Album Details: The Album that Started it all for the Former Australian Soap Opera Star. The Production Team of Stock, Aitken and Waterman Got Hold of her and Thus Began the Gush of Hits. The Biggest Are Represented Here with her Cover of 'the Locomotion' and 'i Should Be So Lucky'.
Disc 1:
I Should Be So Lucky - Kylie Minogue, Aitken, Matt
Brilliant debut - performance, songwriting, arranging . . . After a few times listening to Kylie's first CD, it may begin to seem like a radical departure from the usual pop music fare circa 1988. Exceedingly well-played and arranged island-inflected soft funk beats drive and/or massage over half of the songs. The other tracks boast a finely mastered assortment: a strong remake of "The Locomotion", an exquisitely fine jazz-inflected R & B song, another where R & B and island funk are melded in an uncannily expressive fashion, and so on.
1. "I Should Be So Lucky" A good story-song. Kind of an innocent, bubbly send-up, it's very energetic, and at the same time quite sweet. The video is very fun to watch, with its girl-next-door flavor on display all the way through. 4 stars [video on `Ultimate Kylie' DVD: 5 stars]
2. "The Loco-Motion" Kylie really nails this - it's a fabulous remake of the great Little Eva classic from 1962! 4½-5 stars.
3. "Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi" Here the backing tracks' mix is a total gem - full of surprising, expressive rhythmic touches - for this medium tempo, gentler type of song. After an initial learning curve, it seems to get better every time you hear how Kylie's exhortations fit in and around the rhythmic groove (likewise how the groove fits around and inside her singing). The rhythm and overall style seems to be broadly based in zouk (dance music from Guadalupe/Martinique, islands in the French Caribbean, by way of Paris). 5++++ stars; [video on `Ultimate Kylie' DVD: 5+ stars]
4. "It's No Secret" This song continues the exploration of island-inflected beats. With strong, broadly swinging syncopations, this one seems to hearken to reggae-soca (a blending of Jamaican reggae and Trinidadian dance music). And this one's unbelievably passionate. Great, great songwriting (form, rhythm, melody, backing tracks) and soulful playing/singing all the way through! 5++++ stars
5. "Got To Be Certain" Continues the exploration of island inflected beats - this one appears to be a severely funk-inflected soca, with an overall subtle zouk influence as well; feel the relaxed passion/emotion of K's singing! The melody's in a major key this time, with a kind of high-blown airy feel to it. 5++++ stars.
6. "Turn It Into Love" Continues the uncanny fusion of island beats and song forms. This unbelievably passionate song/arrangement is seemingly in a driving straight 8 (time signature); but the placement and accenting of notes of the rhythmic synth groove coupled with undulating, syncopated melodic/harmonic lines send this into a high heaven-on-earth feel. Great techno/synth sounds in the mix; great melodic revolutions, unbelievable vocal arrangement - bravo to all the singers - what a blend! 5++++ stars
7. "I Miss You" Here's still another unbelievably passionate song/arrangement, this one being jazzy-inflected R & B - the backing tracks are unbelievably good - smooth and soulful - everything fits like a glove, the backup singers especially. Their harmonies and tonal palette are intensely dreamy, and creamy. 5++++ stars.
8. "I'll Still Be Loving You" Beautiful reggae-inflected R & B, with well-placed funk seasoning; again, how they got these rhythms (etc.) to fuse so perfectly is a complete marvel. The melody, composition, back-up harmonies continue to thoroughly amaze! The finest imaginable at 5 stars ++++.
9. "Look My Way": a glorious somewhat up-tempo R & B song. This sounds perfectly at home in the constellation of late-80's music, when it was created. The only caveat here is that Kylie's singing is a little more strident-sounding than it probably should be. The back-ground singers sound too much more relaxed and this produces kind of a clash. My vote would be to have had Kylie's delivery toned down, as the back-ups sound perfect. This was an error on the part of the producers, not the singers (including Kylie). 4½ stars.
10. "Love At First Sight" (Note that this is an entirely different song from the one of the same title from her 8th CD: `Fever') This begins with a very tasty (and funky) syncopated soca-driven horn intro. But what's kind of weird is how simplistic (and repetitious) the melodies are: mostly up 4 notes and back down (in both sections), with minimal ornamentation, etc. Maybe this is an attempt to recapitulate the melodic movement of track #1 (which is, however, somewhat more varied and interesting), over a more busily moving rhythm track. Kylie and the other singers clearly make the best of it, and if the listener will be a little bit forgiving, and let the blending of the beats, the singing and other sonic events carry the day, the song might just clock in at 5 stars, otherwise you might have to rate it a 4, or even a 3. Overall the song works quite well, considering.
Kylie - The best debut album ever I've been a Kylie fan since the early Neighbours' days and this was my first ever album on vinyl. I saw it here on CD and I had to buy it!! Sounds great in the car and the songs are very reflective of my own experiences so it's nice to know there's someone out there who can put it all into a song and make circumstances seem less painful than what they really are!
This is where it all started... When Kylie released her first album back in 1988, (Kylie) many were quick to say she was just another 'flash in the pan.' What they did not know, was her career would still be going to this day...
This 10-track fun pop album is the lime-light. They are great and fun upbeat tunes and very memorable. The kids that know this album may find their parents singing to the songs in the car and the window is open and, it's highly embarrassing!
Anyway, this is pure-pop Kylie at her younger states, when she was in Neighbours. This album includes the first single here in the UK, I Should Be So Lucky and the first #1 in Australia, The Loco-motion, which stayed at the top for 7 weeks!
I Should Be So Lucky was a #1 for Kylie here in the UK and more favourites Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi, The Locomotion and Got To Be Certain were #2's for Kylie. Turn It Into Love and It's No Secret, however, were very popular singles in Japan! Turn It Into Love immediately went to #1 and It's No Secret hit #4!
So all the first 6 songs from this album were singles some where in the world. The last 4 are also very good. The stand-outs for the last 4 songs are definately I Miss You and Look My Way. There are slightly more mature than other 'hits' on the album. As is I'll Still Be Loving You, a beautiful ballad that made me cry for the first time in any song when I listened to it.
This leaves just one more song, Love At First Sight. It is definately the weakest song on the album and is certainly not the hit that appeared on her Fever album, later on in her career. It's not as good as that or the other songs on the album, nevertheless, still an excellent song.
Futhermore, this album went straight to #1 on the UK Charts, it also spent an amazing 67 weeks on the UK Top 100 Albums Chart! This was aslo just 3 weeks off her extremely popular album Fever, which spent 70 weeks on the UK Top 100 Albums Chart! This just shows how great Kylie really is!
Kylie's Debut Album Kylie's first album starts with two ever green "I Should Be So Lucky" and "The Loco-Motion". The next songs are not bad either. "Je Ne Sais Pourquoi" (peaceful love song), "It's No Secret", and "Got to Be Certain"...there's videos all of the 5 first songs. four of them were singles "I Should..." (number 1 in UK), "Loco-Motion" (number 2 in UK), "Got to Be Certain" (number 2 in UK), and "Je Ne Sais Pourquoi" (number 2 in UK). "Turn It Into Love" has great pop sound. It is a shame that it hasn't been released as a single. The four last ones aren't so good. "I Miss You", "Look My Way", "Love at First Sight" (not the one that was released as a single...that was in Fever -album) are too basic pop. "I'll Still Be Loving You" has great lyrics and Kylie has a lovely voice but it isn't my big favourites either. Stars: Turn It Into Love, Got to Be Certain, I Should Be So Lucky
Very fun debut from Kylie I still love Kylie's first album. Although it got attention because of her remake of Little Eva's '60s hit, The Locomotion (people just LOVE those remakes, that "Oh My God, I remember that song!" reaction), the rest of the album is more exciting and fun. I have played It's No Secret, Turn It Into Love, Look My Way (which sounds like the Whispers' Rock Steady), I Miss You, I Should Be So Lucky and others. The one weak song of this album is Love At First Sight. It sounds too kid-like for her. As fun, catchy and addictive as it is, it is a Stock-Aitken-Waterman production. Those three produced entire albums for Rick Astley, Bananarama, Donna Summer, and some songs for others. The music has a tendency to be repetitive, and some songs here from '88 are similar to the ones they did for Astley and Summer. Their clash of keyboard heavy melody, shades of late '70s disco and '80 dance in their sound made for a unique formula. One must ask how nonstop it was for them to make 40, 50 or 60 different songs for these artists in that successful period. But you wouldn't know it from dancing to all of it. Kylie's first album was really the setup for more complex songs like her '90s albums and her most recent successful albums of Kylie and Body Language.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tailipoe
Trevor
