Kylie's 11 album, out July

[DRW50]

Eric, what do you think of Can't Forget You? You've probably already seen these interviews but someone put up Sonia's videos with interviews of her from around 1990, I guess. I thought her accent was Liverpool but apparently she's from Lancashire, I guess I still don't have a very good ear...

Anyway, it's too bad this didn't become a bigger hit, the beat really stays in my head, I especially love how they don't take a break at "can't forget you..." as a lot of songs would. Instead on many of the verses they immediately go into "can't forget you/sweet memories..." or "can't forget you/how could I fall..." It adds to the momentum of the song.

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Do you think that Kylie Minogue was right to turn the song down? I guess since it wasn't a bigger hit maybe she had a point...

Oh, and did you see the horrible vandalism someone put in the Wikipedia page for that Sonia/Big Fun duet you had mentioned

I thought this was interesting, about Sonia's later 1991 (post-SAW?) hit single:

Has she done anything with Simon since then or have they mentioned each other? I guess that was very early on for him.

And was it common for a record company to drop someone after a string of successful/somewhat successful singles and a top ten album? Were the album sales pretty bad?

[EricMontreal22]

I love Can't Forget You, even if Sonia does still kinda scare me. It's probably my fave of her singles... Her album is a huge fan fave by SAW fans, but I don't think it sold that well (I always forget she had a hit post PWL). I think Kylie was smart though--she was trying to grow up her image and the Sonia material was much more like Kylie's first two albums, by 1990 Kylie was more in charge of her musical direction and had taken things in a clubbier direction (Better the Devil You Know, Shocked, What Do I Have to Do, etc). I'm pretty sure they were hoping Sonia would fill the "girl next door" hole now that Kylie as growing up... I know she was recently on a UK revival act show where washed up singers toured America performing to people who had no idea who they were, or some odd concept. I believe her album is being reissued too, like a bunch of PWL albums. You mean Sonia wasn't spit roasted in the original video?

More Kylie!

Kylie: Revisited #5: 'Kylie Minogue'

By Nick Levine

See ya Pete, hello trendy dance producers, sexy specs and tracks that regularly test the six-minute mark! Kylie Minogue's eponymous fifth album is where things start to get really interesting with the little Aussie pop rocket, as we've been discovering all this week.

Release date: September 19, 1994

Songwriting/production cast: Brothers In Rhythm (four tracks), Jimmy Harry (two tracks), Pete Heller & Terry Farley (two tracks), Gerry DeVeaux (one track), M People (one track).

Chart performance: Kylie Minogue entered the UK album charts at number four after trailer single 'Confide In Me' narrowly missed out on the No.1 spot. Follow-ups 'Put Yourself In My Place' and 'Where Is The Feeling' performed respectably too - peaking at numbers eleven and 16 respectively - eventually pushing the album towards platinum status.

The sound: ... of The Singing Budgie stretching her wings and finding she could soar. Kylie Minogue is a sophisticated, stylish dance record that tips its cap – oh-so-elegantly, of course - to everything from midtempo R&B ('If I Was Your Lover', 'Surrender') to classic balladry ('Put Yourself In My Place', 'Dangerous Game') to ambient chill-out ('Automatic Love') to Middle Eastern pop ('Confide In Me') to... erm... M People-produced piano house ('Time Will Pass You By').

Standout track: How can we plump for anything other than 'Confide In Me'? Fifteen years on, this sumptuous, string-swathed dance-pop epic still caresses the ears like a flirty hair stylist.

Hidden gem: Kylie Minogue has genuine strength in depth, but 'If I Was Your Lover' sneaks it for being so damn slinky.

Lyrical nugget: Computer love metaphor alert! "I didn't feel you enter / In my main menu," Kylie sings on 'Automatic Love'. "But every time I touch the key / The screen is showing you." It still kinda works in the iPad era, right? Right?

Fascinating fact: Kylie recorded a "Franglais" version of 'Confide In Me' - 'Fie-toi à Moi', title fans - especially for the record's Canadian release.

Our verdict: Cohesive, classy and – much like KM herself – remarkably unmarked by the passing years, this album seduced us like the high-end escort who knocked on our bedroom door bearing champagne, strawberries and an impressive selection of novelty condoms. On a more serious note, we can't end this Revisited without mentioning the quality of Kylie's vocals here – her early critics will have spat out their cappuccinos when they heard the way she grandstands on 'Automatic Love'.

Star rating: **** (out of five)

Next week: Kylie makes friends with the Manics, starts writing unaided and gets in a spot of bother over her choice of album title... it's time for 1997's Impossible Princess.

[DRW50]

These reviews are very interesting.

Were Kylie's gay fans always a big part of her career, or just after she moved away from the clean cut image?

Is that guy still working with her, I can't remember his name, the one who came up with tour ideas and who helped convince her to do Doctor Who? I thought I'd read they had fallen out.

[EricMontreal22]

She always had a gay fanbase it seems--of course a lot of SAW's music fanbase was gay (something they knew of course--what they basically did was took gay HI NRG music, toned it down a bit with more of a pop edge and released that). And I know when she premiered her "new look" in 1990 it was at GAY in London.

William Baker is still her personal image consultant. Originally they were going to part ways after the Ultimate Kylie greatest hits project 4 or 5 years back, but then Kylie got the cancer, etc, and she said when she went back to work she watned to be around people she knew and trusted. They were afraid that their ideas were getting stale (they'd worked together since 1994 when William was working at a designer boutique and basically accosted her when she came in). Lots of fans have a mixed view of him (I think part of it is jealousy, though his writing in his book about Kylie, La La La, is pretty preumptious) but overall I think he's been really good for her career--and he designs/stages her concert tours which gives them a unique feel which is good when everyone else seems to all be using the overused Jaime King for their tours(Madonna, etc). Actually he also recently did the Westlife, Take That and Jamiroquai concerts too (William B that is) so I guess others are using him.

[EricMontreal22]

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[Chris B]

The video, like the song, is understated yes massive. I find myself really enjoying it. The new aussie girl at work, Afton, hates Kylie and she loved it! It's funny she though coming to Texas she'd be rid of Kylie and then she met me.

[Sylph]

Cheap, copy of her previous video. I'm forgetting the song.

[DRW50]

I like the idea of the video, it kind of reminds me of that line from the very dated An Unmarried Woman, when Jill Clayburgh's daughter says someday, everyone will be bisexual. And I love the idea of people walking in the street just stopping, stripping to their underwear, and getting down to business. Fortunately most of the people in this video do NOT look like the average person walking down the street.

It has a certain freedom about it that music was starting to get into in the late 70s and early 80s, before things got so ugly. And the beat is soothing.

[EricMontreal22]

It's KINDA similar to Slow.... is that what you're thinking of? You don't like synth/dance music anyway--so I'm sure Kylie is devestated

[Sylph]

Yep, Slow.

And I hate Slow. It's such an annoying song.

[EricMontreal22]

Yeah I love the laidback Moroder disco vibe. I hope her whole album is in this style...

I love how much we can disagree, lol. I think it's one of her finest, most sophisticated moments.

[Chris B]

Slow is slinky, sexy sophistication.

[Sylph]

I always found it dismal. Absolutely irritating. Just dreadful.

[EricMontreal22]

You are obviously without musical taste--it's OK Sylph--we all have flaws

[Sylph]

That's just insulting. But I got used to it from you in the past couple of months.