KYLIE: My All Time Faves

With just two weeks to go until Kylie kicks off her KylieX2008 European tour, I have been listening to Kylie's back catalogue for a few weeks and wanted to jot down my faves from over the years.

From Kylie's first album, Kylie, back in 1988 I absolutely lurve the Turn It In Love and Love at First Sight. I remember playing this on vynil over and over and over, much to my parent's annoyance.

When Kylie first started out, she was such an innovation, a by-product of the endless hits being spouted out my music house, Stock, Aitken & Waterman.

Next up came Enjoy Yourself in 1989, a fantastical follow-up to Kylie's debut album just one year later.

High on the chart successes of I Should Be So Lucky, The Locomotion and Got To Be Certain, Kylie came back to wow us with personal favourites such as Hand On Your Heart and Wouldn't Change A Thing, both of which topped the charts in the UK.

In addition to these, my personal favourites were I'm Over Dreaming (Over You) and Enjoy Yourself. Fantabulous!

Having grown up a bit, Kylie wasted no time, wowing us yet again way back in 1990, with the album, Rhythm of Love. Kylie did a cover of Better The Devil You Know which seems to have become a bit of a signature tune for the pop princess, at least on the gay scene.

Other favourite hits include the catchy What Do I Have To Do? and Shocked with its long, nineties-style intro.

I took a bit of a hiatus from Kylie after having problems with my hearing. At the same time, Kylie had some ups and downs in her own life, causing her to disappear from the scene too.

One decade later, having seen in a new millenium, Kylie 'came back' with Light Years, perhaps her best album even. Sporting those now-famous hot pants, Kylie gave us Spinning Around.

Other favourite tracks include the seductive On A Night Like This, the unreleased, but catchy Disco Down, the camp-as-hell Your Disco Needs You and latino-pop laced Please Stay.

My favourite all-time song is Light Years, after which the album takes its name. Unreleased thus far, Light Years has gone on to spawn countless remixes and it was this album that earnt Kylie mega budgets to create specatcular videos and stage even more spectacular concerts.

A year after the millenium, Kylie released Fever, bringing us the chart-topping Can't Get You Out Of My Head. As with Light Years, CGYOMH has given birth to countless mixes post production, vying with Better The Devil You Know for the place as the singing antipodean's signature tune!

Other memorable tracks include Love At First Sight, the haunting Fragile, the inviting Come Into My World, the flirtatious In Your Eyes and the spectacular as-yet unreleased track, Love Affair.

In 2003, Kylie's most disappointing album, Body Language, hit the music scene. I don't know if it flopped, but in my mind it was the worst album ever released by the bubbly Aussie.

Memorable hits, however, include the near-pornographic Slow, the independent-minded Red Blooded Woman contrasting with her feminine self-portrayal in Chocolate. Overal, the tracks were quite crappy!

Kylie's most recent effort, following a three year battle against Cancer, is X, denoting the release of her tenth album, a commendable effort for what the press once branded a 'singing budgerigar'.

Since her courageous battle against cancer, 'Kylie appeal' is higher than ever and, yes, the Aussie is still smiling. I sensed I was losing my grip on the music industry, however, when Kylie released 2 Hearts, venturing into the wilds of glam rock. Yuckety-yuck!

This was followed by Wow, not enough - in my opinion - to stand up on it's own, but was accompanied by some great mixes. Wow, did, however, reach the Top 5 in the UK. All I See has been released to no major fanfair and, in May, In My Arms (another crappy track) will be released.

Kylie seems willing to venture into rawer themes, taking a huge risk by gaining appeal with the youngsters of today which, I suppose, is where the money is. With a bit of self-analysis, I noticed that The One is perhaps the only song on the track that bears a resemblance to her 80s self and, as such, is my favourite track on this album. Having said that, Like A Drug is also a firm favourite, but will it be released?

Just two weeks today until KylieX2008 hits the road! I have tickets for both the Helsinki date (June 13th) and one of the London dates (August 1st). Go for it, Kylie. #You've got it, wow, wow, wow, wow!#