Almost 4 years have passed since we last had an album from Kylie and a lot has changed for the pop princess during that time. Since the release of 2010’s platinum-selling Aphrodite, Kylie has parted ways with her long-time manager Terry Blamey and signed a deal with Roc Nation. Last year she teased fans with the release of buzz track Skirt and now she’s seen on our screens weekly as a new coach on The Voice UK. With a very high profile in the UK, Kylie is now returning to the charts with her twelfth studio album Kiss Me Once.
Kylie fans have had a long wait for Kiss Me Once so the pressure is on for the star to deliver something pretty special. The album’s lead single Into The Blue made its debut back in January but is only released officially this week. The track isn’t the most immediate of Kylie songs but it has the kind of charm that works its way into your brain and refuses to move once you’ve heard it a few times.
For Kiss Me Once Kylie has teamed up with some of the biggest hit-makers in the business including Pharrell Williams, Sia Furler, MNEK and Metrophonic. The resulting sound is one that is distinctly Kylie and bursting with a variety of pop flavours. Following on from Into The Blue, Kiss Me Once goes from strength-to-strength with the pop rush of Million Miles to the funky shimmering Pharrell beats of I Was Gonna Cancel. The uptempo cutesy Sexy Love is a bright and breezy song that features a playful vocal from Kylie.
Elsewhere on the album Kylie puts her own spin on Tom Aspaul’s song Feels So Good (previously called Indiana) which proves to be one of the standouts on the record and surely a future single, tries on a bit of French for the cheeky Les Sex and harks back to her SAW days on Kiss Me Once that could have been a classic hit from yesteryear. The album ends on a pumping beat with Fine which sees Kylie’s voice processed through various vocal effects on the chorus.
Only a couple of tracks on the record feel like filler. Beautiful featuring Enrique Iglesias is perhaps the worst offender sounding bland and far too auto-tuned whilst Kylie’s foray into dubstep on Sexercize is the one moment on the record where you feel she’s pandered after the trends and done a Rihanna track.
Kiss Me Once is a strong record from Kylie musically but it feels like it’s lacking a real big hit. Into The Blue isn’t really soaring up the charts and there’s no All The Lovers, Slow or Can’t Get You Out Of My Head type track on the record. This could cause Kylie a problem in terms of sustaining sales past the initial release but we’re hoping that the high profile she is currently enjoying will give her a boost.
