Kylie Minogue’s Tension may be the Australian pop singer’s first non-themed album in nearly a decade, but an unambiguous sonic thread links all 14 of its songs. From “Things We Do for Love,” perfect fodder for a top-down cruise along the PCH, to “You Still Get Me High,” which sounds like a cut from an imaginary Molly Ringwald rom-com, Minogue is fully immersed in the glory of the ’80s. Even the album’s lead single, “Padam Padam,” is an invasive earworm that feels like it could be a cover of a Reagan-era pop hit.
As is her wont, Minogue opts to home in on the fluffier sounds and sentiments of the decade of greed. “Hold on to Now” and “Story” are lightweight but anthemic, in the vein of past hits “All the Lovers” and “Into the Blue.” “We’ll be dancing forever/Floating on this feeling together,” Minogue sings on “Hold on to Now,” which coasts on a cloud of percolating synths backed by a gospel choir and a soaring guitar solo, while “Story” is an effervescent slice of bubblegum dance-pop with a hook worthy of ABBA.
Rather than take a cue from the Daft Punk song of the same name, the disco-house throwback “One More Time” is more Disco than Fever. The disco-rap “Hands” and the sax-filled “Green Light” present a fresher take, a la Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now” and Doja Cat’s “Say So” and “Kiss Me More,” compared to Minogue’s last album, which was faithful to a fault to its titular genre.
Golden, Minogue’s 2018 foray into country-pop, was a left turn that hardly anyone saw coming, but the singer has otherwise largely played it safe in recent years by sticking to EDM and its adjacent subgenres. Only Tension’s title track, with its digitally enhanced vocal hook, veers into territory that could be described as “experimental.” Which is to say, for better or worse, Tension is another Kylie Minogue album.
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Of course Tension is another Kylie Minogue album, that’s obvious, such a lame shade, unnecessary. I thought this was a professional review, not a suposed journalist behaving like a “Mean Girls” character. Don’t be shady, be a lady!
Women bringing down women, ugh. It’s 2023, that is T-I-R-E-D! It starts with trying to peg Kylie to the 80’s, which feels like a dig at her age. Then it try to ding her for not being experimental. Is she now a scientist?
This review sounds like it was written by someone who skimmed Ms. Minogue’s wikipedia and then tried to be cleverly snarky. Not clever. Not snarky. Just L-A-Z-Y
I mean, had Madonna released yet another mediocre album in the same vein as all her others, she’d be critically mauled by the media. As it is we’ve come to expect drastic change and visionary genius from her over the years, think Erotica, Like A Prayer, Music, Rebel Heart and even Madame X eschewed the banal to give us something utterly different and compelling that was sorely lacking in the charts back in 2019. But Kylie doing Kylie for the 16th album is surely a sign that this woman is just living on fumes. It may well hit the spot in the UK, Australia possibly, but elsewhere its music under the radar. The mass media positivity surrounding her over the past few years is also head scratching. Here we have a not very visionary artist who’s not a dancer, with an average nasal voice bringing out the same pop sound every few years, and who’s career has hit more lows than the titanic, garnering her best reviews ever, for what is simply and average pop dance album that pales in comparison to similar efforts brought out by Lady Gaga or Madonna. One has to wonder how much the reviewers were paid. I agree totally with this review after listening to it on spotify. Its music to numb the brain
You’d think in 2023 we might finally (FINALLY) be past these sorts of lame digs from tired Madonna stans, and yet here you are. I’m sorry she hasn’t released a decent album since 2005.
Yeah, Madonna’s music has, sadly, declined big time. ☹️ Of course, not everything that Kylie makes is a masterpiece, but overall she’s pretty consistent. Kylie’s also never had a great voice, but she certainly makes up for it with personality and charisma. Anyway, for her to be putting out edgy tunes like the title track, at age 55, is pretty impressive. 👍
“…Tension is another Kylie Minogue album.” Which is to say, another very good dance pop-adjacent record(had to turn it into a positive because the reviewer was obviously offering a back handed compliment, if you could call it that). Maybe not up there with Light Years or Body Language, but still her best effort since at least ’07’s X.
It’s funny how all these “professional” reviewers seem to think alike. 🥴
All the reviews I’ve seen so far seem to believe that “Padam Padam” is an *amazing* single 🙄, just like they did with lead single “Say Something” from the last album. Well, I’m not a fan of either single. 😐 In fact, Kylie always seems to release the wrong first single. “Padam Padam” is certainly okay—and somewhat catchy, but also dopey and mostly forgettable.
On the other hand, the title track is stunning . . . at least musically. Anyway, I think all “professional” music reviews are best taken with a grain of salt. Most of these reviewers are no more knowledgeable than your average music fan—and appear to have questionable taste to boot. 😏