G’day, Skippy…

I’ve not always been a fan of Kylie. The curly-haired, squeaky-voiced girl from Australia who tortured us with “I should be so lucky” and “The Locomotion” was among my least favourite people in the world at the time. However, since the excellent “Spinning Around” (to my mind still her best song), she has just gone from strength to strength, and I’m a true fan nowadays. (And I do mean of her singing… I think she has acquired a legion of fans who appreciate her rather more tangible assets far more than her voice… ;D ).

Bonza

Fever is a true Disco album, a pretty rare thing these days. There’s a definite “sound” permeating all of the tracks, however there is plenty of variety in the different songs. Kylie has never had the best voice in the world, but she knows what she’s good at, sticks to it, and does it better than anyone else in the business.

When she needs to she has a pretty raunchy voice (okay she’s not Tina Turner but she does it for me), and in my favourite song of the album, Fragile, she is incredibly sweet. Otherwise she has a fine pop voice well suited to the style of her songs.

Many of the tracks are probably good to dance to, but I’m a really lousy dancer so don’t take my word for it! Most of them have a “sing-along” value, and some of them will stick in your head for a long time.

The Tracks

(I’ve put all the tracks in lower case as that’s how they appear on the album cover).

01 – more more more – Fast, slightly raunchy, feel-good song.

02 – love at first sight – Pure trademark Kylie, more purred than sung.

03 – can’t get you out of my head – Undeniably catchy, but I feel this song is seriously overrated. Certainly not one of the best songs on the album, but true to its title, once you’ve heard it you really can’t get it out of your head! Notable (to me) also for being co-written by the wonderful Cathy Dennis, who I wish was still performing as well as writing.

04 – fever - The title track is pure disco, but also has clever lyrics and the vocal style shows some of the softer side of Kylie.

05 – give it to me - Kylie gets raunchy with this saucy song that owes more to funk than disco.

06 - fragile - This is my favourite track of the album, and has Kylie singing in a sweeter voice than I’ve ever heard from her before. It also has nice lyrics and a good but unobtrusive beat.

07 -come into my world - Sweet and sexy, this is probably, along with “fever”, the second best track on this album.

08 - in your eyes - One of the most well-known tracks, it’s more vintage Kylie. Better the “can’t get you out of my head”, doesn’t suffer from having heard it a million times!

09 - dancefloor - A good disco track, upbeat and uplifting.

10 - love affair - A filler. Nice enough but nothing special.

11 - your love - As the previous track.

12 - burning up - The album ends with an excellent track that’s a bit of a departure in style for our Kylie. Great mood-lifter and probably the most ambitious musically.

Overall

There are no bad tracks on this album. About 3 are just over average (3,10,11), 5 are good (1,5,7,8,9), and 4 are brilliant (2,4,6,12). It’s an album you will listen to again and again, good for parties, lifting your mood, and just for unwinding. It shows Kylie to be an accomplished and versatile performer, not afraid to try something a little different but never so much that she’s out of her depth.

Recommended heartily for all Kylie and disco fans.

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