TOWARDS A TOP 10 LIST, 1: The Kylie Problem
Or, “How much account in a Top 10 albums list should you take of the fact that you like albums you just bought more than the ones you bought in January?” This is particularly acute with a pop record like Fever, which two plays reveals to be excellent. (Records I buy in Supermarkets are always ace).
The songs on Fever are good in direct proportion to how much like “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” they sound. So the ones with the same frosted hypno-electro production are pretty much ace, but so are the ones which use the same tune. The opening tracks are a bit rubbish in comparison but actually this gives the album a sweet little narrative, i.e. Kylie sets out to make album, records two adequate tunes in previous style, makes “CGYOOMH” and then spends remaining nine tracks tweaking it gently.
(“Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” is itself of course scientifically brilliant by the above law, as it sounds exactly like “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head”)
I also like how Kylie has tried to construct some kind of Ultimate Disco Record by calling all the songs things like “More More More” and “Burnin’ Up”. Like a lot of good pop stars she uses her relative lack of identity as a virtue – Fever is a better disco LP than Daft Punk because (despite Kylie being a massive star and DP dressing in robot suits) it’s a lot more faceless. That doesn’t make it a better overall record of course. But even so this gets a PROBABLY on the Top 10-ometer.
(Oh, the answer to the Kylie problem is “Fuck perspective, let’s dance”. Obviously.)