The Album Club: "Rhythm of Love" by Kylie Minogue
 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...Love_cover.png

Time to get your dancing shoes and your gold short shorts on folks! It's Kylie!
Vote, debate, discuss, rate and comment here.

I'm a big 80's / early 90's pop guy and I was surprised at how average this was, at least compared to some of the other pop / pop-rock oriented albums coming out in 1990 from other prominent artists (Depeche Mode, Everything But The Girl, Pet Shop Boys, Queensryche, Toy Matinee, Lava, etc.).

On this particular record, she sounds like a watered down Paula Abdul, but the second half of the album has some good stuff: 'The World Still Turns' livens things up a bit with sax, 'Things Can Only Get Better' has a nice hook, and 'Count The Days' sounds like a lost Miami Sound Machine classic.

Still, the so-called 'Golden Quartet' is pretty weak and there's no heavy hitting session players like Michael Landau or Jeff Porcaro to add some extra crunch to the overall pop sound. It also might have benefited from a production team like Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis instead of Stock-Aitken-Waterman. Oh well: nothing we can do about it.

5.5 out of 10

To me, this just sounds like typical pop music of the time. If there's anything remarkable about this particular album, I'm not hearing it. Like Anteater, I also heard some similarities to Paula Abdul while I was listening to this and I also thought the production sounded like it could've used some more "crunch."

Nothing particularly awful about the album but it didn't impress me either.

5/10

Introduction: Shock, Achin' and Wankerman – the Bane of My Life

When I saw MicShaz had chosen this album, I was somewhat disappointed. I've always hated the superhit trio of Stock, Aitken and Waterman (SAW) for what they did to the pop industry throughout the eighties. Their epithet of The Hit Factory was very appropriate, as pop hit after pop hit rolled off their production line with bland, dull, predictable regularity. If anyone helped usher in the age of the pop music reality shows like X Factor, Pop Stars and American Idol, it was these three. The awful, unchallenging lyrics, the recycled melodies, and that terrible, ubiquitous drum pattern! From Rick Astley to Mel and Kim, and from Sonia to, here, Kylie, once you heard that beat you knew you were dealing with an SAW song, and after a while, they became so interchangeable that it kind of really didn't matter who was singing. Pop stars were created, cloned, milked and then tossed aside. With a very few notable exceptions (Kylie being one) can you name any act under SAW who's still performing, or has gone on to greater things?

So this hatred of the pop star stable that these three ran is going to colour my review of this album, though I will try not to let it dominate it. I do love Kylie, but I just wish MicShaz had chosen something like, I don't know, Confide in Me, Body Language, maybe Fever or Light Years, something that showed what she could do after she had broken away from the slavery of SAW. Hell, I'd even have taken Aphrodite or Golden! But this is what we have, so let's see what it's like.

1. What were your VERY FIRST impressions on listening to the album, say from the first five minutes in?

Well, I know the opener, and there's no surprises here. I've never been mad about this song, for more see next question.

2. What did you think of the opening track?

One of her best-known hits under SAW, a real vehicle for their tired and lazy by-the-numbers pre-packaged-chart-hit songwriting. Steps did a version of this, and there's not a lot of difference in their version, which kind of says it all really.

3. What did you think of the next track?

Another crappy cookie cutter SAW pop song. God I hate those guys so much!

4. Did you like the vocalist? Hate him/her? Any impressions? (see note 1)

Love Kylie. Even with all the dross SAW had her singing, her quality and professionalism and talent shines through. You could tell that all it needed was a spark to set her career properly alight.

5. Did the music (only) generally appeal to you, or not? (see note 2)

I'm not fond of dance music, and this has that ****ing SAW drumbeat running through it like a tapeworm or something. Makes me sick.

6. Did the album get better or worse as you listened to it (first time)?

The mediocrity was occasionally leavened by a decent track, but generally it was terrible all the way through.

7. What did you think of the lyrical content?

Typical pop **** and typical SAW attitude: “Does this rhyme with that? Yeah it does. Cool. Does it make sense? Now, why are you asking me stupid questions like that? Do you think these ****ing braindead kids care? Do you WANT to make money or not??” :rolleyes:

8. Did you like the instrumental parts? (see note 3)

Nah, it's all dance/disco cookie-cutter SAW crap.

9. What did you think of the production?

This is one time when I will talk about the production, but only to say I hate it as it is again infected by the incurable disease known as SAW. Have I mentioned I hate them? I hate them.

10. Did you know of this artiste prior to listening to the album, and if so, did that foreknowledge colour your perception of this album?

Yeah, big Kylie fan, and if anything, it allowed me to get through an album that, were it by anyone else, I would have not bothered with.

11. Is this, generally, the kind of music you listen to or not?

Not a chance in hell

12. Assuming you listened to the album more than once, on repeated listens, did you find you liked the album more, or less?

I only listened to it the once. I know that might seem unfair, but there was no point in going for it again. I've heard all I need or want to, and my opinion isn't going to change no matter how many times I try.

13. What would you class as your favourite track(s), if you have any?

Once we get away from the stranglehold of the lads on songwriting, things start to get a tiny but better, though not much. I will admit “Shocked!”, though an SAW song, is pretty rad. “The World Still Turns” would be a favourite here. Speaking of shocked, Jesus but for a Kylie-penned song, “One Boy Girl” is total crap! And who thought putting a semi-rap/spoken part in was a good idea?

14. And the one(s) you liked least?

The so-called “Golden Quartet”. Don't know what's so golden about them, other than they were the big hits. But they're awful. Also “One Boy Girl”. Godawful. Most of the album can be described in that way, really.

15. If the album in question is a debut, did that fact allow it, in your mind, any leeway, and if so, was that decision justified or vindicated? (see note 4)

n/a

16. Are you now looking forward to hearing more from this artiste, if you have not heard any of their other material?

I need to listen to more Kylie. I won't listen to this one again though. Is her new one really that bad?

17. Were you surprised by your reaction - positive or negative - to the album?

Since there was such heavy influence from SAW, not as such. I had hoped for better, though.

18. Did the album end well?

Meh. Closer was nothing special, another in a line of forgettable pop songs.


19. Do you see any way the album could have been improved?

Hang SAW and burn their bodies. Then get someone like, I dont know, Diane Warren or Rod Temperton or maybe Desmond Childs in to write the girl some proper songs. And get Prince to produce it. Maybe Quincy.

20. Do you think the album hung together well, ie was a fully cohesive unit, or was it a bit hit-and-miss?

It's a pop album. It really doesn't matter. It's just a collection of singles and hits with a few other tracks tacked on. There's nothing cohesive about it, cos there's nothing to be cohesive about.

Sorry man: pretty ****ing awful and a big disappointment. I'll give it a generous 4/10

I absolutely dreaded this album from day one, as soon as I saw it nominated for The Album Club review thing. I have zero interest in an album aimed at teenage girls or young ladies - whatever the proper PC terminology is. Whatever it is I'll abide by it. OK let's say young ladies. OK so this would be a perfect album to put on if you were a young lady having a party.

I knew nothing of Kylie Minogue till now, or like when she was ever popular and stuff like that and that gots me thinking actually 'How old is Kylie Minogue?' At first I thought Kylie Minogue was a teenager back in the Aughts (00s) or the Tens (or whatever they call the 10s) but here after I looked it up on Wikipedia I finds out she is a contemporary of D'Arcy Wretzky! BTW it's May 1st, Happy Birthday D'Arcy! Like Kyle is literally 27 days older than D'Arcy. I can't believe that, or why I never recall the name of Kylie Minogue or think of a song she did. Well anyways Kylie Minogue is also exactly four months older the Trish Keenan! (Well months are not very exact measurements of time. I mean some months are like 30 days and other 31 days and Feb is even more "less exact" being either 28 or 29 days.) But consider my mind blown that she is the same age as Trish and D'Arcy plus the fact I really don't know anything about her (KM).

Being forced to listen to album like this makes me want to rip up my Album Club of 2017 membership card in frustration.

Just thinking about Trish or D'Arcy I have to play The Smashing Pumpkins and Broadcast which was very therapeutic for me by erasing anything I heard of by Kylie Minogue.

The Smashing Pumpkins - Tonight, Tonight


The Smashing Pumpkins - Siva


Broadcast - Come On Let's Go

I'll wait with explaining why I chose this album until I write my own review, so I just wanted to reply to this question:

Yes. At least to me, her new album is her worst by a large margin. It's the most soul-less personality void of a modern country pop album imaginable. Her voice doesn't even sound all that appealing on the album. I can't say one positive thing about it, which is shocking to me.

Your mileage may vary.

:yikes:
Surely you've heard these?

Can't Get You Out of My Head is what got me into kylie back in the day. That album (Fever) is dance pop perfection.

Fever, Light Years, Body Language ... all these great Kylie albums and you have to pick that one. :yikes:

I'll defend that decision soon enough. I can see it didn't go over all that well with people :laughing:

About as well as a free pass to watch Batty shower. Perhaps worse. And yes, now you all have that image stuck in your mind. Sorry. :laughing:

The first two are blocked and the second one I thought was familiar but really it only reminded me of Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley. So consider me Rick Rolled.

Well if you don't know "Spinning Around", with the famous gold short short short shorts, how's life under that rock? As for "I Should Be So Lucky", yes, it was an SAW song, so not much different to our Rick. However, it was not intended as a Rick Roll. Rolling Kylie now, hmmmm.... :love:

Never seen it, heard of it,

I’ve never heard of this artist and have no idea how to pronounce her last name

Review:

I hate it. I wish it didn’t exist. I hope all her fans die soon.

To rhyme with brogue. If you don't know that one, then it's like pogue or rogue.
Surely you can't pass up the sweetest ass in music though? You have seen the video I assume?

Agree the album's hot garbage though.

Never seen it.

I was going to say the same exact thing but didn't bother. But now you said something, how is her last name pronounced? Is it pronounced like "Minnow" or is it "Min-nog"? I have Irish friends who don't pronounce the "gue" at the end of their name. Like Tague and Montague, they are pronounced as Tay and Mon-tay respectively.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/00/56...2dc9967993.jpg

It'll probably draw the Google Gestapo, but until then...

Already answered. See above.
tl;dr like rogue. Or vogue.

Minogway

I guess I overlooked you saying "To rhyme with brogue." cause I thought you were talking like a drunken Irishman.

c- c - c'mover herensaythat.....
:beer:
:ar_15s:

"The Marquis of Queensbury rules will be observed on all occasions." afterwards I'll buy you a pint. :beer:

nah. I thought Kylie was someone recent. But here she was born the same year as D'Arcy and Trish so that's why I brought them up. D'Arcy was cute but a a lot of bad decisions altered her look. Still back then she had looks and playing bass made look even hotter.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/3c/84...7c62b9b7dc.jpg

Oh wow, she's just like Billy Corgan: a child actor before getting into the music biz.

She's way better-looking than Billy Corgan. And to my knowledge, she has never smashed a pumpkin in her life.

Well I found this and thought it was pertinent to The Album Club: "Rhythm of Love" by Kylie Minogue conversation. In it YT-vlogger Rick Adams says that he ranks the albums in order with the first album as the best. So that would make the two prior albums better than this album. So that means Kylie > Enjoy Yourself > Rhythm of Love > etc etc. Wow when I really think about what he said it means I was forced to listen to a third-rate Kylie album for The Album Club 2017, but I digress. I know MicShazam planned for us to dig this album, but by the looks of the poll it didn't go to his expectation. Sorry your plan for this album was foiled.

KYLIE MINOGUE: RHYTHM OF LOVE Deluxe Edition 2015 Remastered PWL CD UNBOXING /CD REVIEW | Rick Adams

Ok that's it, I can stay silent no more!

No, Nea, I did not plan for everyone to like this album. Starting with this album, my picks for the club will be based purely on what I feel like listening to, not what I expect anyone in the club to like. I learned that lesson with the world destroying choice that was Billy Child's Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro. Naive as I was, I thought people was largely gonna like it. No more trying to please you guys!

I chose Rhythm of Love simply because, at the time, I'd bought all of Kylie's old albums recently and this one was the one I felt the most like listening to right then and there. (As an aside, that guy in the video above is totally wrong. Enjoy Yourself is the worst of the three first records as it's all over the place.)

I see a lot of you guys bring up how this album isn't anything special. I actually like that about it. Or rather, what I mean to say is that I like that it has this incredibly early 90's sound to it that dates the album to a very specific moment in pop. It might not be a super unique record, but I enjoy it as being Kylie's spin on a prominent pop sound of the time.

As for the quality of the songs themselves, I don't think this album is a revelation, but there's a few strong tracks and nothing that I outright dislike. It's just a bit of simple, fun dance pop music.

Some may question my method for choosing albums for the club, but this is how it's going to be. I'll chose albums that I personally like and feel like listening to - completely ignoring the tastes of other forum members (I miss every time when I try to please anyway) and completely ignoring factors like how genre defining an album is, how respected it is, etc. Just a completely subjective choice where all that's guaranteed is that my choices are my kind of thing.

I'm not actually trying to torture you people, I'm just not actively trying not to either. Not anymore.

I think a lot of you are gonna suffer with my next pick as well :laughing:

In conclusion, I think this album is good - not great - but worthwhile for how it has Kylie doing her take on that, at the time, everpresent 1990 style of pop.

NOTE: I forgot to mention what songs I like the most. I can't remember all titles, but I knof for sure that "Things Can Only Get Better" is my favorite track on the disc.

Three words: Stock, Aitken, Waterman.
End of.

I don't really have an opinion about them, honestly.

MicShazam, I actually enjoy the 80's and early 90's pop sound. Like a lot of dance pop records from that period, I just don't think the "hits" were as good as a few of the B-sides in this particular case, hence my rating. If all the tracks had been as good as 'The World Still Turns' or 'Count The Days' or that one you mentioned, I'd have likely bumped my rating up around 8 because if its good dance pop, then its good regardless of the era or production.

Remember, I was the one who had everyone review the 1991 Seal debut a few months ago (which got trashed for similar reasons to Rhythm Of Love despite being a much stronger album compositionally).

Long story short, a lot of people get hung up about production and rawness vs more polished / mechanical sounding production and for some people its an issue they can't circumvent. So the deck was stacked against this even if the songwriting had been better than it is.

I don't mind it being voted low anyway. I'm just curious to see what people think about whatever random album I feel like picking for the club. 99% of the stuff I like the most will have most members shrugging or gagging, so I'm not going to strain to finde the needle in the haystack (i.e. the one album in a 100 that might get an unexpectedly positive reaction). I've got my expectations in check, so it's cool. The real question is how long people can put up with my choices before they want me to leave :laughing:

About production, then I've definitely noticed criticisms of various albums being "over produced" coming up in all sorts of threads with some frequency. Personally, I'm all about whatever I think fits the album in question. A lot of things I like are very tampered with in the studio, but also a lot isn't like that. Whatever fits. I enjoy both if done well.

I've no problem with production, but a production/assembly line like SAW made out of all their artists' music? No. Listen to any album produced by those ****s and you'll be hard-pressed to say whose it is. It's just the same ****ing thing over and over and over and over again. I should be so lucky (lucky, lucky, lucky)...

Well one thing you can say about your picks, Mix (I think I'm gonna settle on calling you that, short for MicShaz - so like, mix-az, less you have a problem with that? Don't want to call you MS for obvious reasons) is that they engender discussion, even if it is vitriolic or mocking. At least nobody ignores them.

It's my job to pick albums that get ignore.

Probably helps me that I'm not familiar with much of that. Plus Kylie's voice is on this album and not on the other ones. Is this where I should mention that I actually don't mind Never Gonna Give You Up?

Aargh! Please don't! You'll make me feel like a bag of mixed nuts. How about just Mic? Same amount of letters and someone's even called me that in real life.

The funny thing is that, if anything, I've tried to avoid picking albums that people hate much of the time. Certainly never picked one because I hoped it would get people fuming.

I did like the music on last week's album and the one you've got for next round looks interesting.

Ah, who doesn't love that? Astley's voice is boss. But look at some of the other acts they "produced" and you'll see what I mean, seriously.
Too late! You've been christened as Mix in the soon-to-be-approved-may-already-be Monthly Update. But I'll not use it in future if it bugs you. Just Mic makes you sound like you hail from the fair shores of Erin, like me.
Neither did I. Just kind of seems to end up that way nearly every time. Can't please every/anyone.
Yeah the Elizabeth Cotten one was cool.

This is so 90's it's funny, i gotta say, the drum beats in this album annoyed the hell outta me and aside from Shocked and Count the days i found the songs very bland and forgettable. Not enough hooks on this thing to keep me interested.

Yep, those drumbeats can be found, identical ones, in any album produced by SAW.