Kylie Minogue

Light Years (Parlophone)
by Michael McCarthy

Kylie Minogue‘s latest, Light Years, has been released in nearly every country but the United States. I don’t consider this any great injustice, however, since it’s not the inspired disc her past two albums were. On those, she collaborated with such folks as Brothers In Rhythm and Manic Street Preachers for some of the decade’s best pop, even doing the whole electronica thing before it had occurred to Madonna. If only Light Years were so artful. It’s not the fluff of her first four albums (remember “Locomotion” from the first?), but more of a disco club music score than anything. “Kids,” a duet with Robbie Williams, is fantastic. But the other songs Williams co-wrote for her would’ve been better served on one of his albums. She simply does not give “Your Disco Needs You” the sarcasm he must have had in mind, and it becomes a parody of a parody by default. Spend your money on Hits +, the new compilation released by the Deconstruction label. It contains all but one of the singles from the previous two albums (“Cowboy Style” is missing) plus some remixes, b-sides and previously unreleased tracks.