The decision to let producer Stuart Price helm 2010’s Aphrodite coated Kylie Minogue’s 11th album in a characteristic, cohesive dance honey that gives it an elegant, warmer flavour than that of its predecessor, X, which had been recorded just three years earlier with a battalion of collaborators while Kylie was still recovering from cancer.
Listen to ‘Aphrodite’ here.
“My strongest instinct was: let this be a Kylie record”
There were plenty of things Price – who had masterminded Madonna’s 20005 disco throwback, Confessions On A Dance Floor – insisted on when he accepted the project: the record would contain just 12 tracks, and Price also proposed to dial back on the “over-perfected, over-produced” vocals that Kylie needn’t rely on. “We didn’t do a lot of smoke and mirrors with computers,” he recalls. “My strongest instinct for everything was: let this be a Kylie record.” The Australian icon responded warmly to the approach. “I felt confident with him,” she said. “He allowed me to shine.”
Aphrodite’s lead single, All The Lovers, opens the album, and its euphoric echoes of Studio 54 and 70s hedonism became a big hit in summer 2010 – reaching No.3 in the UK and topping the Billboard dance charts. One of the best Kylie Minogue songs, All The Lovers has become one of the classic Kylie singles and regularly features in her setlists to this day. The album’s second single, Get Outta My Way, is a dazzling piece of Europop but it fell foul of changing market dynamics in which physical sales were now largely eclipsed by digital downloads, with streaming not far in the future.
Of Aphrodite’s other singles, Better Than Today had a sharp, contemporary production, while the fourth release, the anthemic Put Your Hands Up (If You Feel Love), received a widely celebrated remix by PWL legend Pete Hammond.
