Review Summary: Kylie goes country.
Prior to the release of
Golden, Kylie's musical career trajectory had been something of a frustrating one. Following her stint on Australian soap
Neighbours, Kylie shifted her focus from acting to music, dominating the charts worldwide with rather bland, insipid hits like "I Should Be So Lucky". Kylie wasn't content to just be another MOR pop star, though, as she let her creative side shine in late '90s by taking a more hands-on approach to her music, something perhaps best solidified in 1997's
Impossible Princess - a more adventurous, experimental album which Kylie penned all the songs for herself. But unfortunately this would end up being nothing more than a phase - critics and audiences alike overwhelmingly rejected this "new Kylie", and from 2000's
Light Years onwards, Kylie seems to have found complacency in releasing rather mediocre pop music.
I mention this because come 2018, Kylie's releasing her fourteenth album with
Golden. It's an album which - on the surface level at least - seems to be a step closer to her
Impossible Princess-era music, as Kylie is once again taking control over her songwriting and exploring new fields of music. From the first few bars opening track "Dancing", it's clear that
Golden is a stylistic shift from anything Kylie has done before. While her previous albums have been full of upbeat, synth-heavy songs, Kylie seems to take influence from her time in Nashville on
Golden, trading the synths for acoustic guitars; indeed,
Golden marks Kylie's ventures into country music.
If there's one thing you have to give Kylie credit for, it's how fresh she sounds after all this time.
Golden does not sound like a record by a women who's going on fifty, as both Kylie's voice and energy are undeniable throughout here. Her delivery on the uplifting "Dancing" really does highlight the song as one of the album's strong points. It's exuberant, it's playful, it's fun - it's quintessentially Kylie. Furthermore, Kylie's far more involved in the songwriting here than she has been for a long time, and it does show - on lead single "Dancing", her lyricism is light-hearted and uplifting ("can’t stand still I won’t slow down/when I go out I wanna go out dancing"), while on "Music's Too Sad Without You" her lyrics are more melancholic ("now the music's too sad without you/silence is all I can listen to now"). Kylie's lyrics have obviously never been anything groundbreaking and that's still the case here, though the lyrics on
Golden do feel more personal than the lyrics on Kylie's last few albums.
But
Golden's problems lie with the execution. Kylie only ever really dips her toes into country music without ever really fully committing to it, and the album comes off feeling a bit artificial as a result. "Raining Glitter" is probably the epitome of this - it opens with an acoustic, fingerpicked acoustic guitar, but soon reverts back into Kylie's familiar sound with processed electronic beats and a bass-heavy chorus. This is a recurring theme that plagues most of the tracks on
Golden - many of them have interesting ideas in there that could work if they were fleshed-out a little more, but Kylie never really expands on them before shifting back to her old electropop sound, as if she's too afraid to truly invest in the new style she's exploring. The production too detracts for some of the tracks, in particular, on "Golden". From the opening Kylie's vocals are distorted in a way that they sound incredibly thin and compressed, which is definitely not an effect I find particularly appealing.
The best moments here are the ones where Kylie does commit to the new style she's aiming for. "Radio On" is one of the more stripped-back songs on the album with noticeably sparser instrumentation, but it's also one of the only instances where Kylie really pulls off the country sound. The emphasis is clearly on Kylie's restrained vocal performance and lyricism, and consequently it feels like one of Kylie's most personal tracks in a long time. Album closer "Music's Too Sad Without You", a duet with Jack Savoretti, stands out for the same reasons. Kylie's softer vocal approach make the track one of the most intimate sounding across
Golden, and it benefits greatly from her superb chemistry with Jack. But these songs are unfortunately few and far between, as ultimately most of the tracks on
Golden are relatively indistinguishable from one another and end up feeling somewhat like rehashed b-sides from
Light Years.
Maybe my expectations were a bit too high, or maybe I was foolish for expecting another
Impossible Princess, but
Golden seems to be something of a let-down from someone who's capable of so much more. In many ways,
Golden is actually quite a good album - Kylie's voice is as strong as ever, her lyricism is the most personal it's been in a long time and all of the songs are full of energy. But what's frustrating is that you get the sense
Golden could've been so much more. There are glimpses of what
Golden could've been - songs like "Radio On" and "Music's Too Sad Without You" indicate that Kylie really could've made something out of the country style, both being by far two of the most unique and memorable songs Kylie's done in a long time. But as it is, Kylie simply doesn't explore this new territory enough, and thus
Golden unfortunately winds up sounding too much like
Light Years with a slightly different coat of paint.
