Kylie Minogue - Aphrodite (album review)

"Aphrodite is a joyful collection of uplifting pop songs destined to make people smile and dance."

(LA VERSION FRANCAISE DE CET ARTICLE SE TROUVE DANS LA PARTIE COMMENTAIRES)

Oh, Kylie. Sure, she's one of the most adorable popstars ever. She's got quite a lot of fantastic pop songs in her bag. She's a hard worker. She's a survivor. She seems genuinely nice. The kind of person you'd like to be friends with. No surprise us fans have been more than indulgent when she released Body Language and its string of half-arsed, underwhelming songs (Red-Blooded Woman, I'm talking about you). No surprise we tried to see the positive in the whole X debacle: 2 Hearts being an odd choice as first single, the whole double-second-single-depending-on-where-you-live-like-it's-1994-all-over-again-and-the-internet-doesn't-exist thing, The One being sacrificed (it peaked at #36 in the UK), awful tracks (Cosmic, Stars, All I See) making the cut on the record instead of great ones being used as b-sides or bonus (Ripping Up The Disco, I Don't Know What It Is) etc. At the end of the day Kylie deserves to be forgiven for the mishandling she's not even responsible of.

Truth is, what we were all waiting for was a real Kylie Minogue album. Dance. Fun. Consistence. Slick production. Huge singles. No fillers. Something like Fever or Light Years, to be honest. Well it seems like Aphrodite, Kylie's 11th studio album is a return to form, to say the least.

The first good sign was All The Lovers. The 100% positive, uplifting and sexy first single made its job the way it was supposed to: it made people interested and excited for the album. The video, the photoshoot and the promo appearences were perfectly controlled and therefore made the song a real grower. A perfect choice, leading the way for the whole project. Aphrodite is a celebration of love, happiness and pleasure. Of course, if you're expecting Kylie to sing about serious matters and be the voice of a generation, you're in for disappointment. She's never been like that, and that's maybe why people love her so much. She's an entertainer in the most noble way, and she's clever enough not to involve herself in The Great Matters Of The World like, say, Madonna. That said, her more "profound" albums of the 90s contain some of her best tracks (Confide In Me, Limbo, Too Far, Breathe...).
Back to Aphrodite. Stuart Price having his hands on the whole thing garantees a certain efficiency in the BPM department, as proved by the huge and probable future singles Get Outta My Way and Put Your Hands Up. Though lacking originality, they certainly do the trick and bring Spinning Around-Kylie back on her feet. Closer is probably the most modern-sounding track here. It's pretty much Kylie's take on Gaga and other female pop newcomers but way better, and more heartfelt. A true smash. Everything Is Beautiful, the track written by Keane's Tim Rice-Oxley, has a nice melody but lacks edge, pretty much like most of Keane's songs. Then comes Aphrodite, the second highlight of the record. It was written by Nerina Pallot (a favourite of mine) and brings Kylie into confident and fighting territory, with its military drumming and empowering lyrics ("I got soul, you can check.../I got spirit you can feel..." and "I'm fierce and I'm feeling mighty/I'm a golden girl, I'm an Aphrodite"). It's hard to resist this one. On the other hand, Illusion never really takes of. Let's say it's a fine album track with a pleasant soft-electro melody but that's it.
Better Than Today takes things to another level. The second track by Nerina is quite different from the rest of the album, more substantial maybe, and it's undoubtedly the most catchy and sexy song on it. Kylie premiered it last year on her US Tour, and since then (and the YouTube videos) it was a favourite of mine. Here in all its sizzling glory, it's faultless. Too Much, the collaboration between Minogue, Calvin Harris and Scissor Sister Jake Shears is not as huge and exciting as one could have expected given the talents involved, but it definitely is a dancefloor stomper that doesn't miss its aim: make you dance. Funnily enough, the last three tracks are still growing on me. I found them rather generic at first, but they're in fact full of charms and have fantastic bits: Cupid Boy's pre-chorus and actual chorus, Looking For An Angel's strings, ah-ah-ahs and chorus and finally Can't Beat The Feeling's chorus -it's pretty neat too. Maybe Heartstrings, the bonus track produced by Xenomania, could have been included because it would have closed the record in a very nice way, but hey, who am I to suggest that?!

SO: let's rejoice, the Body Language days are long gone. Even the Parlophone marketing team seem to have learnt from the very bad X campaign. So far, so good, it seems like this new era is going to be a very exciting and successful one and it's fair to say that Kylie deserves it, offering her fans (but not only them) a joyful collection of uplifting pop songs destined to make people smile and dance. Frankly I'm fine with that, you'll find me on the dancefloor.

Source: http://itspop.blogspot.com/2010/07/kylie-minogue-aphrodite-album-review.html