Kylie Minogue - Music Will Always Love You (2007)

2007 was an extremely prolific year for Kyle Minogue, for as well as releasing the 'X' album, and writing and recording over three dozen extra tracks for use as demos or b-sides, some further tracks have surfaced since the demos were leaked. In fact, demos and out-takes have been appearing for a number of years, since around the time of her 'Fever' album in 2001, and so this collection gather up those tracks which didn't make her 'Fever', 'Body Language', 'Ultimate Kylie', and 'X' albums, to produce another great dance album from the Aussie popster, which still has fans asking "why on earth didn't she release that?!". This post includes the song that was mentioned in a previous Madonna post, where she'd given 'Alone Again' to Kyle and never recorded it herself, as well 'I'm Ready (Survivor)', which was gifted to her by Boy George, and two co-writes with Jake Shears and Babydaddy from Scissor Sisters. One of these is the original fast version of 'White Diamond', which featured on the 'Xtra' album in ballad form, while '(Everything) I Know' is another 'X' reject. As these songs span a period of seven years, it might not sound as cohesive as the last two Kylie posts, but her sound gravitated towards dance from the 'Fever' album onwards, and once in that zone she didn't deviate that much from it, so overall I think this is a pretty good collection.     

Track List

01 Music Will Always Love You (Intro) ('Fever' demo 2001)

02 White Diamond ('X' out-take 2007)
03 I'm Ready (Survivor) ('X' out-take 2007)

04 My Image Unlimited ('Body Language' out-take 2003)
05 (Everything) I Know ('X' out-take 2007)
06 Loving You ('Ultimate Kylie' out-take 2004)
07 Alone Again ('Fever' out-take 2001)
08 Fall For You ('X' out-take 2007)
09 My Love Is Real ('X' out-take 2007)

10 I'm Just Here For The Music ('Body Language' demo 2003)
11 So High ('Fever' out-take 2001)
12 Trippin' Me Up ('Body Language' out-take 2003)

Kylie Minogue - Xtra (2007)

In May 2005, while promoting the 'Ultimate Kylie' album with the Showgirl: The Greatest Hits Tour, Kylie Minogue was diagnosed with breast cancer, and so immediately cancelled the remaining concert dates and starred to undergo treatment. Her hospitalization in Melbourne garnered intense media coverage, and following her recovery, she worried about not having sung in some time and whether she could return to performing so soon after her treatment. However, she did reschedule the remaining dates of the cancelled tour for 2006, renaming it Showgirl: The Homecoming Tour, and traveled around Australia and the UK. In July of the same year it was revealed that she was in the studio recording new material, and once the tour ended in January 2007, she returned to the studio to complete the album, feeling that finalizing it was a personal goal she had set. 'X', as the album was to be called (being her tenth release), was the first album where she'd consciously prepared for the recording process, as up until then it was a cycle of record, release, and tour for much of her career. The production took a year and a half to finish, with more than 40 songs recorded, some of which were written about her experience during her recovery from breast cancer, but they were not distressing and were composed to a disco beat. However, most of these tracks did not make it to the record because she was not inclined to release too many songs about her cancer recovery. She worked with producer Eg White, and Jake Shears and Babydaddy of Scissor Sisters also co-wrote some songs with her, including 'Singing In My Sleep' and 'White Diamond', neither of which appeared on the final tracklist. 

London group Kish Mauve re-produced two of their own songs for Minogue, 'Lose Control' and '2 Hearts', and she loved '2 Hearts' the first time she heard it, recording several takes on the verses to make it sound more effortless and lazier, with it eventually opening the album. Danish producers Cutfather and Jonas Jeberg forwarded a demo of 'Like A Drug' to Parlophone and later flew to London to record the track with Minogue within a day, and while there they also recorded 'All I See' and 'Rippin' Up The Disco', although only 'Like A Drug' made the final cut. Minogue collaborated with her longstanding co-writing team Biffco, including Richard Stannard, Julian Peake, and Paul Harris, and together they wrote 'Stars' (which made it) and 'I Don't Know What It Is' (which didn't). Sessions in Stockholm with songwriter Karen Poole and Swedish producers Bloodshy & Avant resulted in the tracks 'Speakerphone', 'Nu-di-ty', and 'Cherry Bomb', and although they also attempted to work on 'No More Rain', their production-heavy style did not work well with the song. On a trip to Ibiza with Karen Poole and producer Greg Kurstin, they set up a studio booth in a villa to put the final touches to the album, and they also recorded demos for new songs that they wrote there, including 'Wow', 'King Or Queen', 'Carried Away', 'Do It Again' and 'Magnetic Electric'. Several tracks with other songwriters and producers were rejected during the production process, and Scottish musician Mylo was shocked when his recorded tracks with Minogue were scrapped, despite being told that 'Spell Of Desire' and 'In The Mood For Love' were being sent off to be mixed and would be on the final record. 

Shortly before the album was due to be released, two songs were leaked online, with 'Excuse My French (French Kissing)' originally being incorrectly labelled as Kylie's new comeback single. As soon as Parlophone found out about the leaks they panicked, and informed all parties questioning the song that it was actually an 'old demo', and that in fact it wasn't Kylie singing, claiming that it was a session singer used to sound like Kylie for demo purposes. This does happen, but the leaked 'Excuse My French' is very much Kylie's vocals, and it was a new demo, recorded in 2006, and not an old one as Parlophone were saying. A day after the leak of 'Excuse My French' came another leak in the form of clip of a song entitled 'When The Cat's Away', with Parlophone repeating the same denials, compounding this with a statement on 9th March 2007 referring to 'Excuse My French', saying that 'Kylie is not singing on the track and she has never recorded a song by that name', which completely contradicts their earlier statement that the song was a 'old demo'. You can make up your own mind when you hear it. When 'X' was eventually released it garnered generally favourable reviews, with Sharon O'Connell of Yahoo! Music describing it as a "savvy, shiny, slyly sophisticated set of thoroughly modern dance floor exercises" that Girls Aloud might make, and BBC Music's Chris Long calling it "a fine selection of pop gems" that captured the trend for electro music. Over the years nearly 50 demos and early takes have found their way online, and this collection features most of them, many of which have been mentioned above, along with a few choice b-sides, which make up a companion to 'X' which to my ears sounds the equal of it's parent album. As with 'Excuse My French', there are some major online disputes over whether Kylie is actually singing on some of these demos, so it's up to you to make up your own mind when you listen to 'To The 9's', 'Give Up To Love', One To One' and 'Never Be Lonely', but to be honest, 'To The 9's' is such a great track that I don't really care. 

Track listing

Disc One
01 Spell Of Desire (demo with Mylo) 
02 King Or Queen (b-side of '2 Hearts')
03 Lose Control (demo with Kish Mauve)
04 Magnetic Electric (demo with Greg Kurstin)  
05 Sexual Gold (demo)
06 White Diamond (demo with Jake Shears and Babydaddy) 
07 Excuse My French (demo.....or is it?)
08 In The Mood For Love (demo with Mylo) 
09 Do It Again (b-side of 'Wow')
10 Something 2 Believe In (demo)
11 Rippin' Up The Disco (demo with Cutfather and Jonas Jeberg)

Disc Two
01 To the 9's (demo)
02 Down Down (demo)
03 When the Song Comes On (demo)
04 Ooh (demo)
05 Cherry Bomb (b-side of 'Wow')
06 My Love is Real (demo)
07 Classical Transit (demo)
08 I Can't Help That (demo)
09 Acid Min (demo)
10 Osmondosis (demo)
11 Fall For You (demo)
12 Never Be Lonely (demo)

Disc Three
01 Guess Who's Back (Interlude) (demo)
02 Carried Away (b-side of 'Wow')
03 Ruffle My Feathers (demo with Cutfather and Jonas Jeberg)
04 What's It Gonna Take (demo)
05 Thing Called Love (Right Here, Right Now) (demo)
06 I Don't Know What It Is (b-side of '2 Hearts')
07 Hold On (Like Love) (demo)
08 Simple Boy (demo)
09 One to One (demo)
10 Come Down (demo)
11 Extraordinary Day (Taprobane) (demo with Cutfather and Jonas Jeberg)
12 Give Up To Love (demo)
13 Love Attack (So Safe) (demo)

Kylie Minogue - Always And Forever (2001)

In 1997 Kylie Minogue released her sixth studio album 'Impossible Princess', representing a drastic change in her musical direction, incorporating elements of electronica and alternative music. The British public was unimpressed, viewing it as a trend-chasing attempt, and failed to identify with her new intimate image as "IndieKylie", with the backlash resulting in 'Impossible Princess' having little impact on British record charts, and ultimately resulting in her leaving Deconstruction Records after a six-year relationship. Following the split, Minogue took a break from recording music to focus on her acting career, although she did perform Duran Duran's 'The Reflex' on the tribute compilation 'Undone: The Songs Of Duran Duran' in 1999, and she also collaborated with the Pet Shop Boys on a duet entitled 'In Denial' on their 1999 studio album 'Nightlife'. This prompted the band's label Parlophone to sign Minogue in June 1999, and in an early meeting with the label to discuss which direction she intended to pursue, she decided to return to her pop roots, as she realised that this was the kind of music that people wanted from her. Her team approached PWL owner Pete Waterman to be involved in the project, as the pair had worked together earlier in her career, but the collaboration did not happen. Instead she felt that working with different producers would help the album have a diverse feel, and so she recorded the songs in Sydney, London, and finally Los Angeles, where she put the final touches to the album. Former Take That member Robbie Williams contributed three songs with his songwriting partner Guy Chambers, 'Loveboat', 'Your Disco Needs You', and 'Kids', with Minogue sharing the songwriting credit on the first two, and she found Williams to be her ideal male counterpart based on their similar musical output. 'Spinning Around' was released as the lead single from the 'Light Years' album in June 2000, with two previously unreleased tracks on the flip, the alternative dance number 'Cover Me With Kisses' and the acoustic 'Paper Dolls'. The second single was 'On A Night Like This', and once again it had a new track on the b-side, being the ballad 'Ocean Blue', whereas the next release was the duet with Williams, with 'Kids' having four original tracks by Williams on the b-side, and Minogue only appearing on the A-side. The fourth single 'Please Stay' was the final release from 'Light Years' in the UK, and was backed by two exclusive b-sides, being a cover of 'Santa Baby' (omitted from this post as it didn't really fit with the other tracks) and the previously unreleased 'Good Life'. One last single was released just in Australia and Germany, and fans who bought 'Your Disco Needs You' were treated to specially commissioned re-mixes of the A-side plus album track 'Password'. 'Light Years' received generally positive reviews from contemporary music critics, and in retrospect is generally considered to be one of Minogue's strongest releases, and so a companion record of b-sides, film soundtrack work, collaborations, and the theme to the UK soap/drama 'Night And Day' should be equally strong, and it turns out to be just that, so enjoy some rare Kylie at her poptastic best. 

Track listing

01 Cover Me With Kisses (b-side of 'Spinning Around' 2000)
02 Paper Dolls (b-side of 'Spinning Around' 2000)
03 Ocean Blue (b-side of 'On A Night Like This' 2000)
04 Physical (bonus track on Australian edition of 'Light Years')
05 The Reflex (with Ben Lee, from 'UnDone', the Duran Duran tribute album 1999)
06 Good Life (b-side of 'Please Stay' 2000)
07 Always And Forever (theme to the TV series 'Night And Day' 2001)
08 I Feel Love (Donna Summer cover)
09 Bury Me Deep In Love (with Jimmy Little, from 'Corroboration', the Australian comp. 2001)
10 The Real Thing (from the soundtrack of the film 'Sample People' 2000)
11 G-House Project (from 'When Young Terrorists Chase The Sun' by Gerling 2001)