CEREMONY | The Kylie Minogue Leads Rate

[cELLO 53,482]

Good results overall so far 

[Cruelty 5,887]

10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.
—‘Light Years’ (2000)

We’ve made it to the top 10! Who are you supporting? And who do you think is next to leave?

[cELLO 53,482]

2 minutes ago, Cruelty said:

10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.
—‘Light Years’ (2000)

We’ve made it to the top 10! Who are you supporting? And who do you think is next to leave?

Supporting: padam, spinning around, cgyoomh, btdyk, isbsl

Next to leave: dancing / say something 

[cELLO 53,482]

Your visuals are stunning btw

[Head Empty 24,260]

15 minutes ago, Cello said:

I like this song, but I loved Wow when it was released. I need to revisit this album 

I know very little about the singles and how they were chosen but now that your mention it: it is a very weird lead

Deserves to be higher than Dancing though 

[Head Empty 24,260]

I won't be bothered by much of these rankings but PLEASE don't let Say Something flop

[Nirvana 2,697]

9 minutes ago, Cruelty said:

10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.
—‘Light Years’ (2000)

We’ve made it to the top 10! Who are you supporting? And who do you think is next to leave?

Slow, Spinning Around, All the Lovers, Confide in me and obvious CGYOOMH might be the top 5... But Padam is really good as well.. as are other songs here too...

[Cruelty 5,887]

10 DANCING – average 7.45
The highs: 10 x 5 [ @COOOK @princedeblebleble @Kandy life @bionic @QueenGloria]
The lows: 1 x 1 [@SimonBaetens]

Partly created in Tennessee, “Dancing” inaugurated what @VTV points out was ‘Ha Joanne era’. Yep, Kylie found herself a glittery cowboy hat and… forgot to play “Cowboy Style” on the accompanying tour? URGGGHH.

Anyway. “Dancing” is a perfectly serviceable country-pop anthem, fusing Nashville guitars with juddering synths. Kylie does her best Dolly Parton crooning in the verses, before launching into an explosive chorus whose lyrics allude to her then-upcoming fiftieth (i.e. golden) birthday.

Kylie’s first single produced by Sky Adams (he’ll be the reason most of Golden and Disco sound like they were recorded on a potato), it also marked the beginning of her third imperial phase as a popstar. Divorced from Roc Nation (see the previous post), Kylie signed with BMG Rights Management for her thirteenth studio album. BMG have a great history of picking up artists who’ve lost their way, and getting them back on their feet again. The country-inspired Golden topped the UK charts, received a raft of positive reviews, and is now, quite appropriately, certified Gold.

 

Comments:

Spoiler

@MANiCURE 6 The mix sounds a bit weird to me, but a cute song anyway.

@Bronco I love the album, but this was such a weak single choice. Golden’s singles were probably the worst picks ever. A Lifetime to Repair should have been lead, followed by Lost Without You

@Why am I on GGD See: Into The Blue.

@whoresup Like the song and lyrics. Not a huge fan of country Kylie but it is still a good single.

@jimmytimestep Underrated!

@SCHEISSEMONTRE I love how she went with the country roots for this era. 

@VTV Ha Joanne era <3

@ImMatt Anyone else think this is the most Carly Rae Jepson song ever?

 

[Head Empty 24,260]

Just now, Nirvana said:

Slow, Spinning Around, All the Lovers, Confide in me and obvious CGYOOMH might be the top 5... But Padam is really good as well.. as are other songs here too...

For me the three pre-2000s songs should be the first to go. I enjoy them but they weren't her prime (as much as I like Confide In Me).

Dancing is questionable.

The other 7 all deserve to be top 3 

[BBhomemaker 5,611]

Team confide in me

[Cruelty 5,887]

9 I SHOULD BE SO LUCKY – average 7.45
The highs: 11 x 2 [@bionic @AnnTakamaki]; 10 x 4 [@Bronco @Kandy life @VTV @Cello]
The lows: 1 x 1 [@Dr Fudge]

So. Kylie’s debut single was a cover of Little Eva’s 1962 hit “Locomotion” which, confusingly, is not the same version that appeared on her self-titled debut album. Technically, the debut single from Kylie is “I Should Be So Lucky”, a polished assortment of drum machines, sparkly keyboards and 80s synth brass.

Kylie’s first collaboration with SAW (the UK’s most successful production team in the late 1980s), “I Should Be So Lucky” had something of an unlikely genesis. As producer Mike Stock explains, “On the day I met Kylie, we were not expecting to see her or to work with her. An arrangement had been made… but somehow they forgot to tell me! Kylie turns up, unannounced, expecting to record a song before she goes back to Australia that same day. I had to think quickly”. And the song was created in 40 minutes, so the legend goes, with Kylie recording lyrics just as fast as they were written.

Apocryphal? Possibly, but it’s a great story. “I Should Be So Lucky” certainly doesn’t sound like it was written in 40 minutes. Musically, it’s far cleverer than it sounds, modulating into several different keys (and not necessarily easy ones to play). Whilst the lyric sounds simple, a teenage daydream where your crush loves you back, a hint of darkness hovers over the second verse where Kylie confesses “my heart is close to breaking, and I can’t go on faking the fantasy that you’ll be mine”.

The song was released over Christmas 1987, and soon topped the charts in Kylie’s native Australia and the UK. A robust piece of bubblegum pop, it’s been lighting up karaoke bars and tour setlists ever since. The Gagadaily voters who commented seem divided on whether it’s dated or still holds up, but generally agreed that it’s a classic. It danced over both sides of the line, but in the end “I Should Be So Lucky” just nudges its way into your top 10!

Comments:

Spoiler

@MANiCURE 6 Cute first single, not her best, but it’s fun.

@Why am I on GGD It's a classic but her vocals were clearly not as polished as they became later in her career.

@bionic truly iconic. this should be a drag race lip sync for the crown song. rupaul is homophobic

@jimmytimestep Still holds up man

@SCHEISSEMONTRE A great debut single for her right after her acting career.

@VTV A timeless Kylie classic.

@Battle 4 Ur Life SUCH A FRESH DEBUT

@Cello classic, timeless bop

 

[Cruelty 5,887]

8 SAY SOMETHING – average 7.90
The highs: 10 x 7 [ @dimitristhe @COOOK @princedeblebleble @Why am I on GGD @NNES @Kandy life @grimqueix]
The lows: 2 x 1 [@ImMatt]

When we think of Kylie Minogue singles—typically the midtempo pop songs (“All the Lovers”; “Crystallize”; “I Believe in You”; “The One”)—we tend to use words like celestial, galactic, glossy, glittery. The word Kylie herself uses to describe these polished productions is: emotopop. And “Say Something” might be the finest example.

An oddly chorus-less creature, “Say Something” takes inspiration from 80s pop. Over a chugging bass and gulping synths, Kylie employs hyperbolic space-themed examples to illustrate the power of interpersonal connection: “we’re a million miles apart in a thousand ways… And I can almost feel you coming, and your heartbeat race”. Although recorded prior to the COVID lockdowns, the song quickly became something of a pandemic anthem, its earnest final lines “’Cause love is love, it never ends, can we all be as one again?” dissipating into a starfield of celestial synths.

Truth be told, “Say Something” doesn’t particularly feel like a good example of the disco genre, but neither does the Disco album itself to be honest. Kylie’s fourteenth studio album is a collection of featherweight pre-drinks bops that bears a passing resemblance at best to Donna Summer or Sylvester. We adored it on release, after being starved of any great dance music since… Chromatica probably, but public opinion seems to have soured a little, three years on. I think the song still holds up, although I wonder whether “Magic” might have made for a punchier lead.

However, even months after it was released, “Say Something” still held one final trick up its sleeve. As @MANiCURE 6 and @jimmytimestep point out, the ultimate version of “Say Something” is the version performed as part of Kylie’s lockdown special Infinite Disco, later released as a live album. Augmented by the vocal stylings of the House Gospel Choir, the song truly ascends to an intergalactic level. Done like this, it genuinely inspires hope, making you feel like no matter how far apart we find ourselves, we can all be as one again:

 

Comments:

Spoiler

@MANiCURE 6 It’s a bit repetitive and I do prefer the Infinite Disco version.

@dimitristhe I really really really love this song. The best song of 2020 and people slept on it.

@Bronco NGL I wouldn’t have made this a single. Supernova/Dance Floor Darling would have been way better picks. COVID ruined this album’s potential

@HateMeHarder I actually really love Say Something, but goodness...Magic was such a perfect song and an immediate Kylie classic. I think it was deliberate to have Magic drop leading up to the album, so I totally get it, but it would have been the perfect lead as well...

@Why am I on GGD Wasn't sure about this song, but it clicked for me when Kylie explained how "Love is love, it never ends" should be seen as the heart of the song. Adored it ever since.

@HeavyMetal Halcyon Love the song, but Magic should have been the lead.

@whoresup I do still listen to this fairly regularly and enjoy it, however I think there are issues with the vocal production which makes it sound a little cheap. But a good song.

@jimmytimestep I love this song. One of her best shimmery anthems. Not marking as a 10 because I’ve always thought the chorus should hit twice at the end, like it does in Infinite Disco. 

@SCHEISSEMONTRE Imo Magic should've been the lead but I still love this song

@VTV This is such a let down cuz it has great potential but it just falls flat into sounding generic

 

[Cruelty 5,887]

"I would say the consistent theme is a kind of shiny melancholy," the singer says, completely off the cuff, when I ask how she'd survey the selection of tracks on Step Back In Time. "Some songs, like 'The Locomotion,' are about dance, celebration. But 'Lucky,' 'Better the Devil,' 'Hand on Your Heart?' Those songs are pleading."

7 BETTER THE DEVIL YOU KNOW – average 8.26
The highs: 11 x 1 [@Italian]; 10 x 13 [ @dimitristhe @Bronco @princedeblebleble @OG Gaga Stan @lasagna @Kandy life @Sexxx @bionic @whoresup @QueenGloria @SCHEISSEMONTRE @HookerOnAChurch @Cello]
The lows: 3 x 1 [@Dr Fudge]

The Rhythm of Love era is where girl-next-door Kylie turns into slightly sexy 90s Kylie, but the difference is largely in her image. Musically it’s more of the same, again largely produced by SAW, this time taking out some of the cheese and feeding in dance and R&B influences. The highlight of the package is “Better the Devil You Know”, a clattering 90s synth groove, boosted by a signature anthemic chorus and textured with house piano, syrupy strings and belted vocals. Boasting Platinum and Silver certifications in Australia and the UK respectively, this is a karaoke evergreen that still lights up the arena when it’s played live (and it almost always makes it onto the setlist).

Kylie collaborator Nick Cave identified the song as having “one of pop music’s most violent and distressing love lyrics”. The lyric isn’t dissimilar to that of her previous lead single ‘Hand on Your Heart’; they both come from an ostensible position of power, which soon crumbles away into desperation. “I’ll take you back again,” Kylie promises, “I’ll forgive and forget”, making it clear that she holds the power to direct this relationship. And yet when you consider what she’s actually saying, that show of strength quickly reveals itself to be a façade: “you’re bad for me, but there are lots of terrible men out there, so I’ll just stick with the terrible man who I have a history with, even if he doesn’t even love me”. As @HateMeHarder says, “it’s a toxic message but that kind of makes it more iconic”.

Your comments on this song are glowing: ‘Kylie’s Vogue. A true gay anthem’ says @dimitristhe; ‘such a classic that still sounds quite fresh today’; ‘the chorus is so anthemic’; and @SCHEISSEMONTRE adds ‘might be her best single during her PWL eras’ (say it with your CHEST, you’re right!) The song held steady just outside the top 5 for the entire voting period, and finishes as your 7th favourite Kylie lead!

Here’s Kylie like the trooper she is, performing “Better the Devil You Know” to a room full of people who look like they’d rather be eating their own livers:

 

Comments:

Spoiler

@MANiCURE 6 Sounds a little irritating to me.

@dimitristhe That song is fabulous. Kylie’s Vogue. A true gay anthem.

@HateMeHarder Better the Devil You Know is when the Kylie we’re more familiar with today was birthed and I love the song for it. Sure, it’s a toxic message but that kind of makes it more iconic…

@bionic watch the opening to showgirl: homecoming tour and try telling me this isn't iconic

@whoresup Amazing! Such a classic that still sounds quite fresh today. Can’t fault that chorus.

@jimmytimestep Classic! The chorus is so anthemic.

@SCHEISSEMONTRE might be her best single during her PWL eras. 

@VTV Sounds like a track from Born This Way. She looks so hot on the MV

@Cello my first introduction to kylie! love this song

 

[Cruelty 5,887]

Brace, brace, brace!

[Cruelty 5,887]

6 PADAM PADAM – average 8.98

The highs: 11 x 3 [@COOOK @grimqueix @Battle 4 Ur Life]; 10 x 15 [@SimonBaetens @Noah @Cruelty @princedeblebleble @HateMeHarder @HeavyMetal Halcyon @lasagna @Kandy life @GH333 @QueenGloria @SCHEISSEMONTRE @VTV @RAMROD @Cello @Italian]
The lows: 5 x 1 [@ARTPOPe]

From the first note, “Padam Padam” immediately signals another change in the direction of Kylie’s career. Kylie’s last two albums are generally viewed as successful but unadventurous; Golden hopped onto the country-pop trend, with its successor enlisting a revolving door of collaborators—Dua Lipa, Years & Years, Jessie Ware—to augment its featherweight pre-drinks bops. But if recent years have seen Kylie carving out a space in the Hot AC wheelhouse, ‘Padam Padam’—the first offering from the upcoming Tension album—aims straight for the jugular of the Top 40.

A late addition to Tension, the song’s club-ready groove was created by breakthrough hitmaker Lostboy (Tiësto, Tom Grennan, Ellie Goulding), yet still feels distinctly ‘Kylie’. Over serpentine synths, the singer coos “I get the shivers when I look into your eyes / And I can tell that you’re all in / ‘Cause I can hear your heart beatin’”; a suitable mission statement for an album hyped up as ‘eleven tracks of unabashed pleasure-seeking, seize-the-moment, joyful pop tunes’. And the success of ‘Padam Padam’ (an onomatopoeic rendition of a heartbeat, don’t you know) lies in exactly this: bottling the ‘unabashed’ carpe diem energy that’s the hallmark of one of the world’s most popular singers.

‘Padam Padam’ sounds like a popstar who still has a mark to make on contemporary pop music – but also like a popstar reminding you why you fell in love with her. This consciously contemporary pop track is unafraid to recall some of the Kylie classics, building upon its manic Serbian-Eurovision-entry-that-finishes-ninth foundation via the slinky techno bounce of ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’ and the seductive energy of ‘Slow’. With the chirrupy hook “Padam! Padam! / I hear it and I know / Padam! Padam! / I know you wanna take me home” evoking the monomaniac wallowing in lust that characterises Kylie’s signature hit, this song might as well be ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Heart’. All the while, Lostboy’s clever production manages to feel stripped-back, whilst propelling the song towards a climax.

In summary: she’s done it again. “Padam Padam” is… kinda taking the world by storm? Kylie’s first top 10 in over a decade, its Spotify numbers are continuing to rise week-on-week, it’s receiving healthy radio play on Radio 1 and Capital (stations that wouldn’t have touched her since Aphrodite), and it’s inspiring an ocean of iconic viral memes. Long may the Padamic continue! Sadly, after spending so long in the top 5 of this rate, the song was just knocked out in the final stages of voting. But still: a smash is a smash – I hear it and I know.

Comments:

Spoiler

@MANiCURE 6 It’s a bop, but it’s way too short.

@Bronco Ngl this one went from one of my least fave songs to a song I can’t stop listening to on repeat. That bassline is perfect

@HateMeHarder Padam Padam is easily her best lead since SLOW. It's just so repeatable and sexy. The video really nails the era aesthetics and finally, finally Kylie is on location! I'd say a trifecta of defining Kylie leads would be Confide in Me, Slow, and Padam Padam.

@HeavyMetal Halcyon So good.

@whoresup A bawp! Love how confident and current it all sounds. Really happy for you that it seems to be taking off a bit…

@jimmytimestep Just when you thought you couldn’t get CCYOOMH out of your head…I’m so ill from the PADAMIC

@SCHEISSEMONTRE the second coming of Jesus.

@VTV Her greatest comeback to DANCE POP. Padam is that bitch deal with it.

@Cello padam? PADAM!