Album review: Kylie Minogue - Aphrodite

Kylie figured she'd try and go a little different with her X album, and it backfired in a hail of what felt like bad decisions from a team who didn’t really know how to market the album. So Kylie knew she'd have to put it right with the follow up, and enlisted the help of Stuart Price to do it. Why Stuart Price? Well, why not?! After all, he was the man responsible for making Madonna do decent pop again with Confessions on a dance floor.

The pop wagon rolls in with "All the lovers", which sounds reminiscent of Kylie's "I believe in you". The song serves its purpose of being light, breezy, camp and catchy; but I find it too bland. It's not the kind of pop record I want from Kylie and I never listen to it, but the fans love it.

With the second track, the album truly begins for me. "Get outta my way" has single scrawled all over it in a Sharpie. It should have opened the album in my opinion. As much as I love this song, I'm a little pissed that the full length track doesn't give more than the Aphrodite megamix clip did. It's possibly because the hook is so amazing that nothing else either side of it was ever going to match up to it. But regardless, it's an amazing song, and not just an album highlight, but a discography highlight. At the end of the album sits "Can't beat the feeling" which strongly channels Kylie's 2002 hit "Love at first sight". It's just as feel good and is a great way to close the album. Kylie even throws in a couple of R&B style ad-libs and she sounds great. I wish she'd play with them a little more. With pop gold at both ends of the album Aphrodite is already flipping birds at X and Body language.

Throwback and euphoria is a huge part of Aphrodite. And "Put your hands up (if you feel love)" and "Too much" could not be any more euphoric and hedonistic if they came bundled with free pills, a laser pen and a sweaty guy in a crop top. Both songs feature verses which serve as progressive builds to set you up for the popper sniff that is the hook, and it’s damn near impossible not to...well, put your hands up. The great thing about these songs is that despite all of the over production and studio trickery, Kylie's vocals are still at the forefront; possibly more so than the lesser club heavy songs. Both songs act as great after dark, skankier cousins to the white pop purity of "Get outta my way" and "Can't beat the feeling".

Stuart Price's productions have occasionally reminded me of ABBA, and this was even before he catapulted Madonna to the top of charts worldwide with "Hung up". His productions can have a very prominent dark underlying tone, which contrast with the pop gloss his songs are finished off with. "Closer" drives this home in a pick-up truck and then 3-point turns in the road with it. The song is very dark, yet shimmering; beautifully haunting. The song works well, even if it does sound like a left over from Confessions on a dance floor. The other Stuart Price productions "Illusion", "Cupid boy" and "Looking for an angel" all fall into the same heap too. As great as Stuart Price's influence on Aphrodite as a whole is, his sole produced efforts pale in comparison to Aphrodite's remaining songs, and don't do much to separate themselves from his work on Confessions on a dance floor. I definitely could have done with an extra offering from Cutfather and Calvin Harris in place of a couple of his productions.

Kylie wasn't able to shake her R&B- kind-of-but-not-really curiosity that she had on Body language, so "Everything is beautiful" is Kylie's attempt at trying to get folk to "Candy" dance in the club. The song reminds me a fair bit of Madonna's "Dance 2nite", which in turn sounded like a horrendous rip off of a Bee Gee's track. "Everything is beautiful" is written by Tim Rice-Oxley from the band Keane and it is very evident, because it sounds like the type of song Keane would do. "Everything is beautiful" isn't flat out terrible, and within the grand scheme of the album it does work. It's just not a track I find myself voluntarily skipping to.

If Kylie wanted to get paid with some commercial tie ins, then she could do it easy with the album title track "Aphrodite". This song was made to feature in a women's deodorant and razor commercial. Every time I listen to the song I just see skinny white air brushed legs, armpits and water splashing everywhere whilst a satin curtain blows in the wind. It's other half "Better than today" is an anthem for working women rocking maxi pads. Kylie has two great songs for women's hygiene right here, which makes them even better. Parlephone need to speak to some people, make shit happen and get Kylie those Gillette, Palmolive and Always ultra cheques.

Kylie has had so many notable, iconic hits over the course of her career that it's nothing short of a feat that she's still able to knock out a couple more and still deliver good albums. But there are moments on Aphrodite where the quality does dip. The sound on the album isn't as consistent as say Confessions on a dance floor, but the focus is the same - which is what makes this album work, and the tracks do flow nicely. And unlike Madonna's Stuart Price produced effort which had a her occasionally dampen amazing productions with dead pan vocal deliveries and social conscious lyrics; Kylie doesn't give a shit about nobody's conscience or the trappings of fame. She just wants you sweated out with somebody else's tongue down your throat by the end of the album. And how could you not love that? Kylie is here for a good time, not a depressingly serious time.

It's a shame the likes of "In your arms" and "Wow" weren't locked in a vault for safe keeping, because they would have added that extra bit of juice that I think this album needed. But as Aphrodite stands it's still a solid offering which feels far more like a body of work than X did. Kylie sounds like she genuinely had fun recording this album and there's a glow in her voice which I've not heard since Fever - which this album sits pretty nicely next to in terms of its sound.

Kylie may have let a fair few fans down with X. But Aphrodite is the best apology she could have given.

VERDICT: Don’t be rotten

Album highlights:
■ Get outta the way 🏆 J’s fave
■ Put your hands up (If you feel love) 🔥
■ Aphrodite
■ Illusion
■ Too much 🔥
■ Can't beat the feeling 🔥