Earlier this year, Goldfrapp released an album of heavily '80's-influenced dance music, entitled Head First. Fake drums echoed, synths squealed, and Goldfrapp winked at the listener as hard as she could, all while making a pretty good album in the process. Although many cited Olivia Newton-John as a clear influence, one could argue that Goldfrapp entrenched herself on Head First into an exaggeration of a sound pioneered by Kylie Minogue, and, ultimately, perfected by Cascada's "Everytime We Touch". Essentially, Goldfrapp was making a Kylie Minogue parody with Head First, but little did she know that Kylie Minogue was going to do a better Kylie Minogue parody in the same year.
Currently, I write my reviews in the living room of a house in the suburbs, so one can imagine how ridiculous it looks when I try to resist putting my hands up at Kylie Minogue's command in "Put Your Hands Up (If You Feel Love)". It's a cliched demand for anyone who's set foot in a school dance, but, inexplicably, Mingue makes it sound fresh. Absurdly unselfconscious lines like "All we need is love in this life, it's true" are forgiven amidst infectious production. On Aphrodite, Kylie makes it clear she knows what she's good at and delivers to the best of her ability; no guests, no experimentation. There's a song to strut to ("Everything Is Beautiful"), kiss to ("Cupid Boy"), kiss off to ("Get Outta My Way") and dance to (All of them). It's one of those dance albums that covers all of the bases within its provincial purpose and is oddly versatile for it. You could just put Aphrodite on and never have to skip a track.
And dance's most reliable songstress has saved the summer, again.
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