The Greatest Hit 2.0 - One song and why - The Bear and Badger

FranticPea

g.man wrote:

bad_hair_day wrote:

...Five decades and still banging out album slappers like 'Miss a Thing'.

This new Kylie album sounds awfully like that Daft Punk album from a while back.
You know. The one that sounds like summer...

Robo Kylie.

Blocks100

I'd buy one!

Moot_Geeza

I've never really got the Kylie thing. I remember the early singles - the decent enough Locomotion cover, I Should Be So Lucky, [The French One] and so on, but it was all a bit free badge with Fast Forward. Then she seemed to drift towards somewhere else (less sugary chart hits, the Cave duet, the terrific Gondry vid) while still shifting the singles/albums and appearing on TotP in subsequent decades, but it was all done without a certified banger imo. Part of her success strikes me as being to be the lack of competition. Will click on tracks I don't recognise in here today, but stuff like Can't Get You Out of my Head and the hotpants one aren't a patch on Madge's big hitters.

poprock

Kylie’s legend status is about more than just the music, I think. It’s her persona and consistency. She’s genuinely nice. She’s had top-notch collaborators for her entire career (writers, video directors, stylists, the lot). And the tunes are good, more often than not.

I think there are few Kylie songs that reach true greatness, but the overall package elevates them. She’s an icon, and she’s never fucked up.

davyK

Michael Hutchence was responsible for Kylie's transformation more than anyone I'm guessing.

RedDave2

davyK wrote:

Michael Hutchence was responsible for Kylie's transformation more than anyone I'm guessing.

Apart from maybe herself?

poprock

Yeah, not a fan of that take. Give the girl some agency, instead of handing all the credit to a man.

Moot_Geeza

I'm pretty sure Madge had a hand in her formative years too.

Diluted Dante

I've nearly completed my longlist, and after my jounry, I've concluded that Kiss Me Once is her worst album. Kylie Minogue and Impossible Princess get a lot of flack, for reason I can't quite fathom. Not everything on them works, but it's always interesting. Kiss Me Once by contrast is largely boring and forgettable. It appears to be her lowest selling album and I can see why.

The big 3 for me are Fever, Body Language, and Light Years, in that order. the early Stock, Aitkin, Waterman albums have some great singles on there, but as a whole they aren't as strong. I could probably put forward any track off Fever and it would be a contender overall.

Disco, after a few spins could challenge the top 3 though.

davyK

poprock wrote:

Yeah, not a fan of that take. Give the girl some agency, instead of handing all the credit to a man.

Fuck me lads. Are we really going to be so "right on"? Jesus.

I'm not referring to her artistic development by the way.

poprock

Let’s not argue about being ‘right on’. It isn’t worth it.

I’m intrigued though, if you didn’t mean ‘transformation’ to be about artistic development then what did you mean?

I’m not asking that as debate fodder, I would genuinely like to know what you’re thinking.

RedDave2

davyK wrote:

poprock wrote:

Yeah, not a fan of that take. Give the girl some agency, instead of handing all the credit to a man.

Fuck me lads. Are we really going to be so "right on"? Jesus.

I'm not referring to her artistic development by the way.

Hey, not taking the right on approach, I generally wouldn't have thought a fling with hutch would have been the catalyst of Minogue moving from daytime soapstone to hotpots diva (like Dante, I would have seen Madonna as a bigger influence ) I've always seen her as someone who was very precise in her career choice. I didn't think you were being sexist, just in case you thought it might be that.

However it turns out one key person agrees with you and that's kylie herself. I did a quick Google on the topic and she is quoted as saying (in 2019) that her 2 year relationship with hutch was a big part in her transformation (her words in fact)

So there you go, davy k being spot on.

poprock

RedDave2 wrote:

So there you go, davy k being spot on.

BOOM.

I have been shot down by research. I’ll happily take that. Standing down, and accepting I was wrong.

davyK

poprock wrote:

Let’s not argue about being ‘right on’. It isn’t worth it. I’m intrigued though, if you didn’t mean ‘transformation’ to be about artistic development then what did you mean? I’m not asking that as debate fodder, I would genuinely like to know what you’re thinking.

I know. Sorry - I was being spikey there.It came across worse than I meant.

I meant she did a lot of growing up at that time and her relationship with Hutchence was part of that. I think his intimate relations with women left their mark. Kylie herself may have even said that - won't pretend to have any references to that mind. Whether she would have grown up the same way or not is hard to say but relationships usually do affect us. I wasn't suggesting he had any credit for her success.

davyK

Oh - just saw @RedDave2's post there. Go me.

poprock

I think we’re all on the same page. Pints all round.

I totally agree – Kylie was growing up. Whether her relationship with Hutchence was a catalyst or result of that doesn’t really matter – and it probably wouldn’t be so cut and dried anyway. It was part of her development as a person and therefore as an artist too.

Diluted Dante

The best of Kylie in 2 hours and five minutes. A minimum of one track off each album, with a maximum of 3 to prevent me just putting Fever on there in it's entirety.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2Ayy2Mh9raTjK01S2k8Skr

What's weird is, I've adored Kylie my entire life. There's genuinely not a time I can recall I didn't love her. And yet it's not really until 2000's Light Years some 7 albums in that what I now think of as Kylie appears. I've a good idea of what my final few will be now, and somewhat surprisingly songs from her new album are in contention for that.

After my dive through her career, the main fault I can find with her is that she isn't married to me.

Escape

The ultimate SAW tune was Cruel Summer, except it wasn't. They just took over and ruined everything.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

it was all a bit free badge with Fast Forward.

Good choice.

bad_hair_day

Get outta my way Glitter

FranticPea wrote:

g.man wrote:

bad_hair_day wrote:

...Five decades and still banging out album slappers like 'Miss a Thing'.

This new Kylie album sounds awfully like that Daft Punk album from a while back.
You know. The one that sounds like summer...

Robo Kylie.

Definitely heard Kylie use a vocoder before and there it was in 'Spinning Around' 20 years ago.

But got me thinking how long ago was it first used in music?

LivDiv

That Cher Believe track (1998) is the first time I remember it being used as a prominent feature, Cher certainly doesn't need any help from it.

No doubt it was being used before, probably in the dance music scene.

Hodge360

Didn't Phil Collins use one?

Anyway, a lot of French techno has roots in the 70s. Air in particular spring to mind so wouldn't be surprised if there are tracks with Minimoogs and vocoder through the 70s. Don't know about before that.

Unless you mean autotune instead of vocoder??

LivDiv

Auto tune is an evolution of vocoder I suppose. Vocoder takes a unique skill to pull off I think, its not just singing with a tube in your mouth.

g.man

Aye, autotune as used in the Cher track is quite different to a vocoder. iirc they date back to the 1950's and probably the first use I would have been aware of was the theme to Captain Scarlet from 1967...

Moot_Geeza

Eric wrote:

For a future topic I was thinking about acceptable songs by artists you think are terrible. Massively subjective I know but it could be a good eyebrow raiser!

Is everyone in favour of this as a topic change?

Will tally up Minogue in the morning.

Moot_Geeza

I made a thread a while ago but I want to do it again:

http://188.226.213.150/discussion/2277/bangers-by-duffers/p1

LivDiv

Immediate thought.

g.man

Good call.

Diluted Dante

So I eventually got down to a top 5.

Its difficult to split them from here, but by a fag end, I'd say Can't Get You Out of my Head. It's my gut feeling whenever anyone asks about best Kylie, and after extensive listening, I find it difficult to change my mind.

What a back catalogue though, and a phenomenal new album to throw in right at the end.

g.man

Solid choices there.

poprock

I’m voting Can’t Get You Out of my Head too.

Honourable mention to Where the Wild Roses Grow. It’s probably my favourite of all the things Kylie has done, but it’s not ‘her’. It’s a mile away from what I could call quintessentially Kylie.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories