Body Language by Kylie Minogue
"Body Language" is the ninth studio album by Australian recording artist Kylie Minogue, released on 20 November 2003 by Parlophone. After the huge success of Minogue's album Fever, Minogue announced she would start recording her ninth studio album. Several producers from previous albums were featured on the album. "Body Language" is very different from Minogue's previous album, as she was known for her more signature dance music. The album consisted mainstream pop music, but included R&B, Funk, Electropop and Hip-Hop music, even included rapping in her song "Secret (Take You Home)". The title "Body Language" also came from the song "Slow". 'Body Language" received generally mixed to positive reviews, who did praise Minogue for a more independent and risk-taking chances, but was criticized for its different style. While Body Language failed to reach the chart and sales success of its predecessor, 2001's Fever, it still managed to chart inside the top five in several countries. It was certified double platinum in Australia, platinum in the United Kingdom and gold in Austria. In addition, the album has sold 177,000 units in the United States as of March 2011. The album spawned four singles, three official singles while one promotional. The album's biggest single "Slow" was success, peaking in the top ten in most singles chart. The next single "Red Blooded Woman" was also successful, while "Chocolate" received moderate success. She promoted the album with a promotional concert titled "Money Can't Buy".
It would have been easy for Kylie Minogue to take the easy route when it came to <i>Body Language</i>, her follow-up to 2001’s earth-conquering, “Can’t Get You Out of My Head”-housed <i>Fever</i>—stack the album with similarly accessible dance-pop floor-fillers and watch the disco balls light up all over again. But Minogue has never been risk-averse—this is, after all, a superstar who has made reinvention her calling card—and <i>Body Language</i> found her trading in the atomic chart hits of the <i>Fever</i> years for an album drenched in sensuality and atmosphere. Minogue has said that <i>Body Language</i> was inspired by the ’80s, but you won’t find the primary-coloured pop of the Stock Aitken Waterman days on her ninth studio record. Rather, “Still Standing” invokes <i>Parade</i>-era Prince with its pogoing bassline and frothy topline—albeit welded together with the metallic crunch of electronics—and there are echoes of Gloria Estefan on the seductive computerised funk of “Sweet Music”. “Secret (Take You Home)” features a sample from Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam’s “I Wonder if I Take You Home”; “Red Blooded Woman” takes the drama of a Police song and elevates it with six-inch heels and a clacking beat; and tucked away on psychedelic slow jam “Someday” is a guest vocal from Scritti Politti frontman Green Gartside. <i>Body Language</i> also appears indebted to the whispered eroticism of Janet Jackson. The bedroom-eyed R&B of “Chocolate” thrums with sexual tension, Minogue’s pixie-ish vocal so aerated it becomes misty, and there’s a mellow, satin sheen to “After Dark”. It’s “Slow”, though, that significantly raises the temperature: “Don’t wanna rush it/Let the rhythm pull you in/It’s here, so touch it,” Minogue sings over the bubble of fizzing synths and a sparse ticking beat, her delivery languid and panting. It might all lack the sugary immediacy found in <i>Fever</i>’s glittery nu-disco, but <i>Body Language</i> is occupied with eliciting a different kind of ecstasy.
