The London-based, Australian singer is still selling her
dance-floor hits and sexy formula with her new album "Aphrodite,"
being released globally on July 6.
The first single, "All The Lovers" features a
provocative new video where she is effortlessly hoisted up by underwear-clad
men and women caressing her and each other in an image that blends easily with
work from earlier in her career.
If a sexy video seems like an easy way to create sales in
an ailing music world, Minogue told Reuters in an interview that nothing in her
long career has been simple. At age 42, she admits pressure is still on to
sustain her sensuous image, and battling cancer in 2005 has taken a toll on her
body.
"There is no short cut to learning your craft,"
she said of her time in the music business since her 1987 cover of "The
Loco-Motion" launched her career. "You don't know it in the
beginning, you can't fathom that, but now, 20-plus years later, I can go into
the studio and I know where I sit." The new album was steered by British
producer Stuart Price, one of the most in-demand pop producers, best known for
his work on Madonna's 2005 album "Confessions on a Dancefloor."
"Aphrodite" features 12 tracks that highlight
her uplifting dance-floor roots mixed in with disco beats, and it discards any
ballads like those that appeared on previous albums. Music executives hope it
will help boost struggling label EMI Group.
Early reviews have been glowing, with the BBC calling the
album "pure Kylie magic" and The Telegraph in London rating it four
stars. The Telegraph called it "a mainstream pop blast" with
"tingly keyboard hooklines" showing off "the sensuality of her
light, breathy, close-to-the-mic vocals."
Apart from hits including "Can't Get You Out of My
Head" from her 2001 album "Fever," Minogue has not achieved the
wide audience in the United States that she enjoys in parts of Europe and Asia,
but she could capitalize in America on the current popularity of dance music
spearheaded by Lady Gaga.
"It is still pop dance but it has got a euphoric
theme," Minogue told Reuters, adding the album reflected the "good
place" she felt in her relationship with Spanish model Andres Velencoso.
"With him, it has been just very relaxed and a very
easy relationship so I have got that kind of feeling at the moment," she
said.