I’ve written reviews for this album for two different publications today, and after all that attention, was then unable to pay proper contemplation to the larger-scaled evaluation of it for the site. So what I’ve done is combined the best bits of both reviews, added in extra pieces and touched up a few things up here and there.

Overall, Kylie Minogue’s long awaited 10th studio album, X, is a sublime effort. There are some seriously classic Kylie pop songs on here; the sort of pop Kylie does best; the kind of pop Kylie should be making in the year 2007. That’s not to say she doesn’t stuff up though. When she gets it wrong, she gets it incredibly wrong. Sensitized, an offcut from her flop Body Language album, is quite possibly the stinkiest song of her entire career. I always thought Cathy Dennis (who gets a co-writing credit on this one) could do no wrong but this song dispels that theory right out of my thought process. The laughable Nu-di-ty is just plain embarrassing and even a bit painful. It’s almost like a really lame attempt to replicate the bizarreness of German Bold Italic. But they forgot to add the one thing GBI had; some soul and, dare I say it, an actual melody. Then there’s the Calvin Harris production Heart Beat Rock, which makes Minogue sound like an absolute try-hard. I’m bemused as to why songs such as When The Cat’s Away and Fall For You missed the final cut for this album, but the lousy aforementioned three did. Luckily, those three are the only turkeys on an album with 10 other songs of magnificent proportions.

New single 2 Hearts kicks things off in fine, glampop fashion. It’s very Goldfrapp-meets-Tori Amos and is 100% worthy of the Number 1 position it currently holds on the ARIA singles chart this week. Things then launch into electropop heaven with Like A Drug, which samples Visage’s moody-synth classic Fade To Grey and sounds a lot like Divine’s Native Love. The second Calvin Harris production is a vast improvement on Heart Beat Rock. So much so that In My Arms is, quite frankly, a future number 1 single waiting to be unleashed upon the world; an enormous track with seriously euphoric synths and a whopping chorus, this is already one of my favourite Kylie moments. Oddly, I tend to think the video clip for Love At First Sight would suit this song more than Love At First Sight did. Maybe she can just pay an homage to herself? She’s already done it once on this album…

Speakerphone puts Kyle’s through a voice vocoder and brings out the big-bassed-guns. A ripping track that sounds scrumptious on a big stereo system. But the truly glorious slices of luscious pop come courtesy of three songs. First of all, The One, which is a song that picks up from where Can’t Get You Out Of My Head left off, then marries it with Olivia Newton-John & ELO’s Xanadu. A marvelous pop song that will be forever remembered as a true Kylie classic. Same story with Wow, which sounds like vintage Kylie brought through to the 21st Century. An elevated chorus and self-referencing (the homage to herself I mentioned earlier) through the lyrics (”you know you’re made in heaven”) really do help in making this another one of her all time best. Then there’s Stars, which is such a beautiful piece, ready-made for radio’s across the globe. Big chorus, sharp production and a killer final 30 seconds; in an ideal world this too would be a massive single.

No More Rain is a cute bass-heavy ballad that Kylie had to apparently fight for in order for it to appear on the album. Crazy really because I just adore it. A totally shimmering chorus melting together with a gypsy-like sound that harks back to her Cowboy Style days; what’s not to love about it? Just stunning. As is the story for closing ballad Cosmic, which sounds like the kind of thing I should only listen to on a crackly old 7″ single. Very, very endearing.

So aside from three duds, this is a very solid album. Thinking about it properly, I honestly feel that this is an exceptional progression from Fever, whilst the sour songs seem like they are a step behind Body Language. Luckily for us, the pungent moments are heavily outweighed by the masterpieces. A truly triumphant comeback.

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