Aphrodite by Kylie Minogue
Aphrodite is the eleventh studio album by Australian recording artist Kylie Minogue. It was her first studio album in the three years following her 2007 release X. Aphrodite was released worldwide in July 2010, and was preceded by the release of the lead single, "All the Lovers". The four singles released from the album have all topped the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart, giving Minogue a total of seven number one songs on the chart as a solo artist, having had eight number one songs overall. Minogue has also made history on the chart, becoming the first act to claim two of the top three ranks in the tally's nearly 35-year history with "Better Than Today" and "Higher" with Taio Cruz. Aphrodite has received mostly positive reviews from music critics upon its release, being frequently compared to Minogue's previous albums such as Light Years (2000) and Fever (2001). The album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, just as her debut album, Kylie, had done in the same week, 22 years previously. It was her fifth album to reach number one in the United Kingdom. This made Minogue the first female recording artist in UK chart history to have a number one album in four consecutive decades, achieving this in the 1980s, 90s, 00s and 10s.
Kylie Minogue has always commanded the dance floor. Her feathery voice practically calls out for the phased whirr of a synthesiser, a catchy chorus and the thump of a drum machine. Even when she’s stepped away from the sweaty throng and explored the sidelines, the flashing lights and disco balls are never far from sight, eagerly anticipating her inevitable return. And when she is ready to jump back in, she takes your hand and brings you along with her. That sense of communion is the thread that runs through her 11th studio album <i>Aphrodite</i>. For it, Minogue brought on Stuart Price—the British pop wizard who’s worked with Madonna, Dua Lipa, New Order, Pet Shop Boys, Scissor Sisters and many more—as executive producer, and he in turn brought the same dance-music magic he sprinkled into Madonna’s <i>Confessions on a Dance Floor</i> as he helped craft one of Minogue’s most sonically cohesive albums. In the <i>Aphrodite</i> world, the dance floor is all-encompassing: It’s a place for love (“Put Your Hands Up (If You Feel Love)” and “Everything Is Beautiful”); somewhere to thrash out life’s problems (“Infatuation’s got a hold on me/A little jealousy, I’m not myself at all,” Minogue admits on the strobing “Illusion”); and a source of empowerment (“Ain’t getting me back/At the end of the song,” she sings on the glassy Italo-disco stomper “Get Outta My Way”, before twirling off into the crowd to dance with “a perfect stranger”). There’s unbridled euphoria, too: Pulsing with conflicted feelings of heartache and happiness, “All the Lovers” rushes forwards with its arms open, wrapping you in an embrace of cascading electronics and sweeping backing vocals. It provides a moment of pure hands-in-the-air ecstasy. “Dance/It’s all I wanna do,” Minogue sings on one of the most exquisite songs she’s ever crafted, before inviting you to join her: “So won’t you dance?” After listening to <i>Aphrodite</i>, it’s an offer that even the steeliest dance-pop detractors will find hard to refuse.
