One of the sweetest moments in pop in 2023 has been the well-deserved success of “Padam Padam”: because the song was the best lead single of Kylie Minogue in more than a decade (two decades if there were no “All the lovers”)because the Australian is a tremendous worker and, above all, because it is – forgive me but the occasion deserves it – a fucking feat for a woman over 50 (or over 40) to achieve such a hit, and manage, let’s also say it, to conquer to the public who, if you ask them who Kylie is, don’t think of Minogue but of Jenner.
Just for that, “Tension” was going to have a special place in the discography of Kylie Minoguebut the interpreter of “Slow” was not satisfied with a magnificent first single and a mediocre rest of the album: the second, “Tension”was just as good or even better than “Padam Padam”and the album brings a third just as good, “Story”, the best closing album since the one he had “Light Years” with the song of the same name, and a mix of hedonism and vulnerability that fits Kylie like a glove.
For the production, Minogue repeats on this album with Cutfather, Daniel Davidsen, Duck Blackwell, Jon Green, PhD, Richard “Biff” Stannard, Sky Adams and Carl Ryden (with the latter she had worked in previous eras but without their songs passing the cut), and incorporates Jackson Foote (who has worked with Jennifer Lopez or Zara Larsson), LOSTBOY (Kehlani, Sabrina Carpenter), Kasper Larsen (Fleur East, The Wanted), and of course Oliver Heldens, well that “10 out of 102” is included here.
With all of them, Kylie creates the trio of aces of “Padam Padam”, “Tension” y “Story” (along with the bpm trigger of “10 out of 10”), but the thing is not short: “Vegas High” It’s an absolute party, “Hands” It could, yes, have been one of the cuts from the OST of “Barbie”, “Hold On To Now” It works so well that we don’t care what rifle it is. “Somebody” of Dagny (well, a little yes, justice for Dagny!), and both “Things We Do For Love” as “You Still Get Me High” They are hilarious, making us dream of a collaboration between Kylie and Carly Rae Jepsen (if mixing with Tove Lo worked, this is playing it safe), as will also happen later with “Somebody to love”.
But, although there are no bad songs on “Tension”yes there are a few that keep it from being a complete album. “One More Time” It is nice, but much better in its chorus than in its verses, and it leads us to wonder what it has given Kylie to title songs like legendary songs, like here the one by Daft Punk, a “Green Light” certainly less memorable than Lorde’s, and “Somebody to Love”, perhaps the best of this trio, and, in fact, the best of the bonus tracks (between it and the orgiastic “Love Train” leave without many options “Just Imagine”). In any case, although “Tension” It falls short of being a top 5 of Kylie’s best albums (“Fever”, “Aphrodite”, “Light Years”, “Impossible Princess” y “X”)stays very close, one step ahead of “DISCO”and much higher than “Golden” y “Kiss Me Once”.