Hits plus... and minus

Before her reemergence with "Fever," pop star Kylie Minogue had a handful of little-known pop albums. Okay, they weren't successful, despite this album's name -- "Hits Plus." But the best of those largely-forgotten albums are collected in "Hits Plus," bogged down by some previously unreleased material that should have stayed that way.



Minogue runs the gamut with plaintive, ethereal ballads (the tearful "If You Don't Love Me"), serene, stately songs (the classical-pop "Confide in Me," the Indian-trip-hop "Take Me With You") and bouncy, catchy dancepop (glittery "Where is the Feeling?", catchy "Tears," and slyly critical "Did It Again"). Having taken the best from those albums, the result is pretty solid.



But padding "Hits Plus" is a variety of previously unreleased tracks. And most of them are more like "Hits Minus." They're primarily dancepop, heavy on the beats and light on much else (the instantly forgettable "Where Has The Love Gone?", perky "Gotta Move On" and "Difficult By Design"). But it also includes pleasant jazz ballad "Stay This Way" and a sweet acoustic version of "Automatic Love" -- neither is really exceptional, but they're nice enough.



Kylie's music tends to be electronic-based dance pop, very clubby stuff. That mold gets broken in "Hits Plus." Like Sarah Brightman, in this album Minogue seems to dip her finger into various kinds of music without sticking heavily to any of them -- Indian-style singing, orchestral influences, and a hint of jazz.



There's also a lot more than electronic beats here. "If You Don't Love Me" and "Stay This Way" depend heavily on the piano, and "Confide in Me" rests on shimmering violin and harp accompaniment. Minogue's voice, never the best, wobbles on some songs like "Automatic Love" but usually holds steady, occasionally better than expected.



"Hits Plus" is certainly not the best album by Kylie Minogue, but it does contain some of her most versatile work. The unreleased tracks aren't really worth it, but the previously-released gems like "Confide in Me" are delightful.

It's real Kylie

It's REAL Kylie! This CD is a review of Kylie for the time of 94-98, what funny is "New Songs more than Old Songs", 16 songs but only 7 old songs, others are rare or unreleased songs, but as I say, it's real Kylie as most of the songs are written by her. It's different with the "Light Year" CD, "Sprinng Around" and "One Night Likes This" are hit but not written by her. I like the song "If you don't love me",it's just 2 mins. songs but you can get the excellent feelings inside, I have boardcast in my last radio progamme, "Tears" is another B-Side songs I really like. If you like Kylie, I belive you won't miss this best collection with beatiuful photos inside.