Such was the pent-up demand for new Kylie Minogue material in 2010 that, on its advance release, a short clip of her song All The Lovers caused the singer’s website to crash.
The pairing of Australia’s biggest musical export and super-producer Stuart Price, best known for his work on Madonna’s disco revival Confessions On A Dance Floor, had been hotly anticipated and, when fans heard the 30-second instrumental clip of All The Lovers, there was a sense of keen expectation likely to be met. The short segment of the song’s hedonistic electronica had a blissful, dreamlike quality that matched the optimism of Kylie’s moment – she was recently revealed to be in a new relationship – and the music she was creating with Price and Jim Eliot, from electro-pop act Kish Mauve, appeared to be upbeat, celebratory and determined to put a difficult patch behind her.
Listen to the best of Kylie Minogue here.
“I felt confident with him. He allowed me to shine”
Kylie had been in recovery from cancer for a few years, and if 2007’s X album and an appearance on that Christmas’s Doctor Who episode had signalled a determination to get her professional life swiftly and determinedly back on track, sessions for her new record, Aphrodite, had been more leisurely. “I was so relaxed with Stuart,” Kylie said at the time. “We just did it on the studio mic; I wasn’t separated in another room. I felt confident with him. He allowed me to shine.”
Released as a single on 11 June 2010, All The Lovers had been one of the final tracks to be recorded for Aphrodite, but Kylie sensed immediately it should be the record’s lead single. “It sums up the euphoria of the album perfectly,” she said. Indeed, there is an effervescent sparkle to the track that echoes past glories such as 2004’s I Believe In You and, while the structural security of Kylie’s trademark dance sound remains, All The Lovers has a more textured, organic orchestration.
