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“Meet me on the disco-go-go-go…” beckons Kylie on her seventeenth album, Rigidity II. Though she has mentioned these 13 tracks are principally offcuts from final yr’s Rigidity, there’s zero drop in high quality as pop’s flirtiest little glitter fairy retains magicking up the dance flooring delights. The truth is, that is a type of instances the place the sequel sometimes outdoes the unique: Rigidity II feels bolder, more durable and extra creative than its predecessor, whereas nonetheless flowing immediately from the identical enjoyable and fizzy vibe. Kylie seems like a lady a number of pictures into the occasion, completely proudly owning her place in the midst of the dance flooring, pulling a giddy visitor record of producers and duet companions from their seats to whoop it up in her highlight.
Subsequent yr, Minogue can be touring for the primary time since 2019, so we shouldn’t be shocked to listen to her constructing as much as a boogie. Rigidity II opens with a banger of a present opener: “Lights Digital camera, Motion” springs from an anticipatory little synth riff because the 56-year-old teases, “I’m proper across the nook now/ I’m two seconds away/ Maintain tight, I’m about to reach…” Her shimmer-spritz of a voice is completely assured as she gives a soundtrack to anyone getting dressed for a giant night time out: “I look stellar tonight/ My armour is by Gaultier … we’re turning sinful tonight.”
Interviewed by NME final month, Minogue singled out the music “Taboo” as certainly one of her favourites on this file, describing it as a “distant cousin of Britney Spears’s ‘Poisonous’”. Retro disco strings rise from a submerged place within the combine (like these on Madonna’s “Hung Up”) to hold the drama. Violins that would have bopped in (shirtless and in platform footwear) from an early Eighties Boney M recording session soar and swoop by means of an EDM pulse as Minogue breathes: “One drink? I do know I shouldn’t however I simply can’t assist myself … un, deux, trois.”
The girl whose Noughties renaissance was pushed by a music on which she merely pouted “laaa-laa-laa” (“Can’t Get You Out of My Head”, 2001) rebooted herself for a complete new technology with extra nonsense syllables on final yr’s “Padam Padam” – she continues the trick right here. Her love is not only “taboo” however “Taboo- do-doo, do-dooo”. No person does blase higher. Over a synth hook that would have been the theme tune to a late-Seventies cop present, “Diamond” sees her paying tribute to a lover who’s a “star-ah-ah-ah, irrespective of the place you are-ah-ah-ah”. In the meantime, “Good as Gone” bounces from a beat as exhausting as a squash ball; “Somebody for Me” toys with an Ibizan vibe; “Dance to the Music” struts its stuff to a Dua Lipa-style bass line.
Issues decelerate a bit of on the ninth observe, on which Minogue delivers a gorgeously heartbroken gradual dance with “Shoulda Left Ya”. You may virtually hear the wind machine blowing her curls as she laments: “At any time when I hear the music, I’m again within the room.” However Rigidity II ramps again up on the finish with a collection of collabs pumping out like a hi-energy encore. There’s the thudding Nineties home of “Fringe of Saturday Evening” (with The Blessed Madonna); the extra forgettable “My Oh My” (with Bebe Rexha and Tove Lo) and castanet-flecked cowboy camp on “Midnight Journey” (with Orville Peck and Diplo) the place Peck’s wealthy baritone gives a terrific distinction.
She closes the album with “Dance Alone” (with Sia). The 2 Aussie pop queens – each survivors in several methods – dive right into a pool of experimentally wonky vocoders earlier than throwing themselves into some 4/4 shapes beneath the mirror ball: “I’m not afraid/ I do know I’ll be OK/ There’s nothing you’ll be able to say.” Minogue sounds terrifically cool and assured – blissed out in her pure habitat of sequins and strobes. Rigidity 2025 ought to be a blast of a tour.
