Kylie, X
Set the scene: i've never listened to an entire kylie album before. i have Ultimate Kylie which is basically a singles collection. my favorite tracks are, 'breathe' / 'did it again' from the deconstruction era, and the singles from Body Language (perhaps cos they were written with my heroines Emiliana Torrini and Karen Poole).
The journey: I wasn't really expecting much from X. Judging from afar as a non-fan I feel like deconstruction showed promise, light years went retrograde, and since then shes been clawing slowly back up to credibility. fever gave good singles but most importnantly gave us iconic images courtesy of will baker and Body language tightrope walked image was flawless, singles a little quirky for the mainstream. bring in xenomania and scissor sisters for two new greatest hits releases and who know which direction she would head next.
2 hearts: not knowing what to expect or indeed expecting much to like from kylie's latest, made me feel kinda unecessarily deflated that 2 hearts wasnt more amazing. but what did i want it to be? im not sure? i saw a lazy goldfrappian song replacing elector blips with guitars and it left me and the charts cold.
x: so entering X is unsignposted territory who knew where it would take us... and the verdict is: i really really like it. im stil surprised by that myself.
'i wanted to write a song called cosmic' is almost a microcosm of the entire album. she has taken that step back and evaluated what worked, what didnt, what she is admired for, the electro dance, the quirky pop expermients the heartfelt ballads, so that X seems to echo so much of her past that it feels truly like it wraps up all those strange falsestarts and misdirections of this huge pop career and points full focus on kylie.
'Like a drug' and 'In your arms' (and later 'Im the one') are to my ear, full of that specific fever dance style that Kylie perfected herself, but as potential singles they are kinda light and sub 'i believe in you' tracks that as the kylie show deomstrated would make lovely ballads as well as dance tracks but here seem to be a bit likefever rejects, fan pleasers maybe? (im the one , yes michaelangelo saves it, but i find the chorus to be weak and needy love me love me...)
'Speakerphone' is the bloodshy and avant track which channels so much of Uffies 'pop the glock' that its practically an illegal homage. kylie does it better. its less harsh more listenable and a nice quirky track that my subconcious, apparently, had been hoping for. i love this track anyway.
'Sensistised' is another ace track, chocolateesque its has a nice hook and breathy backing, its sexual kylie.
Checking the album credits its nice to see my quirky miss poole providing some nice co-writes with minogue herself. i feel like karen poole truly gets the dark erotic pop that i think kylie wants to create. i hear karen all over 'chocolate' and 'red blooded woman' and i always imagined she demo'd them for kylie and it was like she held a mirror up to kylie herself, and karen was both left huming in the backing track and aped in the lead vocals. here they give us some sublime tracks. 'heart beat rock' is solid filler, its another Uffie style track; probably written to make speakerphone less of a standout, but also a nice lead into Nu-Di-Ty later) 'Nu-di-ty' is probaly the dividing track i like it but its experimental nature can make it feel a bit too try hard. but i like my kylie avant garde i have now decided. also this dynamic duo provide 'no more rain' kylies new over the rainbow unapologetically hopeful cure-all, a little bit like pink elephants and lemonade... mm?
Most importantly they give us 'WoW' the best song on the album, its just huge. i hear B*witched echos for me early on i so have to find the track it reminds me of to prove it. (i think its rev it up?! or maybe 'never giving up') regardless this should be the big single from this album?
'all i see' and 'stars' are perhaps filler for me, but they are solid tracks and echo so much of kylies past that u suddenly find yourself having spent a pleasent 45minutes in the presence of kylie herself in all her incarnations. i think no matter what type of kylie fan you are there must be so much to love on here that shes really pulled it off. this is a perfect album and for those future generations, to whom kylie will once again mean boomerang and not much else, asking with wondering eyes what kylie was, what did she sound like, and why was she so revered, X will, for me, be the only response.
