What is Kylie Minogue's best album?

[VoR]

I can just never get past how obvious it is that she's trying really hard (and not particularly convincingly) to be Shirley Manson/Björk/The Manics/whoever else she was clearly listening to at the time.

It's not a total Forever-esque write off, true. I love Cowbow Style, Breathe and Dreams. I'm glad she did it, because I don't think she'd be who she is today if she hadn't made that record. But I don't think it particularly plays to her strengths at all, and I'm glad she moved past it quickly enough that it didn't permanently tank her career.

 

[VoR]

I actually think KM94 threads the needle between pop Kylie and 'credible' Kylie much more convincingly, although there's definitely too much guff on that record for it to be her career highlight. But the Saint Etienne/PSB intelligent-pop sound fits her much better than her ham-fisted grabs at indie-rock cred.

 

[funky]

I agree with both of the above. I'm surprised to see so many votes for Impossible Princess. Some amazing highs but the album is all over the place!

 

[funky]

Still blows my mind that Rhythm Of Love was only 3 years after Kylie. What an album that is. That would be in my Top 4, alongside KM94, Body Language and Disco. For me Kylie at her most interesting with more highs than lows. The rest just have some good moments but I'd never listen to them in full.

 

[Shirley]

I don't like to say it darlings but you're QUITE RIGHT

Impossible Princess is UNLISTENABLE SELF-INDULGENCE in parts but the 1994 album is a THING OF JOY AND BEAUTY

I need to go to bed

 

[Inner Smile]

Seen page 2? You would think they were 80!

 

[Sheena]

I don't understand people who claim Impossible Princess as the best Kylie album. I get that it was an important moment for her personally, but it's so clumsy and antithetical to who she is as an artist. It's like trying to claim that the best Spice Girls album is Forever. It's probably the closest album to the sound they wanted to be making at the time, but that doesn't mean it worked.

Anyway the correct answer is very obviously Light Years.

I think that puts her into a box that she, admittedly, fits in entirely, but isn't all that she's about. Without Impossible Princess, there'd never have been some of the more experimental stuff she put out as collabs or bsides, there would never have been Where The Wild Roses Grow, and I think a lot of that has made her so interesting as an artist. I concede you agree with that more or less.

But I also think it's really lazy to deem it an indie record- it's actually not. So much of the "clumsy" bad rap is based on the lead single (which, as much as I love it, is just a Manics song with her guesting), but it gets completely lost that it's still REALLY pop driven. Probably only the two Manics collaborations fit into that mould- arguably Did it Again as well, in fairness- but the rest is very much dance based and an extension of what KM94 was. The media at the time latched onto it as a stick to beat her with and it's continued, but it's actually bollocks.

Personally, I love it- though, as often with Kylie, a little tracklisting rejig would have made things more interesting. I'd have jettisoned the second Manics collab and the dreary Through The Years:

1. Too Far
2. Cowboy Style
3. Love Takes Over Me
4. Some Kind of Bliss
5. Did it Again
6. Breathe
7. Say Hey
8. Drunk
9. Limbo
10.Jump
11.Take Me With You
12.Dreams

 

[Sheena]

I actually think KM94 threads the needle between pop Kylie and 'credible' Kylie much more convincingly, although there's definitely too much guff on that record for it to be her career highlight. But the Saint Etienne/PSB intelligent-pop sound fits her much better than her ham-fisted grabs at indie-rock cred.

And, of course, the Saint Etienne collaborations she actually completed for this album remain, devastatingly, unreleased. With the exception of the "Nothing Can Stop Us" cover they used for the b-side of Confide In Me, despite being mooted once as the lead single.

 

[Devil]

As a beacon of taste, it’s probably no shock that I don’t get Impossible Princess and my only keeper is Breathe but in its single version

The Light Years - Fever - Body Language run is my pick. Fever has better highs so I went with that, but Light Years feels the most cohesive and Body Language I listen to the most as an album, so not much between them.

I’d probably chalk Tension up in fourth.

 

[BoysForSeles]

Impossible Princess for me, by far her most interesting work, it felt like we were getting some genuine insight. I was really pleased with Light Years when it came out, I was ready for pure pop Kylie too by then. Increasingly I’m spending less time with her albums when they are released though. I loved Tension for about a fortnight and then never went back (some great songs on there though) and Tension 2 didn’t even last a week for me and remains the only album others I never bought.