Dannii Minogue
Neon Nights

THE REVIEW

In that of Melbourne, a cheerful Australian metropolis, lives (or rather, should live) the Minogue family. The eldest, Kylie Ann, does not require much digression regarding her immense popularity even among the endless debaser squares: an excellent performer, charming and radiant at the right point and at the right time, very sumptuous and not too pretentious, she managed to break through the frivolous and colorful 80's music-biz with a handful of disco hits such as Locomotion and I Should Be So Lucky only to transform into the fabulous and "tiny" shaking superstar of Can't Get You Out Of My Head and Slow, magnificent manifestations of sensuality and seduction without too many phantasmagorias regarding it.

The younger sister Danielle Jane "Dannii" represents the unstable attempt to replicate the charm and sales of the patron of House Minogue: she too a soap opera actress, she too a great admirer of dance sounds, she too a pretty little body to make much more established starlets envious. Despite this, the notoriety and visibility that Dannii has managed to acquire over the years doesn't even come close to the achievements of the more appreciated Kylie and, as often happens in similar family matches between aspiring divas from the Pop Olympus, the delightful Dannii has come out worse out of the two, albeit preserving dignity and talents.

Neon Nights was released in 2003 and arrived six years after the less fortunate Girls; halfway between the carefree disco style of Fever and Light Years and the retro-lounge atmospheres of Body Language (always to make a dutiful comparison with her sister), the album represents the perfect summary of the Minogue household philosophy in the 00s, a flirt between the magic of the dance floor (which both artists have accustomed us to) and the heterogeneous laboratory of "alternative" sounds, just to add a pinch of salt & pepper more to an already inviting dish. The result is therefore a good mix of sounds that draw heavily from dance and electropop, without neglecting significant references to lounge, house music and especially to the remarkable, most remarkable tunes of the 70s - 80s.

The album opens with the intriguing Put The Needle On It, a sort of prelude to the electro-lounge cauldron of Body Language (made by the sister the same year) that inaugurates (all) the dances in the best ways; the dance/chill-out connection continues with the frivolous and sensual Creep, then leans towards the more traditional disco-dance style in the famous I Begin To Wonder, in which the dance-opening flirtations become more substantial and concrete to fully explode with the ecstatic techno-trance gem of Who Do You Love Now?, a happy collaboration with the Dutch house duo Riva.

In Hey! (So What) one begins to fully breathe the 70's disco-dance breeze; however, the true "Saturday night fever" mood is absorbed by Don't Wanna Lose This Feeling, a track that is present on the album in a mash-up version with Madonna's hit Into The Groove (a tribute that Madonna herself exceptionally called "brilliant"). Further retro-dance expressions enriched with electronic/house retro improvisations can be found in For The Record, On The Loop, Mighty Fine and Mystified. Everything is wrapped up with the pleasant robotic quirks of A Piece Of Time and the sweet romantic ballad It Won't Work Out.

Overall, we are facing a pleasant dance-pop work, far from modern electronic aberrations and the "excesses" of disco-dance diva, a simple, immediate album without too many pretensions, frills, and eccentricities, perfect for "introducing" oneself to the "family" alternative to the magnificent Kylie.

Dannii Minogue, Neon Nights

Put The Needle On It - Creep - I Begin To Wonder - Hey! (So What) - For The Record - Mighty Fine - On The Loop - Push - Mystified - Don't Wanna Lose This Feeling - Vibe On - A Piece Of Time - Who Do You Love Now? - It Won't Work Out/Come And Get It - Begin To Spin Me Around (vs. Dead Or Alive) - Don't Wanna Loose This Groove.