Rhythm Of Love - Kylie Minogue

...both Count The Days and Rhythm Of Love (the title track of the album) are only half decent soul-flavoured pop songs. Count The Days is mildly interesting as its the rawest Kylie vocal that we have heard up until that point. But it sounds pretty much like much of the american pop that was coming out at the time of Rhythm Of Love's release. As for Kylie's attempt's at French, well thank god she took some lesson's in time for Confide In Me's stunning ...
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Rhythm Of Love is available on CD, but those of you still collecting vinyl, it did get a mainstream 12" release at the time, and can still be found on sites such as eil.com at ridiculous prices. Its more commonly available now as part of the 2 CD set which also includes her follow up release Lets Get To It. But you can also buy it individually from www.play.com for as little as £7.93

Released on Pete Waterman's ... more

In 1990 Kylie Minogue unleashed a shocking new image, backed by a change in soundtrack with her music. Changing from tomboy/girl next door to sexy disco diva, Kylie's management negotiated a harder sound that moved away from Stock Aitken and Waterman's traditional synthesiser beats and masked vocals. Determined even then to prove herself as a singer, Kylie's 3rd studio album was met with a mix of sterling reviews and disappointing sales. The first of her albums not to reach the coveted number 1 spot and not to spawn any number 1 UK singles, it still managed to crack the top 10 and give her 4 more top 10 hits.

Opening with the energetic and anthemic Better The Devil You Know, this was the first time we got to hear Kylie's voice without the layered sound effects added at the hit factory. Complete with a stomping chorus, and an apparent aside to Kylie's (newly formed at the time) relationship with rock wild-man Michael Hutchence, its a song about forgiveness within a relationship that obviously has its share of problems. Whether it was referrring to Michael or Kylie's secret (ha ha) love Jason Donovan is anybody's guess. But its nice to hear a semi-biographical content to Kylie's earlier music.

Adding a fun content to the album, Step Back In Time is a wonderful but slightly dated pastiche to the music of the 70s. With references to the O'Jays and the old days, its wonderfully weaved around non-sensical lyrics and a typical SAW backdrop which was made far funner by a sexy mad video featuring Minogue in very little cruising around LA with hot dancers.

What Do I Have To Do was the third single from ROL, and with a slight remix and harder edge, the single complete with its ultra-sexy video is far better than the only slightly-different album version. But it is one of the best pop songs of the early 90s and indeed of Kylie's early career. A year earlier, Kylie might well have been slaughtered for lyrics such as "But its always inside my head, never inside my bed". The synthesiser sound of SAW returns in all its glory on this track, but its given an up to date dance feel that sounds good even now.

Trademark SAW comes completely full circle on Secrets, the blandest song on the album. With the obligitary drum-intro that they were so famous for in the 80s, Kylie sings alongside a twee lyric about "pillow talk" and getting somebody "out of my life". On an album thats otherwise, and surprisingly, lyrically mature and eclectic, this song is such a disappointing return to the music that Kylie had most tried to run away from.

Always Find The Time follows on the trend of traditional SAW tracks after the previous two, but is far superior to Secrets. Again with the now-famous drum-intro, Kylie belts out this energetic track with its synthisiser bleeps and great backing vocals to support her.

Its with The World Still Turns that the album takes its most adventurous and surprising turn though. The first song that Kylie was ever allowed to write, and indeed record away from the lead of Pete Waterman, Kylie engaged the help of American producer Michael Jay and Mark Leggett to come up with this slow saxophone-laden ballad. With storming and unusually powerful vocals from Kylie, it tells how Kylie wouldn't save her romance given the chance because she's learned literally that the world still turns. Its probably the best song on the album, mainly because it lends the nice change in pace from Kylie's usual upbeat shenanigans.

And its back to Pete Waterman's stable for Shocked. Released in a different guise 9 months later, Shocked was originally an electro-pop extravaganza that was slaughtered in remix form by DNA (who were also responsible for Suzanne Vega's Tom Diner). Opening with a light guitar intro, it builds to a huge crescendo of instruments in the lengthy instrumental intro. Eventually merged with a soft delightful vocal from Kylie, the chorus is now as famous as any Kylie song with its simplistic lyrics and sing-a-long verses.

The second of four songs that Kylie wrote in America, this time indulging the help of Willie Wilcox, One Boy Girl is the most American-flavoured track on the album. Verses with attitude from the guest vocalists, and Kylie rapping about remaining faithful to her man is all very nice. But the fact that its bland and a bit generic spoils the fun a tad.

The last of Pete Watermans tracks is a blinder. Things Can Only Get Better takes the newly found formula of Shocked's electro build-up and takes it one step further with an electrifying back drop, storming chorus and thumping beats. It could well be the best track on the album, despite coming in at the latter quart of the album.

The last two tracks were co-written by Kylie and (Madonna co-writer) Stephen Bray, and despite the potential magic, both Count The Days and Rhythm Of Love (the title track of the album) are only half decent soul-flavoured pop songs. Count The Days is mildly interesting as its the rawest Kylie vocal that we have heard up until that point. But it sounds pretty much like much of the american pop that was coming out at the time of Rhythm Of Love's release. As for Kylie's attempt's at French, well thank god she took some lesson's in time for Confide In Me's stunning french version in 1994.

Suffice to say, the best thing about this album with the exception of The World Still Turns is the material that Kylie didn't participate in the writing of. She would later be more involved in the songwriting side of her music, but here, its kept to a third of the album, and unfortunately its the weakest third of the album. So therefore its up to the SAW material on the album to deliver a fun punch and carry Kylie forward into the 90s. And it definately delivers. Now 1 of 4 studio albums from the SAW days, its the only one that is a fully comprehensive well rounded pop album. It was also the last Kylie album that Matt Aitken (the second part of the songwriting trio) would be involved in. Kylie replaced him herself on the fourth album.

Its nice to see that Kylie became more involved in her music by this point, as the kiddie-element present in her two early albums are long gone in exchange for a maturer poppy sound. There are 7 excellent tracks, all of which could have been singles, and its just a shame that Kylie's self-penned material wasn't such a dynamic contribution. Thats not to say it doesn't have its moments. Her own lyrics are decent enough. Its just that they date an album that otherwise would have remained a sublime reference to a time line in her career.

Rhythm Of Love is available on CD, but those of you still collecting vinyl, it did get a mainstream 12" release at the time, and can still be found on sites such as eil.com at ridiculous prices. Its more commonly available now as part of the 2 CD set which also includes her follow up release Lets Get To It. But you can also buy it individually from www.play.com for as little as £7.93

Released on Pete Waterman's independant label PWL, the tracks on the CD are: Better the devil you know, step back in time, what do i have to do, secrets, always find the time, the world still turns, shocked, one boy girl, things can only get better, count the days, rhythm of love.  

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