Kylie

by

Kylie Minogue

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Kylie Minogue first hit it big in her home country of Australia before breaking through to the UK, and is still going strong. Sadly, she was criminally not recognized or received in the same manner in this country. This, her 1988 album entitled Kylie, is where the saga begins.

Her debut was entirely written, produced, and arranged by Stock-Aitken-Waterman, the prime purveyors of bubblegum pop in the late 1980's. Kylie stands now as the classic epitome of the S-A-W sound.

The album bursts into overdrive instantly with the first two singles, "I Should Be So Lucky" and "The Loco-Motion", yes, the Little Eva song written by the famous songwriting duo of Carole King and Gerry Goffin. This version stayed on the top of the Aussie charts for 7 weeks straight. Personally, it should have gone for 12 weeks, but oh well.

"Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi", qui est francais pour "I don't know why", is a mid-paced single that provides a good beat. So is "It's No Secret". Then comes "Got To Be Certain", the third overdrive single on this album. I've always had trouble deciding which is my favorite single on here: this, "I Should Be So Lucky", "The Loco-Motion", or "Love At First Sight". More often than not, it ends up as a four-way tie.

As it turned out, the first six songs became singles, so that's three-fifths of the album right there. "Turn It Into Love" is yet another overdrive single and "I Miss You", the first non-single on the album, has a nice horn section mixed in with the S-A-W wall of synthesizer keyboards.

All ten songs on the entire album is an instant dance-party album, and not a filler among them. Heck, "I'll Still Be Loving You" and "Look My Way" beat to a somewhat slower, but nevertheless midpaced tempo before finishing off with the rocket-paced "Love At First Sight".

People who are into contemporary techno may consider this dated and pokey, but the upbeat style of Kylie showers the partier or listener with a fuzzy, warm feeling instead of the cold, mechanical prickliness of freeze-dried techno. It's also a good workout, especially for jogging or on a Revmaster.

As for the album cover, there she is, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, wearing a slanting hatbrim with her hair piled atop it. So, there it is for Kylie, the first of many delightful albums.

The debut album of the Australian pop legend is easily her most forgetable. Lacking a flair for versatility and blatantly a mere product of Stock-Aikten & Waterman's conveyor-belt, hit-making assembly line, the album offers nothing new and sounds like this could be any pop artist recording in a studio in the late 1980's. Yet there is still something distinct about Kylie's vocal performances even though they're at their most squeaky and nasal at this point. Don't get me wrong, when I first bought this album in 1988 at the tender age of 8, i played it over and over again until my vinyl copy virtually was worn out but listening to this today, many years later it sounds terribly dated and so obviously a manufactured product of its day. On saying tha there is still something infectious about a few of the albums offerings. Je Ne Sais Pas Pour Qour, contains a sparse production with a sensual performance from its star whilst standing out from the rest of the album is the passionate Turn it Into Love. Theres a gentle reggae twinge to the surprisingly compelling I'll Still Be Loving You and a funky groove to Look My Way but other than that the album is light-weight, throw-away pop that hasn't stood the test of tim comfortably. Still, listening to tracks like I Should Be So Lucky, Got To Be Certain and I Miss You all manage to raise a smile as they remind you of a time of blissful youthfulness so in that respect the album is recommended to people who bought it the first time round as its an enjoyable album to wallow in nostalgia (if nothing else).

One thing this album does make you realise is that Kylie has come a long, long way from those squeaky-clean, disposable pop days and now reigns as one of the great pop divas of this era.