funky does Kylie: "DISCO" (2020)

08 All The Lovers
07 Get Outta My Way
05 Put Your Hands Up (If You Feel Love)
08 Closer
07 Everything Is Beautiful
08 Aphrodite
05 Illusion
06 Better Than Today
03 Too Much
03 Cupid Boy
07 Looking For An Angel
06 Can't Beat The Feeling

Nothing troubles my top list, but it's almost complete now. I'm adding the title track to my Kylie playlist.

Current Top 20:

1. Sweet Music (Body Language)
2. Breathe (Impossible Princess)
3. Confide In Me (Kylie Minogue)
4. Step Back In Time (Rhythm Of Love)
5. Where Is The Feeling (single mix) (Kylie Minogue)
6. Finer Feelings (Brothers In Rhythm 12" mix) (Let's Get To It)
7. The One (X)
8. What Do I Have To Do (Rhythm Of Love)
9. Shocked (Rhythm Of Love)
10. Surrender (Kylie Minogue)
-----------------------------------------------------------
11. Still Standing (Body Language)
12. Look My Way (Kylie)
13. Can't Get You Out Of My Head (Fever)
14. Love At First Sight (Fever)
15. Slow (Body Language)
16. Put Yourself In My Place (Kylie Minogue)
17. I Believe In You (Ultimate Kylie)
18. Jump (Impossible Princess)
19. Spinning Around (Light Years)
20. Loving Days (Body Language)

 
Oh and great write up of course! I actually feel broadly the same - the period from X through Kiss Me Once was really frustrating for me as a Kylie fan. Moments of greatness but none of them are truly great albums and she too often played things safe.
 
Heartstrings is nice. I think it benefits from not relying on dirty heavy synths and bleepy effects, similar to All The Lovers. It lets the melody and vocal breathe.
 
The other two main bonus/extra tracks were these:




Your mileage on these will definitely vary :tongueout:
 
Seriously, without fail EVERY time I finish a Kylie album review, I get PEPPERED with reaction emojis from Pipo... usually of the 😡 variety :D
 
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Reactions: COB
OH I thought I had ONE more album before DISCO but I've just discovered I have 2. Seriously with this 4th era NEVER END? (even though it only started one album ago)
 
Mighty Rivers is GOOD. Should have been on the album.

GHGH starts off great, a nice safe mid-tempo bop. The chorus is SO BASIC!
 
It's her weakest Parlophone effort (for me). There are a handful of tracks I enjoy (Lovers, GOOMW, Too Much...maybe Aphrodite and Can't Beat The Feeling at a push) but I can't get over how clinical it sounds as record.

Confessions On A Dancefloor was not guilty of that.
 
funky said:
OH I thought I had ONE more album before DISCO but I've just discovered I have 2. Seriously with this 4th era NEVER END? (even though it only started one album ago)
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I take it The Abbey Road Sessions is not on the cards then? It's worth a listen to.

Whereas the Christmas albums probably aren't.
 
VoR said:
Oh and great write up of course! I actually feel broadly the same - the period from X through Kiss Me Once was really frustrating for me as a Kylie fan. Moments of greatness but none of them are truly great albums and she too often played things safe.
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I think I agree with this broadly, even though X is right up there as one of my favourite albums. [insert usual diatribe about trying to cover too many bases, the track listing being wrong and the stupid single choices].

I still feel Aphrodite is one of the best of the bunch, though. Neither Golden or Disco ever really did it for me. The latter really is clinical and devoid of real joy for me. I bought both the album and the reissue and have never actually opened either.
 
Sheena said:
I think I agree with this broadly, even though X is right up there as one of my favourite albums. [insert usual diatribe about trying to cover too many bases, the track listing being wrong and the stupid single choices].

I still feel Aphrodite is one of the best of the bunch, though. Neither Golden or Disco ever really did it for me. The latter really is clinical and devoid of real joy for me. I bought both the album and the reissue and have never actually opened either.
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:o Really quite surprised that you feel that way about Disco. I can see why some might find it a tad forced but I genuinely think it's up there with her best (the presence of Say Something alone does it for me).
 
Aphrodite is her Weakest Parlophone effort for me as well. I think a lot of the production is unpleasant and songwriting weak. I'd happily bin the lot of it, first two singles aside.
 
funky said:
08 Aphrodite - OK I'm actually finding this album difficult to analyse, because as I said before I've criticised Kylie's lack of direction /cohesion on some of her albums, and here she is creating a VERY cohesive album and I'm just finding it too samey :D I probably wouldn't mind but 2010 pop was NOT my favourite era, with its reliance on heavy electro sounds and club beats in every pop song, and this album is positively DROWNING in synths. HOWEVER, here I am enjoying what is, yet again, another strong song. The chorus in particular here is fabulous. This feels like Kylie having a lot of fun. I think I'd go back to this too, it feels like a good discovery. The chorus just pops, I love how she sings it. Kylie does, usually tend to land hard on title tracks I've noticed...
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It’s a really good song and would have made a good single. Agree re title tracks (see also Kiss Me Once).
 
lolly said:
Aphrodite is her Weakest Parlophone effort for me as well. I think a lot of the production is unpleasant and songwriting weak. I'd happily bin the lot of it, first two singles aside.
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Yes! Thank you. I can’t stand Aphrodite and never return to it. Whereas I think KMO is actually quite underrated - it’s super listenable and there are some excellent songs on there.
 
funky said:
08 Aphrodite - OK I'm actually finding this album difficult to analyse, because as I said before I've criticised Kylie's lack of direction /cohesion on some of her albums, and here she is creating a VERY cohesive album and I'm just finding it too samey :D I probably wouldn't mind but 2010 pop was NOT my favourite era, with its reliance on heavy electro sounds and club beats in every pop song, and this album is positively DROWNING in synths. HOWEVER, here I am enjoying what is, yet again, another strong song. The chorus in particular here is fabulous. This feels like Kylie having a lot of fun. I think I'd go back to this too, it feels like a good discovery. The chorus just pops, I love how she sings it. Kylie does, usually tend to land hard on title tracks I've noticed...
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Not sure if you're aware but this is one of the Nerina-penned tracks @COB mentioned last night. This and Better Than Today. :eyes:
 
Eddie said:
:o Really quite surprised that you feel that way about Disco. I can see why some might find it a tad forced but I genuinely think it's up there with her best (the presence of Say Something alone does it for me).
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I don’t HATE it, it’s just kinda THERE for me. Her last three studio albums really haven’t hit the spot for me…

And yes, I love Say Something too.
 
Oh I think Golden and Disco are both huge steps up personally. It feels like she’s finally cracked how to curate her legacy while remaining somewhat relevant and doing albums that feel like fully realised bodies of work that add meaningfully to her back catalogue.

Aphrodite in fairness is probably the post Body Language/pre-Golden album that comes closest to that as well, which is why I rank it significantly higher than X and Kiss Me Once.
 
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Sheena said:
I think I agree with this broadly, even though X is right up there as one of my favourite albums. [insert usual diatribe about trying to cover too many bases, the track listing being wrong and the stupid single choices].

I still feel Aphrodite is one of the best of the bunch, though. Neither Golden or Disco ever really did it for me. The latter really is clinical and devoid of real joy for me. I bought both the album and the reissue and have never actually opened either.
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The only issue I have with DISCO is that next to Jessie and Roisin, it DOES feel clinical and overly polished, but there are a couple of real highs and while I do think I listened to the album when it came out, I don’t think I gave it a full chance and I’m looking forward to reviewing it in full.
 
Aphrodite feels like a Kylie album very much manufactured in the boardroom. The interviews with Kylie and Stuart Price at the time pretty much confirmed as much.

A lot of it felt very contrived (especially the tour) - this was probably the only unexpected thing that came from the era:

 
RJN said:
Heartstrings is better than anything on the album
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she speaks the gospel. I would truly kill for Heartstrings on Spotify. even as a clearly unfinished song it just melts with beauty.
 
I'm gonna feel your HEART STOP

IN. MY. HANDS.

I wish the Aphrodite chorus was half as good as its utterly ASTONISHING verses. 1:25-2:02 is probably the pinnacle of the entire album, "All The Lovers" aside.
 
Interesting that I sort of aligned with the Moopy consensus on this one; not just in terms of the album as a whole but also its highlights. Nice to see the title track is a bit of a hidden gem as I would never have even known about that song if I hadn’t written this thread.
 
funky said:
03 Too Much - the song title just writes its own review :eyes: it's all over the place! This is a kitcken sink song - Stuart Price threw everything at this and it's a mess. It's got a lot of gay anthem tropes in there, so I might be against the grain here, but there were so many songs around this time doing this sound and I just hated it. It's just NOISE to me! Sorry gang.
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absolutely horrible song :D so tinny and cheap
 
funky said:
03 Cupid Boy - same review as above but x10 :D God I hate those heavy distorted synths in the chorus! This feels like a reject from MDNA or Rebel Heart. I was going to ZERO this but I think her voice sounds really strong here so I'm going to acknowledge that at least. The last two songs have been very similar and to be fair, they're still atypical to the album in their instant sound and anthemic quality, but everything just far from my choice of pop. I don't miss this pop era at all.
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and this one is somehow considerably worse :D
 
funky said:
07 Looking For An Angel - this also sounds like a song written for Madonna. I appreciate the slight psychedelic influence in this. It looks like we're NOT going to get a musical diversion on this album, and I think that's a mistake, I think this album's songs are stronger than the sum of its parts, but maybe for different reasons. For once the cohesion is the problem, not the lack of it. ANYWAY, this is more in keeping with the first half of the album, and for that reason I like it.
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the Les Folies version of this song with Eurythmics mashed in is fucking FABULOUS!
 
Love Cupid Boy and hearing it live during the Folies Tour concert really did it for me :disco: omg I have cry, one of Swedish House Mafia's Sebastian Ingrosso's greatest moments!

And speaking of Get Outta My Way, this was fun for 5 minutes back then.

 
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