Kylie Minogue “Disco” (2020)
Normally I wouldn’t write about such an obvious chart-topping album … these types of releases generate enough word of mouth and press on their own … but I have found myself literally addicted to Kylie Minogue’s Disco since I got it, and I seem to be unable to concentrate on any of the other articles I’m currently trying to write. So I guess I just need to get this out of my system!
Now, before you roll your eyes, hear me out. I am not one of her legion of fans. I enjoyed “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” (from 2001’s Fever) but I can count on one hand the number of other Kylie songs I have listened to and enjoyed. Before 2020, I did not own any of her albums. I’ve never sought out her music or gone out of my way to hear it. I knew of her, but no more than in passing.
That said … Disco is infectious. And I mean that in the best way possible. It makes me smile from ear to ear every time I play it, which is a lot.
Although most pre-release reviews were positive, I remember reading a couple that were less than enthusiastic, but I enjoyed the lead single “Magic” enough that I was willing to risk it and pre-ordered it. Really glad I did. With the exception of one song that annoys the crap out of me (“Monday Blues”), I can listen to the entire album on repeat all afternoon, and have done so quite a few times. I have also played it to a few unsuspecting friends who have also become addicted to it.
The overall production is brilliant. The bass is deep and clear, especially on vinyl (though I must admit the Spotify playback isn’t too bad either). There is some amazing bass work on many of the songs, complementing the beat and driving the melodies forward. The bass bubbles, pops, and bounces along with some surprising presence on most tracks. There are little details that seem to surprise me every time I listen on headphones.
The guitars are funky and the keyboards are sweeping and uplifting. This album sounds joyous and ready to party. Each of the twelve songs on the standard vinyl release seems to be channeling a different aspect of the best pop music from the late ’70s and early ’80s. In a nutshell, it just makes me indescribably happy. Playing this album and singing along (yes, I’ve already learned most of the words!) brings me a feeling of freedom and excitement that I haven’t really experienced since high school. Kylie has managed to catch an elusive “something” that sounds and feels like an infusion of the freedom of youth directly into your ears. I just feel younger listening to this album. All cares and worries wash away and there is only the exuberance of being completely in thrall to the rhythm.
All of this is even more impressive when you realize that, for the first time in her career, Kylie recorded and engineered the entire album by herself at home, where she was stuck as a result of COVID-19 lockdown measures. About 90% of the album was created in her home studio. Being stuck at home seems to have brought the album’s theme of escapism into sharp focus, and each song, in its own way, feels like a dream of better days, of friends, of parties, of freedom. The overall effect is an album of pure celebration.
The music-buying public seems to have taken notice. Disco is her fifteenth studio album, and it debuted at number one in her native Australia and in the United Kingdom, making her the first female artist to have a number-one album in five consecutive decades in the UK (1980 to 2020). HOLY CRAP! That’s impressive.
As with most releases, the album has songs that feel like potential singles and songs that are clearly album tracks. “Unstoppable” and “Dance Floor Darling” are definitely deep cuts. The way they’ve been mixed works beautifully as part of the whole, but I don’t expect either could command a dance floor on its own.
Now, with that out of the way, let’s talk about the rest of the songs.
A1. “Magic” was released as the second single and it is a fantastic album opener. The tried and true “do you believe in magic” may not be the deepest lyrics you’ll come across, but they don’t need to be. They are accompanied by a sound that instantly transports you through time to a dance floor somewhere in the ’70s, when the world was simpler and the only thing that mattered was dancing and strutting your stuff. The song isn’t trying to say anything else. It doesn’t need to. “You got me started, and nothing on earth can stop it.” That happy feeling you get when you sing along is all you need to know.
A2. “Miss a Thing” starts with a funky vibe reminiscent of Daft Punk’s “Around the World,” then moves into a slinky groove with Kylie crooning “run away with me tonight, come dance with me.” This is a song I can easily see couple-dancing to. I don’t mean couples as in two people, I mean couples as in dance partners moving in sync across the floor. Forget all the ridiculous finger-pointing and jumping around that John Travolta made famous in Saturday Night Fever (even though it makes a cameo in the music video). This song begs you to actually dance together, hands on shoulders, spinning, dipping, and moving across the floor as one. In a world driven apart by social distancing, this song yearns for that kind of intense connection between dance partners moving fluidly in sync. “Baby, I just don’t wanna miss a thing.”
A3. “Real Groove” is the latest song I can’t get out of my head. In fact, I’ve caught several of my students humming it as well. They don’t know the words, but they have the melody down pat. This song has so many adorable nostalgic tricks that I can’t help but smile. It’s got a funky robot voice during the chorus, a vocoder working overtime that sounds like something from Earth, Wind and Fire. It’s got a hint of digital stutter that reminds me of that remix effect that got overused in the ’80s, but sounds adorable when Kylie does it (“We-we-we-got that real groove”), followed by something that can best be described as bubbles popping. It will make you smile. It has wisely been chosen as the upcoming third single from the album.
A4. “Monday Blues.” Yeah … no. I have tried a few times to get through this song and I just can’t. I don’t know what it is, maybe the minor chord progression in the intro or the faux-Latin feel, but … yuck. Maybe it’s because it sounds too much like Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration”? Whatever it is, it just doesn’t do it for me.
A5. The whole album is pretty high octane, but “Supernova” kicks it into an even higher gear, the BPMs sounding like they suddenly jump from 120 to 150. This song sounds like the love child of ABBA and Giorgio Moroder. The synths are used to full effect, bringing sweeping string-like sounds to complement the staccato bass while Kylie sings insane lyrics like “shining like a supernova, brightest of the stars / from another galaxy like Jupiter and Mars.” It makes no sense, really, but the intent is clear and the music will make you move. Despite the utterly nonsensical lyrics, this is another song that always seems to get a really positive reaction when I play it to people.
A6. “Say Something” was the first single released from the album and it is pure pop brilliance. It sets up the whole Disco experience perfectly: you know exactly what you’re getting on this album. The uplifting “cause love is love, it never ends / can we all be as one again” is a balm for these times, and the pseudo-gospel choir that shows up sporadically only adds to the feeling of being lifted away to better days. “Say Something” is also really well positioned as the final track on Side 1, because it leaves you wanting more. Now you’re faced with the difficult decision of playing Side A again, or flipping the LP over … unless you’re streaming, in which case it just continues on its merry way.
B1. “Last Chance” is another song that just begs to be sung along to. It reminds me a little of ABBA’s “Voulez-Vous.” You know how you always sing “Voulez-Vous … AHA!” when that song comes on? In this case, every time the chorus kicks in I find myself singing the backup vocals “last chance” over and over and over, while my butt develops a mind of its own and starts dancing.
B2. “I Love It” was released as a promotional single on digital platforms, which is a shame, because I think it has the potential to be a huge single if it had been given a proper release. It is an earworm of epic proportions and just so much fun to sing along to. I have played the whole album a few times during class recently, while students are writing or otherwise not engaged in speaking or listening. This song has come up a few times, and one of my students had the cutest reaction. As the song was playing, a little girl of about seven looked up from her work and asked me “Why does she dance through the garbage?” (her interpretation of the misheard lyrics “Dance Through the Darkness”) and then said “I don’t love it!”, so I agreed to change the song for her. Not ten minutes later, when the music had stopped and we were all doing other work, I caught her humming the chorus to herself. This wasn’t the only time I caught her doing it either, but she refuses to admit that she actually does love this track.
B3. “Where Does the DJ Go?” is definitely a high-tempo party song… it even features a wee bit of DJ scratching! I get a major kick out of it and often find myself singing it while driving around. It is just grin-inducing. Now, I remember seeing a review that essentially said “where does the DJ go? The DJ goes home and the music is over. DUH” … which is the exact opposite of the vibe I get. My feeling is that the song is asking “once the DJ finishes working, where do they go to party? Let’s go there!” It features some wonderful callbacks to major disco hits of the ’70s, like Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” and the guitar scratching of Donna Summer’s “Bad Girls,” and of course a subtle nod to Indeep’s “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life.” My favourite reference is probably the most obscure one: the chorus features a “Whoop! Whoop!” that reminds me of the Michael Zager Band’s 1977 floor-filler “Let’s All Chant.” And let’s be honest… it don’t get more disco than that, haha.
B4. “Dance Floor Darling” The only problem I have with this fantastic song is a sudden, pointless increase in tempo during the guitar solo and the final chorus. It ruins the whole thing for me. The chorus features a super catchy chant of “no regrets” … but I hope they regret that decision.
B5. “Unstoppable” is a good track but not a great song. It’s filler, but not the kind of filler you feel the need to skip. It’s fine if it comes up during a mix, but it’s just not a song I can foresee ever actually choosing to listen to. That said, I’m happy enough to bop along to it while I wait for the album closer, which I love.
B6. “Celebrate You” is a wonderful album closer and it sums up the overall theme of the album perfectly: we need to celebrate each other and be there for each other. Life is an adventure best shared with those you love. “Everything I like about myself is better with you.” And once that last note fades, you’re faced with the difficult decision of playing Side B again, or flipping the LP over. If you’re listening digitally, I’d suggest setting it to repeat.
Now, if you buy the deluxe version (and doesn’t it seem like there is always a deluxe version these days?), there are four bonus tracks. Since they’re bonus tracks and not part of the core album, I’m not going to review them here except to say they are top notch. The basic album is a perfect length at twelve songs, but the four bonus tracks are a wonderful surprise, even if they aren’t essential. I can see why they were cut, but they have grown on me considerably. All of them except “Spotlight” have become steady favourites. I actually rate “Fine Wine,” “Till You Love Somebody,” and “Hey Lonely” higher than “Unstoppable.”
The bonus tracks appear at the end of the CD. On the deluxe vinyl edition, the original album is spread across three sides instead of two, with the bonus tracks comprising all of Side 4. This arrangement gives the grooves a bit more breathing room and allows for a louder pressing, giving the bass extra room to rumble and the mid-range a bit more clarity. That said, my basic edition sounded fantastic and dead quiet on just two sides of wax. My deluxe vinyl pressing was pressed on glow-in-the-dark vinyl (which I’ve heard tends not to sound as good as regular coloured or black vinyl, though this may be a rumour), so I can’t say for certain whether it’s the best-sounding pressing available. It sounds damn good, though, and the music being pressed slightly louder than on the single album edition further eliminates background noise on an already quiet pressing.
If you have the choice between the regular and deluxe versions, I’d recommend going for the deluxe unless the price difference is substantial. Having lived with the album for quite some time now (yes, I have listened to it at least once a day since I got it!), I find myself singing along and enjoying every song right through to the end of the bonus tracks. The only song I always skip is “Monday Blues,” the only one I sometimes skip is “Unstoppable,” and when I ripped my MP3s I faded out “Dance Floor Darling” before the annoying sped-up ending.
This album was an absolute joy to find at the end of the dumpster fire that was 2020, and it is still providing smiles and good times well into spring 2021. I can’t recommend it enough.
[note: This post was originally created on December 16th, 2020, but I edited it on March 9th 2021 because, after listening to the album regularly for the past two months, my opinion of the bonus tracks has changed tremendously and they have really grown on me!]
ANOTHER NOTE: it’s now January 2023 and this is still one of my most played albums! 🙂
#MusicBoxTW
