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 generally tends to be electronic-based dance pop, very dancey 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.

only 4 stars because...(read on)..

This was a great package of "goodies" from the label which sponsored Kylie's ONLY intersting period, in which she showed actual talent and creativity (before she became a ...pop sellout;). The only problem with it is that besides the great inclusion of rare-b-sides and such, it only includes 3 songs from the Impossible Princess period. It is a criminal exclusion of the brilliant song "Cowboy Style" which WAS a single, and in my opinion, her best song to date.
Nevertheless, it's nice to know that SOME of the material representing her great artistic period is getting some representation/summary, and wasn't just thrown out by Deconstruction.

The Diva from Down Under

Why Kylie has never crossed over to be as big a star in the US as she is in Europe and Australia is anyone's guess. Unfortunately, most people on this side of the Atlantic remember her only as the teen-something singer of "Locomotion" back in the 80s. Well, she has since matured and become something really quite fantastic.

This album is a collection of some of her lesser known "hits" as well as tracks never before released. The sound is often reminiscent of mid to late-90s Madonna with a couple of sultry nightclub chanteuse numbers thrown in, most notably "If You Don't Love Me" which demontrates Kylie's incredible vocal range.

The album opens and closes with two Middle-Eastern tinged songs: "Confide In Me" and "Take Me With You". Other highlights include "Where is the Feeling?", "Breathe" (in my opinion, the album's best track), the bizarre duet "Where the Wild Roses Grow" with Nick Cave (this track reportedly has a cult following here in the States), "Difficult By Design" and the rave dancefest "Where Has the Love Gone?"

This album demonstrates a woman firmly in control of her art, sexy as (..), and a (...) lot better than anyone might surmise from her early bubble gum pop days. Her two most recent albums - (...) - are fun: 2000's disco-influenced "Light Years" and 2001's "Fever" (which features her UK hit "Can't Get You Out of My Head" that has recently come Stateside), but this Hits album tops either. For an introduction to the wonder that is Kylie, you'd do no better than to start here.