Kylie Minogue

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Essential Albums

  • Fever (Deluxe Edition)
    Fever (Deluxe Edition)
    Fever (Deluxe Edition)

    Kylie Minogue’s Fever is one of the defining albums of early ’00s pop, but it came about, in part, from Minogue finding herself at a crossroads. The Australian actor and singer had explored different aspects of pop since her cover of Little Eva’s “The Loco-Motion” established her as a dual threat in the late ’80s: She’d gone from fronting plush Stock Aitken Waterman tracks to digging into the ’90s alt boom’s electro side. In 2000, she released “Spinning Around”, which combined a buoyant synth-disco beat with lyrics that brought self-actualisation to the dance floor. The success of that single—and its attendant album, Light Years—laid the groundwork for 2001’s Fever. With tracks like the Village People-nodding “Your Disco Needs You” and the string-laden “Loveboat”, Light Years felt like a disco dress-up exercise at times. But Fever is both informed by its time and slightly ahead of it, with Minogue asserting herself as a new kind of diva—one who could command a dance floor with the power of a few sultry la-la-las. Those cooed syllables made the lead single, “Can’t Get You Out of My Head”, one of 2001’s biggest songs. Written by pop auteurs Cathy Dennis and Rob Davis, it proved to be an ideal fit for Minogue’s lithe soprano, its understated longing allowing her to flaunt her voice’s versatility and its percolating beat proving to be fertile ground for the then-nascent genre of mash-ups. The rest of Fever has a similar composure. “Love at First Sight”, led by Minogue’s joyous belt, heads back to the disco, then transports everyone inside to the 22nd century; “Come Into My World” is all heavy breathing and pulsing synths, its come-on working for the dance floor and bedroom alike. “Burning Up”, meanwhile, brings acoustic guitars into its spaced-out mix, foreshadowing her country-electro turn on 2018’s Golden while also showcasing her playful side. Minogue was in her early thirties during the Fever era, and her confidence provided a foil to the hyperactive teen-pop that ruled the charts at the time. She’d already been in the entertainment business for more than a decade by the time it came out, and she’d weathered its slings and arrows with poise and verve. Fever is the sound of Minogue planting her flag in pop’s summit, inviting listeners to a dimly lit, desire-fueled party happening there.  
  • Light Years (Deluxe Edition)
    Light Years (Deluxe Edition)
    Light Years (Deluxe Edition)

    With the release of Light Years in 2000, Kylie Minogue wasn’t just entering a new millennium—she was stepping into her second imperial phase. Her previous two albums, 1994’s Kylie Minogue and 1997’s Impossible Princess, were pointed departures from the chart-dominating hi-NRG pop that aided her transformation from Aussie soap star to household name, and explored everything from trip-hop beats to wavy psychedelia and scuzzy indie. But while that era birthed the exquisite “Confide in Me”—one of Minogue’s most innovative and celebrated songs—neither album reached the critical or commercial heights of her prior material (reception to Impossible Princess was particularly polarised, with Minogue—who had found creative liberation in the album—parting ways with her label after its release and vowing she’d never write such personal songs again). Viewed through that lens, the effervescent disco found on Light Years might be seen as a glitzy course correction. But to dismiss the record as vapid chart-chasing obfuscates its flamboyant eccentricities and Minogue’s adept musical references. The bubbling verses on “Disco Down” riff on Abba’s “Does Your Mother Know” before laying on a syrupy chorus that’s pure Diana Ross; the poolside glimmer of “Loveboat” feels like Barry Manilow with a Y2K facelift; “Koocachoo” sounds as if The All Seeing I’s interpretation of Sonny and Cher’s “The Beat Goes On” is soaring on a sugar high. Of course, the singles proved Light Years’ success. “Spinning Around” might now be best remembered for its video and those gold hot pants, but the track is a dance-floor delight, with its slices of robotic vocoder, effusive flourishes of strings and Minogue’s cooing come-ons, while the strobing “On a Night Like This” throbs with sweaty desire. Then there’s “Kids”, one of the 2000s’ most sexually charged duets—the chemistry between Minogue and Robbie Williams so steamy that you can still feel the heat all these years later. At the heart of the album, though, is Light Years’ crown jewel: “Your Disco Needs You”. Part call-to-arms, part fist-pumping floor-filler, unapologetically camp and gloriously extravagant, it proved so popular that fans protested Minogue’s UK label when it wasn’t made a single. Light Years was the first step into Minogue’s globe-dominating next era. After it would come 2001’s Fever—it remains her biggest ever album, on which she dragged disco and dance pop into the 21st century with an amalgam of inescapable hooks and French house production—followed by Body Language, which covered it all in a layer of sexed-up sophistication. If Light Years proved anything, it was that disco didn’t need us, it needed Kylie Minogue.

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About Kylie Minogue

Australia’s biggest pop icon is a master of shape-shifting, with a silvery voice that adapts to spunky novelty dance tracks as well as sleek synth-pop and a theatrical bent that turns her live shows into spectacles. Born in Melbourne in 1968, Kylie Minogue got her start in acting, debuting on the soap opera Neighbours in her teen years and almost immediately becoming one of the nation’s most beloved television actors. A benefit performance led to the release of her first single, a cover of Little Eva’s “The Loco-Motion”, in 1987; it became a hit in Australia, and her 1988 re-recording of it, helmed by the superproducer team Stock Aitken Waterman, was a worldwide smash. The new version was included on her 1988 debut, Kylie, a collection of frothy pop highlighted by the sparkling “I Should Be So Lucky”. Minogue continued her relationship with SAW until the 1993 release of Kylie Minogue, which was recorded with club-oriented producers including M People and Brothers In Rhythm. Her aesthetic matured during the ’90s, both in her solo work and on the Nick Cave duet “Where the Wild Roses Grow”. In 2001, the slick “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” blew up in clubs and on the radio, and its accompanying album, Fever, featuring the buoyant “Love At First Sight” and the sinuous “Come Into My World”, re-established Minogue as a pop force. She later worked with pop gurus like Stuart Price and Greg Kurstin on tracks such as the sumptuous “All the Lovers” and the peppy “Wow”, flirted with country and disco, indulged her art-house side in films like Holy Motors, and embarked on ambitious tours that showcased her flair for the dramatic—and her long-honed ability to captivate audiences.

HOMETOWN
Melbourne, Australia
BORN
28 May 1968
GENRE
Pop

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