|
Australia's pop singer Kylie Minogue has been living on
a steady diet of glittering synths and club music atmospherics
for years. It's been working for her all this time, so why change
what works? Her tenth studio album appropriately named X,
after the Roman numerical for 10, has all original songs made
from collaborations with Guy Chambers (Robbie Williams,
Natasha Bedingfield), Cathy Dennis (Britney Spears,
Spice Girls), and Bloodshy & Avant (Madonna,
Britney Spears) who share songwriting credits on 7 of the
13 tracks. The album has samples of the disco shimmer of A
Taste Of Honey, the new wave sonic mosaics of Vitamin C,
and the modern dance floor-pop/techno-tronics of Nelly Furtado.
Fader magazine recently devoted an issue to the resurgence of
New Disco, and X is proof positive that Kylie Minogue is
indeed the Queen of New Disco.
The finger-snapping beats of "2 Hearts" maintain a
sexy strut through the club music vibrations which plug in electro-pop
climaxes and slides wedging the melodic folds. X has a
lot of showgirl tune themes like "2 Hearts," including
"Like A Drug" and "Speakerphone" which also
have segments of Kylie's vocals going through a vocoder to make
her sound automatronic. The songs stimulate the senses the way
love potions are conventionally thought to do, only Minogue uses
club music atmospherics and techno-splashes. "In My Arms"
is steeply heeled in the spinning disco motions of yesteryear,
and the bulleting techno skids of "Heart Beat Rock"
are hooked in hip-hop. The synth textures of "Sensitized"
sound off with the resonance of elegantly seafaring mandolins,
while the electro-pop fluff of "No More Rain" is reflective
of the sugar-coated dancefloor synths of Minogue's early days.
The track "Wow" brings back the vocoder distortions
transforming Minogue's singing into robotic drips as sections
of exorbitant conflagrations bulk up and recede with expedient
flashes. Minogue's vocal curls in "Nu-di-ty" add to
the showgirl tune theme, while her voice resounds to a lullaby
pitch on "Cosmic" nestling close to the silky synths
and curvy melodic shifts. Angelic strings hover as bashful piano
keys undertow the track.
It should be no surprise that Kylie Minogue's album is sheer
escapism. The songs let you step into another realm, one where
friction and discontent do not exist as Minogue steps into the
part of the genie, transporting you some place else. Kylie Minogue's
music has the same appeal it always has; for the duration of the
album, you are taken elsewhere, preferably some place that you
would like to be.
-Susan Frances
Check out
more reviews
 Talk
Back
e-mail the chief
Like this article?
e-mail
it to a friend!
|
Kylie
Minogue
