Happy coincidence or clever strategy, Kylie Minogue is celebrating the 35th anniversary of her very first album “Kylie” just as she is preparing to release her 16th studio album “Tension”. With an unstoppable flair, the Australian star knew, perhaps more than anyone over the last five decades, how to sense the spirit of the times in a constantly changing pop landscape. Also, when “Padam Padam” arrived in all the playlists in the midst of a nostalgic wave of the 90s and 2000s, the singer hit the nail on the head, shattering conventions to offer her first viral trend on TikTok and to bend on the radios resistant to the idea of playing the song of an artist over 50 years old. And precisely, over the course of the album “Tension”, thought of as “ an all killer, no filler », Kylie Minogue proves that there is no age to use the liberating force of pop music and transcend borders.
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Saturday night fever
By getting to the heart of the matter with her latest hit, Kylie Minogue immediately invites the public onto the dance floor and, with rare exceptions, never lets them leave the exhilarating fervor of a nightclub. “ You look like fun to me » she says in a sensual voice on “Padam Padam”, making the listener’s heart beat to the rhythm of the hit by LOSTBOY (Zedd, Little Mix). Hardly original to the ear, certainly, but devilishly formidable. This is generally the observation that we can draw from the record in its entirety, where the melodies, whether electro-house or adorned with a disco-pop color, seem familiar, without being either lazy or ambitious. Do we really need to reinvent the wheel when we know how to master our subject like Kylie Minogue? Her voluptuous voice (which seems insensitive to the ravages of time) is that of temptation to be satisfied, of pleasure to be shared. All she wants to convey to us here is the effervescence of a moment, a sensation that has become the common thread of the project which is wonderfully transcribed by the second track “Hold On To Now”, a true “Kylie song” in the soul, ecstatic and so hovering. It was originally supposed to be a second single, but the surprise success of “Padam” ultimately worked in favor of the much more club-friendly “Tension”.
Auditory candy and time capsule, “Things We Do For Love” quite well synthesizes the other side of an album which, “ without it being intentional » she slips into a half-smile in an interview with Purecharts, is peppered with multiple references to other musical eras of her past. In the arrangements or the energy that emerges from it, this anthem “ romantic, overdramatic » is a delicious homage to the 80s, a decade which was that of her youth, of her first times, and therefore associated with a kind of ardor that the diva would like to channel. Reminiscences that spring like sparks on “You Still Get Me High”, whose chorus gives pride of place to synthesizers, “Vegas High”, an obvious single and obviously built in echo of his next residency in Las Vegas, or the title of conclusion “Story”. And even in the less sparkling titles of the opus – understand by more calibrated for a lounge evening with cocktails, Kylie Minogue knows how to spin the disco ball by infusing “One More Time” and “Green Light” with disco reflections – attractive funk. An already proven recipe, which gives this album the air of a guilty pleasure.
At a time when pop is becoming more and more intimate in terms of writing, in the wake of young artists on edge like Billie Eilish or Olivia Rodrigo, we could criticize Kylie Minogue for hardly opening up about the personal level in the texts of “Tension”. To talk about love and desire, the star prefers to stay on the surface and find the right word, the punchline that will hit the mark, rather than introspection. “ I actually keep a large part of my private life, I think it’s the wisest thing to do to stay sane in this profession. I really like it when a song can resonate with me but be more universal, and almost like an unanswered question » she recognizes in our interview which will appear this weekend. However, this universality is its strength. With the exception of the micro-attempt at rap in the song “Hands” (which will undoubtedly raise a few eyebrows…), we are swimming in familiar waters, at the right temperature. And we feel good there!
Kylie Minogue has the power to awaken a spark of magic in us. Without claiming to redefine the contours of pop music, the Australian popstar excels on “Tension” at injecting a dose of endorphin, taking us on a night full of promise on the track with contagious generosity. Baby, break the tension!
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