Never underestimate.
That’s the message Kylie Minogue delivered back in May,her biggest hit in more than a decade and one with cross-generational appeal. Too evolved for the folly of ageism, drank up the lusty lyrics and tasteful EDM beats and helped Minogue garner plenty of excitement around the release of her 16th studio album.
Arriving 23 years after her last triumphant renaissance,Light Years,and three years afterDISCO,an underwhelming celebration of a genre that Minogue has mastered in records past,Tension does a much better job of facilitating dance floor euphoria on an album Minogue says is about “celebrating each song’s individuality”.
Kylie Minogue’s Padam Padam was a viral sensation.Supplied
Lyrically,Tension is chiefly concerned,as is Minogue’s MO,with sex,love,and dancing,but the music is less theme-bound than that found on her 2018 country albumGoldenandDISCO. The title track and second single rivalsPadam Padam for catchiness and sex positivity as Minogue,alternating between helium vocals and a robotic deadpan,coos “touch me right there” over clubby beats. The kitschy,camp10 Out Of 10, with EDM producer Oliver Heldens,makes Minogue’s priorities clear (“body”,“touch” and “energy” of the sexual variety),whileOne More Time shares withPadam Padam its unapologetic pursuit of pleasure,this time “something that’s worth repeating” with an ex.
Tension is out on Friday.Supplied
There’s a romantic flipside to all the unabashed horniness,however,and it comes drenched in nostalgia. InHold On To Now, a twinkling power ballad that hits the upper limits of tolerable schmaltz,Minogue’s heartbeat is “lonely” and searching for something more meaningful. The loping beat ofThings We Do For Love feels even more indebted to the ’80s,whileYou Still Get Me High takes its cues from the same decade. There’s nothing original about its candied synths and rapturous chorus,though it’s fun to hear Minogue in punch-drunk Carly Rae Jepsen mode.
We have to assume thatVegas High,a song more suited to the city’s clubs than its cabaret scene,was written ahead of Minogue’s imminent residency at The Venetian Resort. Lyrics such as,“make my eyes roll back when I feel that Vegas high,” seem like a sparkling ode to MDMA,rendered impressively dreamy via Minogue’s airy,starry-eyed delivery. There’s a touch of The Veronicas’ epicUntouched in the galloping synths and breathless vocals of album closerStory,and though it’s only fractionally as thrilling,it’s the closest Minogue gets to confessional on the album,ostensibly a thank you to an ex (“you’re part of my story”) who encouraged her to dust herself off and try again.
The cheerful guardedness that has worked to protect Minogue’s personal life throughout her career turns out to be the main fault in what is an otherwise easily digestible album. At 55,and having weathered 33 years in the cutthroat pop industry,Minogue surely has more to express than sexual desire,generic romantic yearning and paeans to dancing.
We already know Kylie can rock a disco and fall in love at first sight,but before she did that with such emphatic conviction onLight Years andFever,she released the most experimental and vulnerable record of her career,1997’sImpossible Princess. Its failure to resonate either critically or commercially at the time has deterred her from releasing anything as risky since,but I can’t help but feel the album would hit very differently now. Alongside the handful of bangers onTension,some of the stylistic daring and emotional rawness last seen onImpossible Princess might turn a decent record into something great.
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