Customer Reviews

Rhythm of Love

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1990 was a watershed year in Kylie Minogue's career. She abandonned the image that was created for her by pop svengalis Stock/Aitken/Waterman and reinvented herself... for the first time! The album opens with the most brilliant track our little budgie ever laid vox on, "Better The Devil You Know". This track, to show its staying power, was recently recorded by Pete Waterman's newest project, Steps. Proceeding into the album even further, one encounters these other jewels- "Step Back In Time"(a tribute to the Philly Soul era of the early-mid 70s), "What Do I Have To Do?" (recently covered by Almighty Recording artist, Kia), and the blissful "Shocked". There is not a single track on this ablum that is not 100% inspired! Additional standout tracks include the non-PWL produced "One Boy Girl (f/Princessa)", "The World Still Turns", "Secrets" and "Things Can Only Get Better"- Which I implore you to check out in its remixed version which can be found on Kylie's Greatest Remixes CDs. This album is the purest of pop and one Kylie's finest hours in her early career. Also check out "Light Years" for her most recent hits!

Considered by many to be her finest hour, Rhythm of Love moved Kylie out of the bubble gum arena and into that of the full fledged diva. Better The Devil You Know, the opening track, is still considered by fans to be her crowing achievment and it stands the test of time. Other highlights include Step Back In Time (and the word at the beginning is FUNK), What Do I Have to Do and Shocked. Released in 1990 (except in the US) this quartet of songs has become a mainstay of the British and Australian music scene. Also look for Confide in Me released in 1994. File Under: Fun and Fantastic!

Episode 3 in the continuing story of Kylie Minogue yields Rhythm Of Love, which shows her slowly reaching for new sounds after the booster

Stock-Aitken-Waterman produces the majority of Rhythm Of Love, with Minogue getting production help from Stephen Bray (q.v. Madonna) on "Count The Days" and the title track. On Rhythm Of Love, there are subtle steps towards something more substantial.

Kylie's still the hitmaker and the opening track, "Better The Devil You Know", which Steps covered on Step One, is bubblegum heaven. The next two songs, "Step Back In Time", which pays tribute to the O'Jays, and "What Do I Have To Do", continue a blitz of uptempo dance beats.

The wall of strings pop of "Secrets" and the 80's-Britpop of "Always Find The Time" are sheer delights, and then...

From "Shocked" onwards, the sounds drift away from the usual Stock-Aitken-Waterman sound of the first six songs, such as the pop/r&b fusion of "One Boy Girl" in which she trades rap with the Poetess, the subtle inclusion of soul-style keyboards in "Things Can Only Get Better" and "Count The Days", and the Madonnaesque title track.

This was the first album of hers that wasn't released over in the U.S., which is rather a shame since they missed a lot. Fortunately, I kept up my search for her until I found this and other albums.

RYTHYM OF LOVE, the third album of Kylie's, marks the transformation from the likable teenager who made us dance with "The Loco-Motion" to the sensual adult who was ready and willing to take us into the 1990s. For many people, RYTHYM OF LOVE remains the quintessential Kylie album, the magical moment when she cast aside any lingering self-doubt and boldly presented herself as someone to be reckoned with in the music industry; you can hear in her voice how much more assured she is, and you can't help but be caught up in her optimism. "Better The Devil You Know," the leadoff song of the album, remains to date one of the jewels in her crown, a song so utterly energetic you'll exhaust yourself just listening to it. Other worthies include "Step Back In Time," "What Do I Have To Do?", "Count The Days," and "Shocked." Along with IMPOSSIBLE PRINCESS, RYTHYM OF LOVE is a "must-own" for anyone who purports to be a fan of Kylie's. If you're new to Kylie's world and are looking for a place to get acquainted, let RYTHYM OF LOVE be your guide.

This was Kylie's third album from her whole music career and the PWL Era and I have to say, it is the best one! It's a shame this album didn't sell as much as the first two did, because as other reviewers have said, this album has a different feel to the first two.

Now, here, instead of a 10-track full dose of fun-pop tunes in the 1980's album, you get a 11-track full dose of fun-dance tunes in the 1990's album! This is also where sex Kylie began. This album includes 4 great singles and more popular album tracks with all of the fans!

The album's first 3 songs are more singles, including the extremely popular Kylie classic Better The Devil You Know. You will find your parents singing along and kids, Kylie DID NOT copy this from Steps! The other 2 are Step Back In Time and one of my personal favourites, What Do I Have To Do. Better The Devil You Know was a #2 hit, Step Back In Time entered the UK Charts at #9 as the highest entry that week, but the following week us fans sent it spinning up the Charts 5 places up to #4! Finally, What Do I Have To Do broke Kylie's string of Top 5 hits as it only charted at #6 in it's debut...

The next 3 songs are all album tracks, sounds quite similar and are my favourite album tracks on the whole album! Secrets is an excellent tracks but then the album turns all absolutely fabulous with 'hits' Always Find The Time and The World Still Turns! They are so danceable and upbeat!

The seventh track is Shocked. This was another single that many fans wanted to hit the top 5 again. Unfortunately, it didn't and only went to #6 again, like the last single What Do I Have To Do... Many people became fond of the DNA 7" Mix which was included on the single but this is presented in its original album version which lasts for nearly 5 minutes! Both of them are good, this is my favourite single from the album. Get Kylie's Greatest Hits packages for the DNA Mix.

The next 4 tracks are album tracks and are yet again, more favourites from her fans! One Boy Girl and Things Can Only Get Better are the stand-outs from the last 4 tracks. While Count The Days and Rhythm Of Love talk about Love and they are also rather pleasant tracks, like the others from the album.

This album's highest Chart Position was #9... It spent 22 weeks on the UK Top 100 Albums Chart. Kylie's fourth and final PWL album Let's Get To It went to #15 and spent 12 weeks on the Chart.

In 1980's Britain, the most successful pop record producers were the team of Stock, Aitken and Waterman. Many of their singers faded from popularity as quickly as they emerged, leaving a legacy of doubtful importance, but a few rose above the rest, most notably Kylie.

This album, the third of Kylie's career, is different from its predecessors. Stock Aitken and Waterman wrote and produced seven songs, including the biggest hit here, Better the devil you know. Kylie wrote the four of the songs herself and used a different producer. Anybody familiar with Kylie's excellent Light years album will see some of its roots here but Kylie's music underwent many changes in the intervening years.

While many will continue to dismiss Kylie (especially these early albums), she is much better than many of the singers she is sometimes compared to, and has proved it by lasting longer than any of her critics thought possible.

Note that this CD is also available via the boxed set - Kylie Minogue x3. It's only three individual CD's wrapped in a cardboard slipcase but it's much cheaper than buying the three separately.

Kylie hit the nail on the head with this one....tired of being a puppet for SAW Kylie put more imput on this album and it comes out a winner. More sexy and better songs, this cd is the ancestor of "Light Years" and "Fever". With one memorable fun song after the other, I highly recommend this one to people seeking her back-catalog cds. The best tracks(and Kylie classics) are "Step Back IN Time", "Better the Devil You Know" "What Do I Have To Do" and "Shocked"

Rhythm Of Love was somewhat an unexpected departure for dear, sweet girl-next-door Kylie in 1990. The uber-success of Kylie's first 2 albums (all of which delivered 8 UK Top 2 singles) was a hard act to follow. Having scored legions of fans, it was hard to know what Kylie would do next so not to bore her fans, nor alienate them. The result was this. A mixed bag of affairs which saw Kylie's public image become very mature & sexy in light of her sexual awakenings with Michael Hitchence(it worked v. well IMHO), although not all fans were as receptive. Sales of this album waned, but not withstanding the fact that this album delivered some of Kylie's finest pop performances, which are still loved today. Better The Devil You Know is now a classic - & 11 years later you can understand why. It still hooks you with its whooahs - Step Back In Time only made it to No.4. Very respectable position (but the first Kylie single not to go Top 2). It yielded one of the most accelerated songs in existence. It's a non-stop 70's ride, with a smashing video to accompany. A true hommage to the 70s funk of the O-Jays, etc. The next 2 singles only fared UK No.6 positions yet these are the ones deemed Kylie's most enduring trax. Paradox indeed. The naughty & yearning What Do I Have To Do, with its stylish video is adult pop music & Shocked continues the sultry style that the album forbodes, (with a superb rap by Jazzy P - although only available on the single version, the fusion of pop & rap was something Kylie was not renowned for). So if these songs are so great, why did they not reflect the status of earlier hits? They are by far more memorable than Hand On Your Heart or Wouldn't Change A Thing for example. The problem was that Kylie fans could not cope with the dramatic change (album cover alone heralds the sexiness). Many stayed with her, cos her music speaks for itself, but not as many as before. Today, it's an entirely different affair. Yet this album does not fail to deliver. There are some superbly effective songs which could have been as big hits as those released. Secrets is pure euphoria & Things Can Only Get Better is pop meets electronica. The SAW camp certianly gave Kylie their best songs & indulged in some risks. But Kylie delivers. Her sauciness is pale by her standards today, but her music is as brilliant back then as it is now.

I have always been a massive Kylie Minogue fan since as long as I can remember. I just recently went on a spree of purchasing her albums and I found that "Rhythm Of Love" is undoubtedly the beginning of this great pop icon even though it is of course her third album after "Kylie" (1988) and "Enjoy Yourself" (1989). This album is definately a strong collection of pop songs and you can basically listen to the whole album and be entertained all the way through. Kylie at this point, was growing up and decided to ditch her girl-next-door image and move on to a more mature, provocative and sexier one. As well as her image, she also changed her style of music from the bubblegum-pop sounds of her first 2 albums. Rhythm Of Love features a very club oriented dance sound which basically became the sound of mainstream pop music for the 90's shortly after. Kylie also co-wrote three of the tracks making it the first time she wrote music for her own albums. Take a look at the tracks:

#1 BETTER THE DEVIL YOU KNOW - this song is still in my opinion the best song on the album. I'm sure everyone loves this song and understandably. This song has that club oriented dance-pop sound and it really shapes the whole expectation and enjoyment of the rest of album. Great!!

#2 STEP BACK IN TIME - this was the second single after "Better The Devil You Know". this track is good because it has a strong Disco sound to it which makes it unique on the album. Definately a standout track.

#3 WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO - another great dance-pop track. this was the third single and it sounds a little different from some of the other songs, but it is still great energetic dance-pop.

#4 SECRETS - some have called this track a good girl track that was similar to her first 2 albums. Wrong. Although the sound is a more cute dance-pop, the lyrics are actually quite mature for Kylie at the time. The song is about her confessing that she two-timed on her boyfriend with an ex-lover and was sleeping with him.

#5 ALWAYS FIND THE TIME - This is a good dance-pop track but not as notable as some of the other tracks. Give it a go nevertheless.

#6 THE WORLD STILL TURNS - this is a pop ballad that was co-written by Kylie. Its nice that its the only ballad on the album but I still generally skip past it due to the high energy the rest of the album gives you.

#7 SHOCKED - the DNA remix of this song was released as the fourth single and that is a fantastic song. This album version differs but is still a great dance-pop song.

#8 ONE BOY GIRL - i personally love this song. Definately one of the best on the album and the fact that Kylie co-wrote it makes it even better. This is early 90's dance-pop gold. Catchy, fun and the rap section three quarters in is so good. Of course Kylie isn't actually rapping, there's some female rapper doing that (don't know who though).

#9 THINGS CAN ONLY GET BETTER - another standout track. This song has grown on me greatly and now I think it is great dance-pop and like "What Do I Have To Do", it is a little different to the other tracks but still fantastic.

#10 COUNT THE DAYS - this song was co-written by Kylie (possibly about Michael Hutcence of INXS, her boyfriend at the time). It is good but it doesn't have that energetic dance-pop sound the others track do, instead it has a more pop/R&B/dance kind of sound. still good though.

#11 RHYTHM OF LOVE - the title track was also co-written by Kylie and like "Count The Days" it also has a kind of pop/R&B/dance sound to it but I think this is better than Count The Days. Mind you, the R&B sound is an 80's R&B sound so it was different to what R&B is today. There was more funk involved as opposed to soul.

So overall, Rhythm Of Love is a very strong album and that's what Kylie does best.

Unlike her first pair of albums, Kylie (1988) and Enjoy Yourself (1989), Rhythm Of Love stands very well. Kylie was still pretty much a product of Stock-Aikten & Waterman's conveyor-belt, hit making factory, but she was clearly adopting a more refined approach to her work and on this album she sparkles vocally. Better The Devil You Know was one of her greatest acheivements in this era. A sharp-edged pop track containing an effectivley breathy performance from its star, the track quickly raced its way up to the U.K and Australian Top 10 singles charts. Step Back in Time is another inventive pop masterpiece containing compelling undertones of hot, pulsating funk whilst What Do i Have to Do slides back into the more formulaic and familiar sound of the Stock, Aikten and Waterman sound, though is still enduringly effective regardless and exactly the same could be said for Secret and Always Find The Time. Kylie displays her appealin vocal qualities on the smooth, sensual ballad, The World Still Turns. Most effective is the album version of Shocked. The track has a sharp, rock-edge feel to it, complete with a thrashing guirtar played erratically throughout the track and encapsulates a striking atmospheric feel to it. One Boy, Girl is a bouncy pop number that sounds very Americanised and even features Kylie performing a rap whilst another atmospheric cut is the fabulous Things Can Only get Better which strongly stands as one of the albums very best recordings. Count The Days is distinctley reminiscent to Madonna's EveryBody whilst the title track, Rhythm Of Love is nothing exceptional in comparison to the rest of the album though still is a sassy, infectious affair at that.

Rhythm Of love showed Kylie maturing as an artist and gave a subtle hint of what was to come. Clearly her best work under the guidance of Stock, Aikten & Waterman. Recommended!