We Cast Music: Aphrodite

Song: Aphrodite
Artist: Kylie Minogue
Album: Aphrodite

Last week I was on my annual summer vacation in Provincetown, MA where I'm usually able to pick out what the official song of summer is. Music flows through Provincetown everywhere, but it's at afternoon tea dance where remixes of the latest pop smashes are played, and all the boys dance and sing along together... it's rather beautiful. I half-expected to be overloaded with Katy Perry's "California Gurls" or Usher's "O.M.G.," but was pretty shocked when it was Kylie's "All the Lovers" was the hands-down most played track I heard all week. Now while I think the track is a great summer song... it's just NOT the American summer song. Because while it's come from my headphones a ton since the weather warmed, and I've seen countless friends post the video on Facebook... it's just not on the American airwaves. At all. Oh well.

So while Kylie still can't quite connect with American audiences ("Can't Get You Out of My Head" must have just been a fluke) "Aphrodite" became her fifth UK #1 and she now stands as the only UK female artist to have number one albums in four different decades. (80's, 90's, 00's, and 10's.) I've highlighted "Lovers" already, so I wanted to highlight the amazing title track, vs. the second single (which is also pretty great) "Get Out of My Way."

So how is the album? Well, I became a Kylie fan first with the release of her uber-gay "Light Years" album, and then subsequently "Fever." And while seeing Kylie last year, where she played a lot of "X" her last album which left me a touch cold, though the tracks sounded AMAZING live... but as a record, it and it's predecessor "Body Language" genre-jumped too much, making them sound like just a collection of random songs rather than a true album. But with "Aphrodite" Minogue with the help of producer Stuart Price, have crafted what might just be the most "Kylie" of all of her albums. (Well... maybe more like more-current versions of "Light Years" and "Fever." This is lush, beautiful dance-pop that perfectly matches her voice, vibe, and everything that Kylie is. Because of "X," which was so attention-grabbing, it sounds a little weak at first, until the melodies hit you. It's more confidently assured than the bang bang banging of the previous set.

She might not have America's song of the summer... but she's got the rest of the world. Go girl.

Enjoy.

Aphrodite