Lopez Blogs

It could be argued that the new millennium took Kylie from good popstar to stratospheric megastar. Her PWL success could be put down to the SAW influence (though no one else ~ I think ~ was quite as successful as she was). The 90s saw two experimental album that yielded just one top ten UK hit and were poorly received (sales wise) by the public. So when it was announced Kylie was returning with a disco album, I had everything crossed for something special. I wasn’t disappointed and Light Years still remains my favourite Kylie album of all time. Though I do think she missed a trick not putting Your Disco Needs You out as first single. It leaked in an Almighty mix onto the net around April 2000 and I was a smitten little kitten as soon as I heard it. Oh my days, that song had everything, including a bit of French in it, and it even outgayed Steps. Of course it was released as a single with deliciously camp video in some countries later on, but the world soon tasted the wonder of Spinning Around and the gold hotpants got as much press as the song did, ensuring that the heady concoction of pop, dance, disco and something entirely Kylie resulted in her first number one for ten years. And the hits kept coming in rather rapid succession. On A Night Like This (along with Hand On Your Heart) is my least favourite Kylie single, and I imagine somewhere in Europe is the lass who originally sang it, sitting weeping in a bar with the chick who originally sang Torn knocking back mimosa and wondering what might have been. Kids was more a Robbie release than Kylie, but that was OK, cos I was in full Robert addiction at that time. And while I seem to remember a lot of fans being upset with the choice of Please Stay as a single, I was utterly delighted and would often leap onto pool tables to do perfectly in sync dance moves. Having Santa Baby on the flip was the icing on my kylie flavoured cake. Though again, why Light Years wasn’t released as a single with Physical on the flip side is beyond me. Of course, the new millennium meant it was much easier to get unreleased tracks and bonus songs for other countries, and you can practically fill an album with the off casts, most of which are quite passable, including Paper Dolls and the lovely Password. Simply put, Light Years is one of those career defining albums on which every track could easily have been a single…

~ In Your Eyes ~

And then came Can’t Get You Out Of My Head. Kylie in a car. Kylie is a rather weird metallic looking dress. Kylie in some weird white outfit superglued to her boobs. Kylie getting mashed up with New Order. Kylie getting US acclaim. Kylie getting her own ITV special and duetting with Adam ‘RAR’ Garcia and um, Kermit. There was no doubt the girl was a major star now. She then went all ghetto and street for Darren’s second fave Kylie song In Your Eyes (he just loves doing the bit where she shoves her knuckles into the camera), all sultry and dance for Love at First Sight and multiplied rather ingeniously for the ace Come Into My World. More unreleased tracks surfaced. Tours that were theatrical spectacles ensured. Kylie mania hit full peak. It was xanadu on earth.

~ in that bloody car again for RBW ~

And in true record company style, it all got a bit ballsed up in my opinion on a very weak album Body Language. The singles were easily the best things on there. Slow was an insistent groove with quite a good video. She was back in her car for R’n’B flavoured Red Blooded Woman (which I happen to love) and looking entirely elegant and quite serene in the sensual Chocolate video. But for me the rest of the album was an unmitigated mess. Not her best material by a long shot, and too busy trying to please too many people. I would have struggled to pick a fourth single from there and luckily there wasn’t one, though again a spectacular tour across the world appeased fans. I seem to remember possibly LiMbo (kylie.co.uk) saying that RBW was the first Kylie single they wouldn’t support and it was my first real awareness that collectively fans seem to decide in their groups whether something is good or bad and if you deviate from that, you are not a “true fan”. I would say oy gavoy, if I wasn’t Miss Baltimore Crabs. Luckily the scissor sis collab came along with a somewhat intermittent Kylie collection of hits and what may be the very best concert I’ve been to ~ Kylie: The Showgirl Tour.