Happy 30th Anniversary to Kylie Minogue’s third studio album Rhythm of Love, originally released November 12, 1990.
On January 20th, 1990, Kylie Minogue earned her fourth number-one charter with her cover of the doo wop gem “Tears on My Pillow,” a smash hit for Little Anthony and The Imperials in 1959. It was the conclusory single from her second album Enjoy Yourself (1989) and theme song tie-in to her inaugural Australian feature film debut, The Delinquents. The latter project—starring American actor Charlie Schlatter as her leading man—was a dramatic period vehicle that showcased Minogue’s impressive thespian abilities.
A few months earlier, Minogue wrapped Neighbours—the soap serial that made her a bona fide star and put her on the unlikely path to her lucrative recording career—after a four-year stint. The Delinquents was an example of Minogue taking on challenging acting ventures post-Neighbours. Musically, however, it was business as usual, if “Tears on My Pillow” was any indication.
Having inked her inaugural deal with Mushroom Records—the venerated Australian imprint where Minogue remained stationed until 2004—in the United Kingdom the actress-singer was under contract to PWL Records; the label was named for its shrewd proprietor, Pete Waterman.
Waterman, along with colleagues Matt Aitken and Mike Stock, formed Stock-Aitken-Waterman in 1984. In a span of just six years, the writing-production troika went from enterprising industry underdogs to one of the most prolific production houses of the 1980s. Out of the many luminaries conscripted to the PWL roster, Minogue was to become their biggest star. The already formidable commercial reach of Stock-Aitken-Waterman’s polished pop synthetics in British, European and Japanese markets increased with the wide-eyed Minogue as its conduit. Minogue also managed to charm America for a brief spell when her platinum busting debut Kylie (1988) was licensed for issuance there via Geffen Records.
At twenty-two, Minogue should have been content, but she was creatively restless. Her exposure to the “Second Summer of Love”—a youth culture coalescence around acid house and other amorphic dance music forms in the United Kingdom—had awoken something inside of the young vocalist. Immediately, Minogue understood that to ensure her survival as a serious recording artist, she’d need to ditch the sanitized Italo-disco/Hi-NRG fuel that powered her first two albums.
A polite (if insistent) entreaty to enact a more progressive agenda for her (eventually titled) third effort Rhythm of Love was made to Stock-Aitken-Waterman. Because the sum of the PWL empire was predicated on an unyielding level of control rarely questioned, Minogue's plea for agency wasn’t particularly well received by her mentors. Two specific requests from Minogue truly gave Stock-Aitken-Waterman pause: the allowance of outside writing-production counsel and space to script her own songs.
Thankfully, everyone involved managed to settle upon a compromise. Stock-Aitken-Waterman stayed on as the prevailing constructionists for Rhythm of Love to cut material aligned to Minogue’s current tastes; they also provided her with a few slots on the long player as opportunities to branch out and collaborate. The completed form of Rhythm of Love tallied a total of eleven pieces—out of that batch, Stock-Aitken-Waterman penned and produced seven; this left four to Minogue.
Although the sounds associated with the Second Summer of Love had begun to peak and shift as 1989 gave way to 1990, that epoch held fast Minogue’s north star for the set. Rising to the challenge to produce sides in the manner Minogue desired, Stock-Aitken-Waterman stepped up their songbuilding game with “Better the Devil You Know,” “Step Back in Time,” “What Do I Have to Do,” “Secrets,” “Always Find the Time,” “Shocked” and “Things Can Only Get Better.” Entries like “Better the Devil You Know” and “Things Can Only Get Better” benefited from Stock-Aitken-Waterman lyrically trying to address Minogue’s actual lived experiences as a woman tapping into her own self-governance, romantic or otherwise.
The tracks Stock-Aitken-Waterman supplied Minogue with are tasteful, kinetic pop-funk sides as heard on “Secrets,” “Always Find the Time” and “Step Back in Time.” The latter two selections are built around throwback American soul samples—the Mary Jane Girls’ 1983 jam “Candy Man” is the crux of “Always Find the Time.” Regarding “Step Back in Time,” the 1980 turntable jam “Give Up the Funk” by the BT Express is utilized to gift the composition with one of its hooks: “I wanna funk! / I wanna funk! / I wanna f-f-u-f-u-n-k!” Deeper study of “Step Back in Time” reveals it as a clever homage to a host of classic, stateside rhythm and blues acts from the 1970s that Minogue and Stock-Aitken-Waterman shared mutual affection for.
But all these tunes nearly paled in comparison to the luxuriant electro-pop of “What Do I Have to Do” and “Shocked.” In their expansive album configurations, the songs are intended for longform play. They ended up doubling as connectors between what Stock-Aitken-Waterman had done on their section of Rhythm of Love and what Minogue noodled at on her share when each were elected as the third and fourth singles from the LP.
Both “What Do I Have to Do” and “Shocked” saw their single iterations overhauled by producers other than Stock-Aitken-Waterman. On “What Do I Have to Do,” Ian Curnow and Phil Harding rework it into an appetizing, but accessible house ditty that emphasizes unity between the single’s beat and Minogue’s supple vocal. Curnow and Harding’s involvement spoke to the ongoing conciliatory measures Minogue and Stock-Aitken-Waterman sought regarding the architecting of Rhythm of Love as the two writer-producers were in-house talent at PWL. While Curnow and Harding held a certain level of fealty to Stock-Aitken-Waterman, both men did moonlight outside of PWL too. That secondary point meant that they had a feel for the popular music pulse separate from Stock-Aitken-Waterman’s influence and this more than served Minogue’s forward-thinking goal for Rhythm of Love.
Jumping ahead to the spring of 1991, Rhythm of Love had spun off “Better the Devil You Know,” “Step Back in Time” and “What Do I Have to Do” as singles—the threesome caught the attention of Nick Batt and Neal Slateford, a DJ duo known collectively as D.N.A. Soon enough, Minogue, Batt and Slateford met—the pair had reached out to PWL—and expressed enjoyment of each other’s respective outputs. Batt and Slateford were all too happy to pitch a radio play makeover for “Shocked” not far removed from Curnow-Harding’s house take on “What Do I Have to Do.” What was different was that Batt and Slateford (with Minogue’s enthusiastic consent) onboarded Pauline Bennett, a British emcee who operated under the alias of Jazzi P; she christened the middle-eight of “Shocked” with a spicy set of bars.
Minogue’s successful partnership with Batt and Slateford on the single edit of “Shocked” signposted that her own instinctual drive as a creative was strikingly in full swing. The content that she oversaw on her division of Rhythm of Love further evinced that she was gradually coming into her own. The same year drafting commenced on Rhythm of Love, the no-frills issuance of Enjoy Yourself in the United States marked the end of Minogue’s business relationship with the Geffen label. The prospect of a new American deal with MCA Records saw Minogue break momentarily from the London sessions for Rhythm of Love to visit Los Angeles, to weigh this possible opportunity. Additionally, she engaged in several writing workshops with a clique of esteemed stateside trackmasters: Stephen Bray, Keith Cohen, Michael Jay, Mark Leggett, William Wilcox—Bray’s work with Minogue’s foremother Madonna made his involvement quite a coup.
Talks with MCA ultimately did not pan out, but when Minogue came home to PWL HQ she did so with four finished pieces to fill out the rest of Rhythm of Love: “The World Still Turns,” “One Boy Girl,” “Count the Days” and “Rhythm of Love.” Tempos on this batch of tunes ranged from balladic to floorfilling, richly textured in straight-ahead pop, R&B and light hip-hop. Besides stylistically branching out from the predominant dance music arc of the record—a slight diversification maneuver—all four songs bore Minogue’s co-writing stamp—a first.
The campaign for Rhythm of Love kickstarted on April 30, 1990 with the release of “Better the Devil You Know,” another commercial knockout that stunned critics and set the standard for every Kylie Minogue lead-off single to be nothing less than an event thereafter. Six months came and went before the follow-up single “Step Back in Time” and its parent album finally manifested in the fall of 1990; the delay was owed to post-production touches being applied to Rhythm of Love in that interim.
Notices were warm to positive, but critics stopped short of doling out absolute praise with Minogue’s not-so-recent past as a smiling agent for Stock-Aitken-Waterman still looming. But no one could deny that this was a major advancement for Minogue’s sound and look. The packaging for Rhythm of Love and the ensuing music video treatments for its singles—as tendered by directors Paul Goldman (“Better the Devil You Know”), Nick Egan (“Step Back in Time”) and Dave Hogan (“What Do I Have to Do,” “Shocked”)—saw Minogue shed the sexless ingenue visage of her earlier days. In place of that was a woman in possession of an autonomous visual edge now synced to her freshly minted sound.
Much was made then of whether Minogue’s dual transformation alienated a segment of her listeners as much as it won her new ones. Laudable placements for each single demonstrated that commercial interest was still there, yet the “only gold” and “only platinum” certifications awarded to Rhythm of Love in the United Kingdom and Australia indicated that a minor divide had occurred within Minogue’s audience—those willing to travel onward with her and those unwilling to do so.
Minogue understood that without risk there was no reward; a temporary hemorrhaging of sales or patrons was a danger she was prepared to endure so she could the lay the foundation for future artistic development—her persistence certainly paid off. Beginning with Kylie Minogue (1994) Minogue built on the expansionist principles adopted with Rhythm of Love, a still vibrant and colorful portrait of a young woman just starting to discover her creative voice.
Quentin Harrison recently published Record Redux: Kylie Minogue, the fifth book in his Record Redux series. The ambitious project traces the rise of the Australian pop vocalist from soap actress star to international pop powerhouse by examining every single and studio album in her repertoire. Record Redux: Kylie Minogue follows previous entries from the Atlanta, Georgia based author centered on Carly Simon, Donna Summer and Madonna. Order Record Redux: Kylie Minogue here (digital) and here (physical). An overhauled version of his first book Record Redux: Spice Girls will be available in early January 2021.
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