Club Disco

Album Review

Always the bridesmaid, never the bride, Dannii Minogue has always had to contend with living in the shadow of her much more successful sister, despite often producing material just as good, if not better when comparing same-year releases such as 1997's Girl (far superior to Kylie's unconvincing indie-chick reinvention, Impossible Princess) and 2003's Neon Nights (what Body Language should have been). Yet again, the oldest Minogue sister's new album, Club Disco, is far more focused and less "everything but the kitchen sink" than Kylie's recent X, but despite her new judging role on The X Factor, it's unlikely to receive the exposure it deserves. Indeed, thanks to her frustratingly intermittent pop career approach (she's released just one single every year since 2004), it's more likely to be met with total apathy from an audience whose members have grown tired of the five-year wait for a new album. It's a shame, as the majority of its 16 tracks suggest that if either she or her AATW record company had got their act together, Club Disco could have built on the momentum of its Top Ten predecessor. Sticking to her previous winning formula of overlaying new vocals on already existing dance tracks, "You Won't Forget About Me" is a glittery slice of anthemic disco-pop that combines Minogue's light but seductive vocals with the rubbery guitar hooks and '70s strings of the Flower Power original, "Perfection" is a Balearic floor-filler that borrows the orchestral section from Vickie Sue Robinson's "Turn The Beat Around," and the Jason Nevins-produced "Touch Me Like That" is lent a Studio 54 vibe thanks to its sample of Sylvester's "You Make Me Feel Mighty Real." Away from the singles, the nods to the old-skool continue with a pulsing electro-pop reworking of Sister Sledge's "He's the Greatest Dancer" and an ethereal chilled-out reworking of '80s camp classic "Xanadu," but the likes of the filtered-house Roger Sanchez collaboration, "Do You Believe Me Now," the slinky Goldfrapp-esque "Gone," and Italo-house pastiche "I've Been Waiting for You" show that Minogue's vampish disco diva act is just as convincing on the original material. If Club Disco was a Kylie record, it would probably be hailed as a return to form in the vein of Fever, but if Dannii can sustain its quality as well as maybe increasing her work rate next time round, she might just receive the plaudits she's due. ~ Jon O'Brien, Rovi