capitol, landing Minogue her biggest U.S. hit with "Can't Get You Out of My Head" in nearly fifteen years. Spots on MTV's TRL and Saturday Night Live proved her power. Body Language appeared in 2004. Without anything approaching Madonna's musical strength, like Madonna Minogue has ensured her survival with imaginative videos and by keeping fans guessing and intrigued with consistent changes of personal image. She has also appeared in a number of movies over the years. 1999's Cut with Molly Ringwald was her eighth film appearance.
February 10, 200719 yr Author http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc400/c482/c482045222d.jpg Kylie (Dec 1988) 2.5 Stars Review by Chris True While the production values on Kylie's debut are dated at best and the tunes are nothing but standard late-'80s Stock-Aitken-Waterman bubblegum, there are some rather endearing qualities to it. Firstly, she shows a lot more personality than the other Stock, et al. frontperson, Rick Astley. Secondly, her cuteness makes these rather vapid tracks bearable. Her cover of "Loco-Motion" made only small waves in the U.S., but this was the album that launched her career as both pop star and icon in Europe.
February 10, 200719 yr Author http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/dre700/e733/e73343sihkn.jpg Enjoy Yourself (1989) 2.5 Stars Review by Chris True Given that it's the same team that put together her first LP, it's no surprise that Enjoy Yourself sounds very similar to her debut. Which is fine if you take into consideration that at the time this formula was pure gold. Europe went mad for the diminutive Australian, and this simple dance-pop is catchy stuff. Stock-Aitken-Waterman knew what they had and they crafted songs that kept Kylie in the public eye. All in all, a good companion to her debut.
February 10, 200719 yr Author http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf300/f363/f36328sbej0.jpg Rhythm Of Love (1990) 3 Stars Review by Chris True Yes, it's still simple Stock-Aitken-Waterman dance-pop, but Rhythm of Love is leaps and bounds more mature than Kylie's first two releases. The songwriting is stronger, the production dynamic, and Kylie seems more confident vocally. And while Kylie and Enjoy Yourself were collections of songs to back up singles, this is a more complete album, with many of the tracks — "Things Can Only Get Better" a prime example — single worthy. Definitely her best work from the Stock-Aitken-Waterman era.
February 10, 200719 yr Author http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drd700/d733/d73314m1099.jpg Let's Get to It (1991) 2.5 Stars Review by Chris True While it's certainly as danceable as Rhythm of Love, Let's Get to It seems to try too hard. By this point in her career, Kylie had transformed from her innocent dance-pop image to what the press dubbed "SexKylie." Obviously, this wasn't accidental on her part. From the title to the heavy breathing effects to the kind of creepy cover pic, this is Kylie as a self-made sex kitten. What makes this album interesting musically is that she has taken creative control of her career as well as image control. She co-wrote much of the record, and while there are some noticeable missteps (the stadium keyboard part that lays the foundation of "I Guess I Like It Like That," for example), she shows potential. Not her most solid release, but fans of her early work will enjoy it.
February 10, 200719 yr Author http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf300/f366/f36660cr6v8.jpg Kylie Minogue (1994) 3 Stars Review by Chris True Meant as a statement of her new direction, Kylie Minogue's fifth album no longer featured the Stock-Aitken-Waterman production gloss and found the diminutive singer working with hip dance producers like David Seaman. From the first notes of the opener "Confide in Me," you know this is not the teen pop queen of old. Kylie Minogue (also note the use of her last name on the cover) wanted to sound grown up, and she pulls it off with ease. While it is still dance-pop, there's atmosphere and style in the songs that wasn't there on Let's Get to It. Definitely the start of the second phase of her career.
February 10, 200719 yr Author http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drd700/d748/d748498b3bd.jpg Impossible Princess (1997) 4 Stars Review by Chris True By 1997, much of the pop music landscape had changed. The music papers were declaring the "Techno Revolution" was on, Oasis and Manic Street Preachers were ruling the charts, and simple dance-pop seemed to be the domain of teenage girls. So what does the dance-pop diva of the '90s do? She recruits Manic Street Preachers' James Dean Bradfield, Sean Moore, and Nicky Wire, starts writing unaided, and completely changes musical direction. Enter Kylie Minogue's Impossible Princess (the title was changed to Kylie Minogue after the death of Princess Diana). From the trippy cover art to the abundance of guitars and experimental vocal tracks, this was her "great leap forward." The move got her in the papers, but, unfortunately, critical acclaim was lacking. So were sales. Critics called it a mistake, and the public was less than impressed. Which is sad, because this is a pretty damn good record. Unlike her early work, this album sounds stronger and has a more natural feel. Her songwriting abilities have come a long way, and Impossible Princess actually flows together as an album. Worth another look.
February 10, 200719 yr Author http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drd700/d748/d748551krak.jpg Intimate & Live (Feb 2, 1999) 3 Stars Review by Chris True This two-disc set was recorded during Kylie's Impossible Princess tour. While most of the newer tracks are solid and sound close to the album versions, her soft dance-pop version of the Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" is downright awful. Mainly for die-hard collectors, less familiar fans will want to check out a greatest hits compilation or her 1997 album Impossible Princess.
February 10, 200719 yr Author http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf000/f054/f05472hxvup.jpg Light Years (Sep 25, 2000) 4 Stars Review by Chris True In 1998, Kylie Minogue was dropped by dance label DeConstruction, and some thought she had committed career suicide. Obviously the backlash of 1997's Impossible Princess taught the diminutive Aussie one important lesson. Sometimes you have to just go with what you know — go back to basics. And that's just what Minogue has done with 2000s Light Years. Symbolically dropping her last name from the cover, she re-enters the territory that made her great. Granted, with the teen pop movement at its strongest, one could say she just has good timing, but this work is leaps and bounds better than her Stock-Aitken-Waterman work. Light Years is not just another Minogue dance-pop record, but a great collection of disco stylings and Europop kitsch. "Spinning Around" is a fun and string-laden declaration that she may have made a mistake back in 1997, and the Robbie Williams-/Guy Chambers-penned "Your Disco Needs You" is probably one of the best dance songs of the last ten years. Arguably one of the best disco records since the '70s, Light Years is Minogue comfortable with who she is and what she's good at.
February 10, 200719 yr Author http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/dri300/i374/i37440b4cv8.jpg Fever (Feb 26, 2002) 4.5 Stars Review by Chris True Fame can be a fleeting mistress, and nowhere more so than in the land of dance-pop divas. Many are lucky enough to have a hit album, much less two or three. What usually takes a one-hit wonder from the singles charts to career diva lies less in catchy hooks than in a combination of talent and the choice of collaborators. Obviously, the master of this technique is Madonna, whose talent and eye for talent in others has made her not only a worldwide pop sensation, but a worldwide icon. Arguably, running a close second is Kylie Minogue. Starting off as not much more than a female voice for the massively successful Stock, Aitken & Waterman hit factory, she moved on to work with some of the most prominent dance producers of the early '90s, making her one of the most visible pop stars outside of the United States. By 1997, she moved on to working with writers outside the genre. While this may have translated into poor record sales, her motives were in the right place. With 2001's Fever, Minogue combines the disco-diva comeback of the previous year's Light Years with the trend of highly simple dance rhythms which was prevalent in the teen dance-pop craze of the years surrounding the album's release. While on the surface that might seem like an old dog trying to learn new tricks, Minogue pulls it off with surprising ease. The first single, "Cant Get You out of My Head," is a sparse, mid-tempo dance number that pulses and grooves like no other she's recorded, and nothing on Light Years was as funky as the pure disco closer of "Burning Up." And while it's hard not to notice her tipping her hat to the teen pop sound (in fact, on this record she works with Cathy Dennis, former dance-pop star and writer/producer for Brit-teen pop group S Club 7) on songs like "Give It to Me" and "Love at First Sight," her maturity helps transcend this limiting tag, making this a very stylish Euro-flavored dance-pop record that will appeal to all ages. Not one weak track, not one misplaced syrupy ballad to ruin the groove. The winning streak continues. [The U.S. version, released in early March of 2002, included the hidden tracks "Boy" and "Butterfly" — a B-side and Light Years album track, respectively.]
February 10, 200719 yr Author http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drg100/g167/g16791abwgi.jpg Body Language (Feb 10, 2004) 4.5 Stars Review by Chris True 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.
February 10, 200719 yr Author http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/dre200/e215/e21574axizh.jpg Greatest Hits [1994] 4.5 Stars Review by Chris True An excellent overview of the first half of Minogue's career, this 1994 collection is the place to start. Lifting the singles and better album tracks from her first four albums, this is chock-full of the light dance-pop that made Minogue one of the biggest European pop stars of the late '80s/early '90s. With tracks like "Loco-Motion," "Better the Devil You Know," and "What Do I Have to Do?," it's absolutely perfect for the unknowing.
February 10, 200719 yr Author http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf200/f231/f231243xuox.jpg Hits + (Nov 7, 2000) 4.5 Stars Review by MacKenzie Wilson Capitalizing on her surging popularity in the States, Arista found themselves promoting Kylie Minogue in early 2002 with the reissue of her Hits + album. This particular record highlights the cuts that made Minogue an indie darling in Europe in the mid-'90s, reflecting back on her 1994 self-titled effort and 1997's Impossible Princess. American fans might be put off just a bit, for this material is less frilly and far darker than Fever's smash single, "Can't Get You Out of My Head." But it's still stylish. She's a vocal seductress on cuts like the previously unreleased "Automatic Love" and "Breathe." "Confide in Me" and "Did It Again" are also standouts. Hits + is perfect for any fan, but it's also a great retrospective for those eager fans who are beginning to discover the wild musical world of Kylie Minogue.
February 10, 200719 yr Author http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drg000/g084/g08492js8yd.jpg Greatest Hits 87-97 [bMG] (Oct 21, 2003) 4.5 Stars Review by Chris True Kylie Minogue's story of success may seem a bit odd to those who weren't aware of her dominance over the pop charts in Europe, Asia, and Australia during the '90s. To most stateside listeners, she was a strange anomaly. She appeared for a moment in the late '80s with a ditzy cover of "The Loco-Motion," and then 15 years later returned as a stylish Euro-babe with "Can't Get You Out of My Head." Also during this time, Minogue pretty much turned a blind eye to America, going through career ups and downs without even bothering to release any of her material in the U.S. It's a shame, really, because while many wrote her off for her 1987 cutesiness, she spent the '90s maturing and developing new ideas that would allow her to become the closest thing to Madonna that Australia — or even Europe for that matter — could come up with. Enter this collection, released in 2003, which finally puts together a valid and well-represented (yet oddly out of chronological order) anthology of what Americans were missing. All the singles are here, from the first album up to and including her "difficult" last record for deconstruction, Impossible Princess. As an extra bonus, the second CD is loaded with new and rare remixes that are certainly worth having. For those who were surprised by her sudden reappearance, this will fill in the picture quite nicely, and for those who just couldn't get enough of Minogue upon hearing her for the first time in 2002, Greatest Hits 87-97 will surely satisfy.
February 10, 200719 yr Author http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drg600/g635/g63545zmoj4.jpg Ultimate Kylie (Feb 1, 2005) 4.5 Stars Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine There certainly hasn't been a shortage of Kylie Minogue hits compilations. Not all of them may have hit American shores, since she's never been as popular in the U.S. as she's been in Europe and her native Australia, and that only adds to the confusion. Some comps are identical in all territories, some only show up in the U.K., some only cover the first part of her career, some only the latter. Instead of merely enhancing the confusion, the 2004 compilation Ultimate Kylie clarifies matters by offering all of her big hits over the course of a double-disc, 33-song collection. While this doesn't run in chronological order — a problem that plagues nearly all of Kylie's comps — it nevertheless gives all the hits, both big and small, in one place, which means that this not only makes this ideal for fans for all levels of dedication, it means that Ultimate Kylie lives up to its billing.
February 10, 200719 yr Author http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/dri300/i380/i38071hxdrb.jpg Showgirl Homecoming Live (Jan 8, 2007) No Review Yet.
February 11, 200719 yr Thanks for this. :D Those reviews made really interesting reading. I was surprised they rated Body Language so highly, considering it gets panned so much. :o
