Fever sweeps Kylieworld (Fever - Kylie Minogue)

Member Name: bilbob20

Product:	Fever - Kylie Minogue
Date:	03/04/08 (44 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Enjoyable and pleasant

Disadvantages: Generic and riskfree

Proving once again that quality doesn't always neccessarily associate itself with popularity, Kylie Minogue's 8th studio album Fever came hot on the heals of a mini-revival of Kylie's career. A moderately successful album in 2000, and a sell out auditorium tour early in 2001 meant that Kylie Co. should quickly build on that momentum. Things quickly took on a life of their own.

Fever was a perfectly apt title, as Kyliefever really did sweep the world for a bit. The album became the biggest selling of her adult career (only debut album Kylie sold more), gave her a huge hit in America, spawned the biggest selling single of her career, and kickstarted an arena tour that sold out in minutes and broke barriers in terms of sales previously set by bands like U2. But what about the music.

Well Fever is the most generic dance album of Kylie's career. Whereas working with various producers in the past (and since) has produced a varied bag of sounds, Fever picks out a formula and sticks to it rigidly. Its both a positive and a negative. For while fans knew exactly what they were getting on the tin by the time mega-successful single number 2 was released, Fever produced a sound that could have been released by just about any female pop star, and rarely deviated from that from song number 1 to song number 12.

More More More: The album opener called on a sound previously touched on by Daft Punk and brought Minogue's somewhat nasally vocals to the package. Kylie squeals with delight through lyrics that talk of her desires and wanting more of whoever it is she sings about. Her vocal is slightly stronger on this track than on many of the album though, and its an enjoyable track to get things swinging.

Love At First Sight: Apparently, this track is one of the most successful UK radio singles of all time. Different from the track of the same name from her first album, its a body jerking dance track that provides beautifully for Kylie's robotica routine that she applied to every tv appearance at that time. It also has a great singalong chorus.

Cant Get You Out Of My Head: What could I possibly say about this song that hasn't been said already. A hypnotic trance-lite beat with the eternally irritating overuse of the word "la" makes for a song that worms its way into your brain, and even now refuses to leave. Co-penned by Rob Davis and Cathy Dennis, it has given Kylie her biggest single, and filled dancefloors across the decade thusfar.

Fever: Abandoning the previous thumping beat for something a little more 80s and electronica, the title track of the album is a playful flirtation track which has Kylie calling upon some doctor or such to come and fix her ailments in love. The lyrics are a little base, and you have to question whether Kylie's a little old to be singing such trite. But her little girl lost vocals carry it off just enough to deserve its place on the album.

Give It To Me: Lending an edge to the album is this funky track that brings an urban vibe to the table. Kylie's vocals are growly enough to make this both different to the other tracks on the album as well as most of her back catalogue.

Fragile: Picture Kylie inside a glass, and you can imagine this sugary sweet dance track. The imagery conjured up by this track fits perfectly with the title, and Kylie really does sound as if she could break in two. The best track of the non singles.

Come Into My World: Sister track to Head was written by Rob Davis, and also got a Top 10 entry in 2002. The fact that this album, and this track in particular, gave great vizualisations on Kylie's Fever02 tour is what lends strength to a generic dance song with somewhat processed vocals. The single version applied a much more enjoyable beat than this album version.

In Your Eyes: Single number 2 from the album is one of the best pop records Kylie has done. Applying an excellent thumping bassline, the only thing that lets it down is that the chorus really doesn't lift up in the traditional pop way. But its certainly a floorfiller, despite being one of the weaker songs on the album.

Dancefloor: This is one of those bumshaking tracks that Kylie comes up with every now and again. True to form, the song is perfect for the dancefloor, and homes in on the idea that hitting the clubs is the best way of getting over a break up. Not exactly the break up song it could be, its enjoyable fodder as the album heads to a close.

Love Affair: Tackling a sound more suited to Cher, this track tampers with vocoders and puts Kylie's voice through the mincer. Its the danciest song on the album, but suffers from a lacklustre chorus.

Your Love: One of my favourite songs on the album, this has a superb guitar playing along with a slightly tranced-up beat. The best vocal on the album from Kylie as well, the end chorus lifts up a key and shows that with the right material she can sound natural. The lyrics carry on the them of the album about love and dance.

Burning Up: Unrelated to the Madonna track of the same name, this starts up with an unusual guitar rift with Kylie snarling her vocals in a lower range than usual. It repeats this formula throughout the song. However, despite the chorus applying the traditional dance beat of the album, its unique enough to be unusual. A great closure for an album that isn't risky enough to be among Kylie's best work.

Fever may have sold 6 million copies, and gave Kylie her most notable hit in America, but her subsequent albums have shown greater depth and a riskier move on her part. Its also the album in this decade that has shown the least lyrical input from Kylie. She contributed very little in the way of lyrics, and whilst songwriting has never been her greatest input, she really shouldn't be leaving it to the A&R people to find her songs.

Fever's weakness doesn't lie in the music. It's weakness lies in the fact that most of it is faceless and generic. Its a shame that when Kylie shows the least amount of risk in her music, she reaps the most rewards. It gives the impression that people are happy to hear music from her that should be performed by 18 year olds and appeal to 12 year olds.

Fever's strength though is in the enjoyment it provides. Much like a good musical, it keeps the grin on your face for most of its running time. Very few will find enough depth in it to emotionally engage, but then who says Kylie was ever deep or emotionally engaging anyway. Even after recent troubles, her music still predominately has her fans hitting the dancefloor. This album is the one that fans will stick on when they are having a party and are half way off their trolleys.

What Fever did for Kylie was put her back on the pop map. Previous album Light Years set the stall for what Kylie was after, and Fever saw that through. Her ploy worked. By the time Fever was back at the top of the charts in 2002, Kylie was set upon her next tour, the singles were topping the European chart, and Kylie was the proud owner of 2 Brit awards for Best International Female and Album.

The imagery on Fever calls upon classic albums such as Grace Jones. Kylie and her stylist wanted to create an image that was retro, and therefore put an interesting slant on classic electro albums of the 80s. They clearly applied that motif to the sound as well, as Fever best belongs in that era of music.

Australian and American versions of the album also showcased bonus tracks, of which the most notable is the sombre electrica song Tightrope.

Summary: A good album for your wine drinking sessions, but hardly groundbreaking stuff