REVIEW: "X"

Kylie Minogue
X
© 2007 EMI

In most on the world, Australian performer Kylie Minogue is one of the biggest names in pop music. She has never really caught on in the US, but that hasn’t stopped her from trying. Her US biggest success so far has been her 2001 album, Fever, which toped at #3 on The Billboard 200. Performance of her 2003 album Body Language was decent (#43). A battle with breast cancer led a lengthy gap before her next album, X, and, unfortunately, she seems to have lost any momentum she may have gained (#139).

In general, I have never found chart success any kind of gauge of quality. Nonetheless, it is interesting to note how poorly the album performed in the states compared to the rest of the world. Why is this? Is it indicative of anything in the music, or is it simply that Kylie did not enough presence in American to surmount the five-year gap?

In this critic’s opinion, it is both. Kylie is a Pop musician and image has been a major part of the industry since its birth. In the UK and Australia—where her sales are their best—she is a constant presence in the tabloids. Here, her album dropped with minimal fanfare because, frankly, most Americans don’t care. We have plenty of our own stars to fuel our voyeurism, idolatry, and schadenfreude.

But even without sensationalism, some artists have risen up the charts to success if they manage to catch that elusive “It.” And, quite simply, this album does not have enough It. While it does contain some excellent pop songs, its quality is inconsistent, and some of the weaker songs, unfortunately, having been selected as singles. Even Minogue herself has expressed disappointment in the final product.

Lack of sufficient publicity + singles that fail to catch on = a deadly combination for a pop album.

So with the mystery of the weak performance sales solved, where does that leave the album? While X is hardly Kylie’s strongest work (I would pick Fever for that honor), there are still several excellent tracks. It might not be Album of the Year, but fans of Dance-Pop should give this album a second chance.

Fortunately, in this day and age, mixing and matching songs is easy and affordable and, as there isn’t really any sort of theme or connective elements to the album, X is a prime hunting ground. I’ll make it easy for you. Here are the best songs on the album:

“2 Hearts”

The best track on the album, pulling together classic pop-music elements from across the past 50 years into a practically perfect Pop track.

“In My Armss”

Pure Euro-dance. Those who enjoyed Fever will find a lot of the same appeal here.

“Speakerphone” (no video)

Quirky, silly, and almost annoyingly catchy. This is one that really grows on you.

“Wow”

A Disco-styled dance song with a killer hook.

Put any of the above four songs on a play-list if you want to get people out on the dance floor. They’ll work quite nicely.

The rest of the album is fairly unexceptional. While the album is consistently danceable—Kylie’s specialty—most of the tracks fail to have anything special about them. She displays a good range of influences, from disco to rock, house to new wave, but doesn’t take them anywhere exciting. These songs often are repetitive and somewhat flat.

RECCOMENDED IF… you really love dance-pop. There are a few gems and the rest are decent if unremarkable; I would recommend using the album a quick preview to see if there is enough here to justify the purchase. (Try the “Preview All” function for the MP3 album linked below.) If you are looking for some fun music to get your friends dancing, the four songs I have mentioned above will do the job quite nicely. (I have included links to the individual MP3s on Amazon.) It’s just a shame the rest of the album doesn’t live up to the standard they set.

MP3: CD: