Light Years (Kylie Minogue album)


Light Years is the seventh studio album by Australian singer Kylie Minogue. It was released on 25 September 2000 by Parlophone. The album's style was indicative of her return to "mainstream pop and dance tunes". It received favourable reviews from music critics, with some appreciating her fresh new pop roots and electronic music. Two weeks after debuting at number two on the Australian Albums Chart, the album reached the top position, making it Minogue's first number-one album in her native Australia. It was later certified four times platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association. Minogue promoted the album with television performances and interviews. It was further promoted with the On a Night Like This Tour, which visited Europe and Australia.

Background and recording

In 1997, Minogue released her sixth studio album, Impossible Princess. The record represented a drastic change in the singer's musical direction, shifting from her signature dance-pop styles and incorporated elements of electronica and pop rock. It was her second album to be released on British record label Deconstruction. It was commercially successful in Australia and peaked at number four on the ARIA Albums Chart. In the UK, it was less successful than Minogue's previous albums and peaked at number ten on the albums chart. The album also suffered from poor reviews in the UK as commentators criticised its different musical approach; many also considered that Minogue's career was over. Despite embarking on a successful promotional tour, Minogue was dropped by Deconstruction in 1999.
Subsequently, Minogue signed to Parlophone and started working on the concept of her next album. After various discussions, Minogue decided to do what she did "best" and record a simple pop album inspired by disco and Europop, entitled Light Years. To achieve her desired sound, the singer worked with various producers, including Mike Spencer, Guy Chambers, Steve Power, and Mark Picchiotti.

Composition

The album combined a fresh dance-pop sound, starting with the opening track and lead single "Spinning Around", composed around a disco foundation. It was co-written by American singer Paula Abdul, who planned on it being her own comeback single. However, Abdul's album never came to fruition so Parlophone attained the song and gave it to Minogue. The lyrics bore a resemblance to Minogue's own career, quite coincidentally considering she had not written the song, nor was it written specifically for her. "On a Night Like This" was noted for its house and Europop sound. Released as the second single, Minogue also performed the song at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.
"So Now Goodbye" was written by Minogue and Steve Anderson. It contained a mixture of disco and house music styles. "Disco Down" showcased a modern disco sound, while also embodying synthpop and electronic styles, as did the title track "Light Years". Both songs were considered highlights of the album and were praised as being futuristic. "Koocachoo" marked a change in the album with its psychedelic pop layout, similar to the tracks "I'm So High" and b-side song, "Cover Me With Kisses".
"Loveboat" and "Your Disco Needs You" were written by Minogue in collaboration with Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers. Both songs were composed as a homage to disco music, with the latter single being regarded as a gay anthem. Williams and Chambers also wrote the pop/rock track "Kids" initially as a solo single for Minogue, however Robbie Williams became quite fond of the song that he instead altered it to be a duet. "Kids" was released in October, 2000 as the second single from Williams' album Sing When You're Winning and as the third single from Minogue's Light Years.
While the majority of the album's songs were original recordings, Minogue did cover the Barry White disco song "Under the Influence of Love". Other tracks ranged in sound from the fourth single release "Please Stay", which differed from the rest of the album as it contained a Latin music style, to "Bittersweet Goodbye" which was notable for being the only ballad on the album. "Butterfly" was also acknowledged as a standout of the album, due to its strong electronic music influences. In the US, the song was remixed and issued to clubs around the country, thus allowing it to peak on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart at number fourteen.

Title and artwork

The title of the album derives from the song "Light Years". Vincent Peters, out of other designers and photographers, was selected to photograph Minogue for the album cover. The shoot took place outside a villa at the far north of Ibiza Island. It was reported that Peters was selected because he wore tight T-shirts and jeans halfway down his Calvin's and his most extraordinary photographs. His images were told as an "instant iconic piece of art". The cover features a glamorous backdrop of the sky and the sea, with the glimpse of a golden sunset filtering through like a supernatural halo. Kylie then gazed towards some 'heaven'. While in an interview, Peters had stated;
The great thing about Kylie is that she differs from other celebrities. There is a separation between how celebrities perceive themselves and what the public wants to see. Most are concerned with reproducing a certain logo or caricature of themselves. They want to cling on to an image developed years ago which makes things difficult because there is no room to take a picture, you aren't really forced to improvise which is when the best things happen. Every photographer has their own very personal vision of her, and she lets them have it. That is the big difference with Kylie, that she walks in and says 'This is me, what are you going to do with it.'

In her Kylie / Fashion book, illustrating her fashion from 1987 as a 25-year recognition, Minogue said that the photoshoot was about sending the message across. She stated, "The shoot was incredible. It was my first album with Parlophone and we were very sure of the message we wanted to get across: sunshine, beach, fun, glamour. I've always loved Ibiza and it's true that the island has a magical quality. The lightness of the chiffon matched my mood and desire." William Baker, who helped through the album process, said that the images have a "mystical quality to them." He then said, "With Light Years, we wanted a cover that was a visual statement about Kylie reclaiming the throne of the Princess of Pop. Ibiza was perfect And so, surrounded by the infinity of blue sky and ocean, Kylie returned to her rightful place!"

Singles

"Spinning Around" was released in June 2000 as the album's lead single. It marked Minogue's return to mainstream pop music, debuting at number one in Australia and the UK. The video saw Minogue dancing in a packed nightclub and started the tabloids' obsession with her. "On a Night Like This" was then released in September 2000 as the second single and debuted at number one on the Australian and at number two in the UK. The single's release coincided with Minogue's performance at the 2000 Summer Olympics where she performed the song. The following week, having already dropped from the top spot, the song returned to number one in Australia.
In October 2000, "Kids", the duet with Robbie Williams, was released as the third single and the second from his fourth studio album, Sing When You're Winning. The song, written by Williams and Guy Chambers, reached number two in the UK and number 14 in Australia. A different version of the song with a spoken fadeout rap by Williams appeared on his album. "Please Stay" was released as the fourth single from Light Years in December 2000 reaching number 10 in the UK and number 15 in Australia. The single's B-side "Santa Baby" was released to UK radio as a promotional single during the Christmas period. Minogue performed "Please Stay" on the British music show Top of the Pops.
"Your Disco Needs You", written by Minogue, Williams and Chambers was released as the album's fifth and final single in January 2001, charting at number 31 in Germany. The song was also released in Australia as a limited-edition single with only 10,000 copies pressed. This enabled it to chart at number 20, before dropping to number 45 and eventually falling out of the chart completely. "Butterfly" was issued as a club-only track in the United States, where it reached number 14 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. The song also appeared as a bonus track on the US edition of Minogue's subsequent studio album Fever.

Promotion

The album was released on 22 September 2000 in Australia and New Zealand and on 25 September 2000 in the UK and Europe after the single "Spinning Around". It includes a hidden track, "Password", which is included in the pregap portion of the CD at the beginning of track one. Subsequent German, Spanish and Japanese versions of the album contain the original French bridge of "Your Disco Needs You" translated into their respective languages along with "Password" as an orthodox hidden track.
Minogue promoted the album with the hugely successful "On a Night Like This Tour" which visited Europe and Australia. Due to the success of the album and the tour, a special tour edition package was released. It contained the original album along with a second disc featuring various remixes. The special edition album was released on 5 March 2001. For the Australian tour edition, additional remixes were included as well as Minogue's cover of Olivia Newton-John's "Physical", following popular performances of the song on the tour.
Although the album was issued in North America via EMI Canada, it never received a local, physical release in the United States. However, the tour edition of the album was later released digitally via the US iTunes Store along with the entirety of Minogue's back catalogue.

Critical reception

Light Years was received well by music critics. Chris True of AllMusic commented the album is "not just another Minogue dance-pop record, but a great collection of disco stylings and Europop kitsch." He concluded, "Arguably one of the best disco records since the '70s, Light Years is Minogue comfortable with who she is and what she's good at." In a 2011 retrospective review for Digital Spy, Nick Levine described its sound as "camptastic", while praising the album itself as "a shiny, sparkly early noughties disco record complete with a Village People pastiche, a Donna Summer homage and even a Barry White cover. Along the way there's plenty of catchy dance-pop, a couple of groovy '60s tunes and just the one ballad, but it's a lovely one."
NME noted that the album sees Minogue "dropping her considerable concern for cool and bouncing back to her disco-pop roots", adding that "Light Years is all you need to know about Kylie in less than an hour: fun, perfectly-formed, not too taxing and occasionally annoying." Yahoo! Music's Gary Crossing referred to the album as "a polished, well-produced yet largely undemanding collection of disco, Hi-NRG, Ibizan trance, funk, 60s film and TV themes and Latin-flavoured tunes which like the Minogue minx's attire leaves very little to the imagination." He also opined that "ou just get the feeling that if those concerned put as much effort into the songwriting as they did into the glossy album sleeve photo shoot things might have been a whole lot better." Andrew Lynch of entertainment.ie viewed the album as "inconsequential stuff and as with all Kylie's albums the quality is disappointingly uneven. But the best tracks have an engagingly bouncy quality and taken as a whole this is a much better record than most critics would like to admit." Select praised the album, stating that "apart from the foul Lloyd-Webber-esque ballad 'Bittersweet Goodbye', it's an unrelenting hoot" and that "it's all contrived to within an inch of its life, heaving with potential singles and brazenly derivative. That is her job and she does it well."

Commercial performance

In Australia, Light Years debuted at number two on the ARIA Albums Chart on 2 October 2000. Three weeks later, the album rose to number one, becoming Minogue's first number-one album in her home country. It spent 41 weeks in the top 50, and subsequently received a quadruple platinum accreditation from the Australian Recording Industry Association for sales in excess of 280,000 copies. In New Zealand, the album debuted and peaked at number eight on the RIANZ Albums Chart, where it stayed for five weeks altogether. It debuted and peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart for the issue dated 1 October 2000, remaining in the top 75 for 31 non-consecutive weeks. On 9 February 2001, it was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry, denoting shipments in excess of 300,000 units. Elsewhere, the album reached number 16 in Hungary, number 24 in Finland, number 26 in Sweden, number 28 in Switzerland and number 35 in Germany.

Track listing

Notes
Credits adapted from the liner notes of Light Years.

Recording locations

Weekly charts

Chart Peak
position
UK Vinyl Albums 3

Year-end charts

Chart Position
Australian Albums 17
UK Albums 156

Decade-end charts

Certifications and sales