Kylie Minogue is the undisputed Queen Of Pop in the UK and her homeland Australia. She has enjoyed major success throughout Europe as well over the last twenty years, as her album sales began reaching the millions some ten years ago now. Her elaborate concert tours have become major events in the pop world, not to mention seriously profitable for her, as the touring market has now become the primary source of wealth for artists today.
Minogue has added another remarkable achievement to her illustrious career with the release of album number eleven, Aphrodite. Its debut at the top of the UK charts has seen her become the only female recording artist to have a chart-topping album there in each of the last four decades. It has just missed the mark Down Under (stuck at #2) due to the acclaimed new release from Eminem, Recovery, which has cemented itself at the top and shows no sign of moving anytime soon.
All of the success that Kylie is having with this album is warranted because it has delivered to her fans what they have been waiting for since 2002’s career-best effort, Fever: straightforward and uplifting pop songs. Her last two records have been good, but they have been hampered by their respective flaws.
2003’s Body Language was really just a Mariah-esque R&B-styled knockoff, and while it did contain some good songs, Minogue has neither the voice nor the moves to pull something like that off without a few hiccups. 
X (released in 2007) was a muddled affair that covered everything from New Wave to some weird fusion of dance-pop and rock. Most of that album’s success was due to Minogue’s spectacular tour that traveled throughout the world and saw some of those moments that on record didn’t really work be transformed into show-stopping creative gems.
That, of course, won’t be necessary this time around, because whether Minogue tours this album or not, these songs were made for one place and one place only: the dance floor. Yep, each of these twelve tracks is club-ready and catchy, all about love and resplendent in their gaiety. No soul-searching or heartbreaking going on here; this one’s just all about love and all that is joyous about it.
Minogue’s is not a great singer, and if I’m being completely honest, there have been times in the past when she has bitten off more than she could chew. It’s not that there is anything wrong with her voice or her performance – more so that there just isn’t much to work with vocally, and so she sounds at best when she is able to remain firmly in her comfort zone and rely on the music to create the moods.
That is definitely the case with Aphrodite because it is so expertly crafted around her voice and charming persona that Minogue comes off sounding nothing but self-assured and on top of her game. The record’s executive producer (Stuart Price) worked with a cast of thousands (writers and producers) to make sure that every single moment on this album was a positive one for Minogue, and in that he succeeded big time. It’s full of charming love songs (“Closer” and “Cupid Boy”) and up-ifting dance anthems (“All The Lovers” and “Get Outta My Way”) that Mingoue revels in and easily stamps her authority over.
There’s really no deep or meaningful moments here either, as it seems the seminal message of the record is that everything is fine in life and love. Which, of course, is true of Kylie’s life these days; she has attained a new lease on life after beating breast cancer and is madly in love with her Spanish beau All of this is perfectly articulated in the aptly titled “Everything Is Beautiful.”
There’s really nothing more I can say about this album because, as I said before, there just isn’t much to it but great carefree and sometimes edgy pop music. So Kylie Minogue has another hugely popular and critically-acclaimed album on her hands, and I say deservedly so, because Aphrodite is her most focused and consistent record in years.