Kylie Minogue Album: “Enjoy Yourself”

In 1980's Britain, the most successful pop record producers were the team of Stock, Aitken and Waterman. Many of their singers faded from popularity as quickly as they emerged, leaving a legacy of doubtful importance. A few did rise above the rest but the star that shone the brightest was Kylie.

This album was produced entirely by Stock, Aitken and Waterman, who wrote all the songs except for Tears on my pillow (the Little Anthony fifties classic). This cover helped to convince me that Kylie should be taken seriously - it is brilliant. I've heard several versions including Reba McEntire's. Kylie should be proud of her cover, which went all the way to number one in Britain, even though I slightly prefer Reba's. Hand on your heart (number one), Wouldn't change a thing (number two) and Never too late (number four) were the other UK hits from this album.

While many will continue to dismiss Kylie (especially these early albums), she is much better than many of the singers she is sometimes compared to, and has proved it by lasting longer than any of her critics thought possible.

Note that this CD is also available via the boxed set - Kylie Minogue x3. It's only three individual CD's wrapped in a cardboard slipcase but it's much cheaper than buying the three separately.

Smilin' Kylie was never quite the sensation here in the U.S. that she was in Euro-swapping parts of the world. While that's not particularly surprising (given the abundance of thin-voiced blondes and Madonna wannabees), this unfailingly upbeat album offers some evidence that Americans need to lighten up. It's not quite the sugary, manufactured "product" that so-called serious critics label it, but truly enjoying it (as Kylie does) amounts to a guilty pleasure.

At least four tracks here were remixed and released as dance club singles, and those imports helped to push the domestic copy of "Enjoy Yourself," which is now out of print. Though none of these songs were as successful as "The Locomotion" in the U.S., this album is a distinct improvment upon Kylie's debut. The in-house SAW/PWL production team lends this recording a melodic edge that rides perkily atop the usual mid-tempo SAW rhythm track. And just in case those insistent, ingratiating beats start to annoy, there's a handful of "beatless" tunes that Kylie performs to the best of her ability.

In my opinion, it's the SAW melodies that make this an enjoyable record; they could have been performed by any number of vocalists in the SAW stable. Of course, not even Bananarama could duplicate the unpretentious sweetness that Kylie provides here in abundance; even when she's singing a sad tune you get the feeling she's pleased with how her hair turned out that day.

"Enjoy Yourself" isn't a meaty (much less meaningful) album, but it is a throwback to the carefree Pop of the '60s and early '70s, when Pop music was little more than memorable melodies and entertaining vocalists. The dance beats are little more than a nod to the fashion of '80s Pop, but most of the songs are still quite danceable. If you can shake the stigma attached to such a guilty pleasure, by all means take Kylie's advice and enjoy yourself.

-Mic

This is Kylie's 2nd album; it's a radical departure from the first one (titled simply `Kylie') which used exceedingly well-played and arranged island-inflected beats on more than half of the songs. (The other tracks had included a finely mastered assortment: a strong remake of "The Locomotion", an extremely well-done jazz-inflected R & B song, another where R & B and the island sound are melded in an uncannily expressive fashion, and so on.)

For this second CD, all that is left behind; the same writing and production team totally sells out to the idea of making a great disco album, and succeeds to a large degree in doing just that.

1. "Hand On Your Heart": Kylie's first (of many) bona fide disco excursions. Great little musical bridges popping up here and there - it really hangs it out for all to hear and see. Lyrics tell their story with punch and verve.

5++++ stars

[video on `Ultimate Kylie' DVD: 5+ stars]

2. "Wouldn't Change a Thing": similar high quality structure/form but different in almost every detail (melodic, emotional: almost mournful at times, lyrical, etc.); and maybe even better.

5+++++ stars

3. "Never Too Late": bouncy type disco tune - very colorful, emotionally upbeat - still, it tells another story, maps a situation, as perfectly as the two previous songs. The video is to die for: Kylie dancing with 1 or two terrific male dancers wearing a series of terrific costumes depicting 6 different eras, going back to the Twenties.

5+++ stars

[video 5++++ stars]

4. "Nothing to Lose": emotionally wrenching exhortation - brilliantly blistering disco track. Starts and ends with wonderful multi-part harmonies, more or less a capella.

5++++ stars

5. "Tell Tale Signs": a serious change of pace, but a good segue into this stripped-down-to-strings 30's or 40's style ballad. A showcase of Kylie's burgeoning vocal versatility.

5++++ stars

6. "My Secret Heart": stylistically similar in tone to the previous track; but this falls flat in terms of its sequence and/or its very placement/existence within the track list. Also the string articulations sound a little clumsy, like maybe they were from a synth or sampler, but not a very good patch at all. It's probably not Kylie's fault that this one doesn't quite catch fire.

3½ stars at best, though probably much less - I doubt repeated listening will glean any further inspiration here.

7. "I'm Over Dreaming (Over You)": lighter, emotionally upbeat, happy-melody-type disco tune. Though not quite as interesting formally or melodically as tracks 1-4 or 10; still, it perfectly produces its aimed-at emotional/lyrical affect. Reminds me a bit of CD #1's "I Should Be So Lucky", but the current song is melodically more colorful than its predecessor; and it continues to grow on you.

4½ stars.

8. "Tears On My Pillow": like the majority of Kylie's covers, this is an excellent rendition.

5 stars.

9. "Heaven and Earth": is a garden-variety pop ballad - since I don't usually care for this type of thing, it would be unfair to give it a low rating. Still, its place in the sequence of songs is inopportune, bunched up against the previous song, also a ballad.

Unrated.

10. "Enjoy Yourself": the title cut brings forth another passionate, blistering disco groove (also in a minor key), and presents further intense exhortations from the singer, in tandem with her backing tracks. Undoubtedly the best non-single on the album.

5++++

It's a little sad that the bottom sort of drops out in the middle of this otherwise stellar set (at least in spots), and doesn't really get totally back on track until the extremely energized and convincing track #10.

But stay tuned for Kylie's CD #3, `Rhythm of Love', where the "team" continues their fruitful, beat-laden excursion into the high heavens of disco wonderland.

Kylie's 2nd album "ENJOY YOURSELF" showed us that Kylie was

born for the job. To be a seriously taken singer

and not just a pretty face on the pop scene of 80's.

Like Franks Sinatra's albums this cd makes me smile too.

It is very unusual that album contains so different styles of

music. "Hand on your heart", "Never too late" and "Enjoy yourself" are absolutely danceable songs and you want to listen them time after time. "In my secret heart" is just like one of the songs on Frank Sinatra's album "Swing along with me",

and "Heaven and Earth" may be the most beautiful ballad that has ever been written on the 80's. I can only say that this cd does not include any bad tracks, it's just music for the older peoples but i like it, and i can only recommend it to the hard-

Kylie fans and Sinatra fans!. Get to know this album!!!.

Kylie Minogue's first album, KYLIE, has some terrific tunes on it but is passed over by her modern-day fans, who prefer her more adult image. RYTHYM OF LOVE, her third album, is celebrated as when the Dancefloor Diva came of age. Wedged in between the two is ENJOY YOURSELF, her second album, which has been forgotten about by the general public, due to its nebulous state as being not-quite-the-adult Kylie that RYTHYM OF LOVE would bring forth. But to overlook ENJOY YOURSELF would be a mistake, because as with KYLIE, it has some pleasant, feel-good songs to it. Most notable of these is the second track, "Wouldn't Change A Thing," with catchy lyrics and (of course) Kylie's charismatic voice, that automatically raises the quality of any song she performs. Other worthwhile tunes here include "Hand On Your Heart," "Never Too Late," her cover of "Tears On My Pillow," and a very mellow ballad called "Especially For You," which she performs with Jason Donovan, her co-star from the NEIGHBOURS television show. Neither Kylie's fans, or even Kylie herself, have ever given her the credit she deserves for making highly enjoyable music under less-than-ideal circumstances; not a hint of her difficulties with the Stock-Aikman-Waterman production crew makes it into ENJOY YOURSELF. Along with KYLIE, ENJOY YOURSELF is more than acceptable fare, although if you prefer your Kylie Minogue a little more raw, skip straight to RYTHYM OF LOVE.