Light years ahead of her competition
Artiste: Kylie Minogue
Nationality: Australian
Album: Light years
Year: 2000
Label: Parlophone
Genre: Pop/Dance/Electronic
Tracks
Spinning around
On a night like this
So now goodbye
Disco down
Loveboat
Koocachoo
Your disco needs you
Please stay
Bittersweet goodbye
Butterfly
Under the influence of love
I'm so high
Kids
Light years
Chronological position: Seventh album
Familiarity: “Body language”, “Aphrodite”
Interesting Factoid: This is, to my knowledge, the only time two top-selling albums, released in the same year, contained the same track track, which was also released as a single. From
both albums!
Impression: Not half as bad as I thought it would be!
Best track(s): (Other than the ones I already knew)
Disco down, Your disco needs you, Bittersweet goodbye, Light years
Worst track(s): Butterfly, I'm so high
Intention: Perhaps listen to a a few more of her albums, selectively.
Comments: I have often waxed lyrical about the wonderful attributes and beauty of Kylie's behind (and I stand by that: well, I would if I had the chance!), but it has always seemed to me that I listen to --- perhaps even “tolerate” might be a better, if less kind, word --- Kylie because of how pretty and sexy she is, and that her music, for me, comes a very long way behind (sorry!) her other delights. I was hoping to redress (SHUT it!) this imbalance by actually taking the time to listen to some of her albums. I've been disappointed with “Aphrodite” to the point of despair, thought “Body language” was a good deal better than I had expected, and that's about it for me as far as Kylie's music goes. So here I am, trying again to see if there's proper decent music behind the, ah, image. Or not.
I already know this is seen as one of Kylie's most dance-oriented albums, and indeed it was this very return to form that sparked something of a renaissance for her, garnering her a number one hit and a number two, and also a duet with bad boy Robbie Williams, which gave the two of them another hit. I'm not therefore expecting much in the way of wild experimentation, guitar solos or even touching ballads, but is it all just fluff? Even I can't help dancing clumsily around to “Spinning around” (and who could forget THAT video?) and I've heard “On a night like this” before, and it's not too bad really. A lot of the rest reminds me of the old seventies disco era, like EWF and Chic, that sort of thing, with a fairly healthy dose of ABBA thrown into the mix. Not half as annoying or bland as I expected it to be, to be fair.
Quite a fun album too, bubbly and a little over-the-top at times, certainly verging into camp territory with tracks like
Loveboat and
Your disco needs you, though not pitching there for the night and swiftly moving on (geddit?) with a really nice ballad, very moving. Interesting that a few of the songs are written or co-written by Robbie Williams and his songwriting partner-in-crime, Guy Chambers, though Kylie herself does have input to nearly all the tracks, proving she's not just a singer of other people's songs. Intriguing cover of Barry White's
Under the influence of love as well. Of course, the famous duet between her and Robbie is on this, and I think is the only time the same track appeared on two albums at once, released from both as a single.
Yeah, this is not a bad album. I'd certainly spin it the odd time. Now I feel a little less guilty lusting after Kylie. A little.