With Kylie Minogue having yet another career boost, thanks to the global success of ‘Padam Padam' and the ‘Tension' era, a new book has been released that promises to give a detailed exploration of Kylie's extensive repertoire. This is to be done, in the main, by looking at each of Kylie's 16 studio albums (up to and including ‘Tension') as well as touching on some of her compilation albums, b-sides and rare tracks.
As a life-long Kylie fan myself, I was excited to dive in, but also know I'm a tough critic to please when it comes to Kylie.
From the start, it's clear that Clary is a fellow Kylie fan as well as being a musician (amongst other things). However, I do feel this book is a little confused in what it's trying to be.
It starts with a bit of a background on Kylie from birth through to her childhood and her acting endeavours, right up to the start of her music career. So far, so good in terms of scene setting. Then it has ‘Kylie's Ultimate Songs' – of which there are six. I would say these are more the author's favourite Kylie songs than based on sales or chart positions.
Then comes the main thrust of the book – the album by album reviews. The author does use her musicanship to describe the tracks on each album, but for me, often misses some of the interesting facts about the songs. For example, songwriters are referenced, but often given no further context such as who else they've written for etc. It becomes apparent quickly, there are only so many ways to describe songs, and in particular her SAW output suffers from repetition of a variation of ‘over a SAW programmed drum machine'. Don't get me wrong, I would struggle to describe the first two albums other than that they sound very Stock, Aitken and Waterman!
With each album there's a bit of an introduction before the author goes through (usually in tracklist order) all the songs on the album. Again, this can bring with it some repetition between the intro and tracklist part.
The author does try to give some background context to what was happening in the world around each release, but could have gone further. In places it reads like an essay, littered with references to other works and interviews (including exclusive content from their podcast) and at other times they share some of their own personal journey and how Kylie impacted their life. Perhaps this could've been a more unique angle to take? There are other titles out there covering her discography, and unfortunately, for me, they do a better job of it.
As an aside, the ‘previously unseen photos' mentioned in the book blurb, are a selection of black and white fan photos taken by the author and her pal at various live concerts and public appearances. So whilst these photos will, I'm sure evoke great memories for many Kylie fans, you will have seen similar official press shots.
At the end of the book, the author goes beyond Kylie's albums to touch on some of her memorable tours and her business endeavours, to try and paint a broader picture of her icon status.
You can sense the ambition of this book, however it does read somewhat like an early draft that could use a good edit and fact-check by another Kylie fan. Ultimately, this book is from one fan's perspective and therefore does bring the author's personal bias in places which means some fans won't always agree with her commentary.
‘Stick or Twist?' unfortunately it's the latter for me.
Writer: Clary Saddler Released by: Pen & Sword Books Ltd Release date: 8th November 2024
