Sunday, September 10, 2000
 
Kylie Minogue - On A Night Like This



Perhaps she did go too far. Maybe the world just wasn't ready for IndieKylie(TM), for Manic Street Preachers songs, "serious" lyrics and sub-jungle beats. Maybe she should have just realised that "Confide In Me" was a peak, and quit then and there. But surely even Impossible Princess's biggest critics would prefer that to her subsequent nosedive. Meet Kylie Minogue, this year's model: DanniiKylie.



Indeed, even more than the bland house of "Spinning Around", "On A Night Like This" confirms that Kylie's forthcoming album Light Years will reveal that she's finally arrived at the state her younger sister reached three years ago. Having exhausted all chances of creating a personality, she's going to co-opt any sound that has a chance of hitting the charts despite bland songwriting. Hence, single two is insipid trance on the order of Mel C's "I Turn To You", only, er, not as anthemic. Kylie's next single really should be a garage track, only she's not as savvy as Posh Spice.



Anyway, I'd pretty much be able to forgive this if it was even as good as Fragma's "Toca's Miracle" (which I strangely like more and more each time I hear it), but the sad fact is that I can't even remember the tune now it's not on. The problem with Kylie trying to resurrect the age of her golden run of singles ("Better The Devil You Know", "Step Back In Time", "Shocked" and "What Do I Have To Do?") is that the songs really only seem particularly good through the haze of fond nostalgia. Valorising them only worked in the context of how different Kylie was a couple of years ago

If they do have some value, it's because their fusion of cheesy pop with the era's skippy drum machine house was at the time peerless. But now Kylie's jumping on styles that are already in decline, and so any attempts at relevance is going to be even less convincing than Madonna trying to pretend to America that she invented Daft Punk. At least Madonna's got good producers.



What really annoys me about Kylie's desperate bid for chart success is that the songs she made just after Impossible Princess - "Free", "Take Me With You" - were the best of her career: appealing, idiosyncratic and lusciously produced. Light Years had the potential to be fantastic, and instead it's shaping up to be one of the most cringeworthy releases this year.


0 Comments:

Post a Comment


 

everything here is by tim finney

 

 

mail me... here

 

songs

Jamesy P
Nookie

Patrick Cowley
Mindwarp

Isolee
It's About (Lopazz & Casio Casino's Maxi Mix)

Glass Candy
Sugar & Whitebread

Beats International
Dub Be Good To Me (Smith & Mighty Remix)

Depeche Mode
A Pain That I'm Used To (Jacques Lu Cont Remix)

Girls Aloud
Wild Horses

Tweet
Steer

Bobby Valentino
Gimmie A Chance

Freeform Five
No More Conversation (Richard X Remix)


links

House Is A Feeling

1471

A Wild Young Under Whimsy

And So This Is Christmas

Anthony Is Right

Bitchcakes

Blackdown

Blissblog

Bowling Ball

Breaking Ranks

Chantelle Fiddy's World of Grime

The Church Of Me

Cis Don't Like It Easy

Clap Clap Blog

Country Glamour

Cucina Povera

DJ Martian

Doubt Beat

Dubplate.net

Epicharmus.com

Everything's Usable

Fluxblog

Fop

Freaky Trigger

Freelance Mentalists

Freezing to Death in the Nuclear Bunker

Gel & Weave

Gutterbreakz

Haibun

Heronbone

The House at World's End

Hyperdub

I'm So Sinsurr

ILXOR

Josh Blog

Kin

">Lex Scripta

Maura.com

Home of Matos

Must Try Harder

New York London Paris Munich

Orbis Quintus

The Original Soundtrack

Pearls that are his Eyes

Pearsall's Tunes

Philip Sherburne

Pop Life

Popshots

Poptext

Prancehall

Quicksilver Shapeshifter

Radio Free Narnia

Sasha Frere-Jones

Shards, Fragments & Totems

Silver Dollar Circle

Sink

Somedisco

Somnolence

Spizzazzz

Spliiiish (Atommick Brane)

Symposiasts

Tufluv

Vain Selfish and Lazy

Why I Stopped Smoking

Woebot

Words, Words (??????): A Catalogue of Errors

Worlds of Possibility

 

archive

February 2004

January 2004

December 2003

November 2003

October 2003

September 2003

August 2003

July 2003

June 2003

May 2003

April 2003

March 2003

February 2003

January 2003

December 2002

November 2002

October 2002

September 2002

August 2002

July 2002

June 2002

May 2002

April 2002

March 2002

February 2002

January 2002

December 2001

November 2001

October 2001

September 2001

August 2001

July 2001

June 2001

May 2001

April 2001

March 2001

February 2001

January 2001

July 2000

June 2000

May 2000

 

articles

Daft Punk

Ludacris

Ian Pooley

Outkast

Artful Dodger

The Loft

1