Disco (Kylie Minogue album)

Minogue released her fourteenth studio album, Golden in April 2018. The album was a country pop and dance-pop record and was commercially successful, debuting at number one in both the United Kingdom and Australia.[3][4] It was later certified gold in the former by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).[5] Minogue then released her fourth major greatest hits album, Step Back in Time: The Definitive Collection in June 2019, which also debuted at number one in the United Kingdom and Australia.[6][7] Following her performance at Glastonbury Festival in the same year, the most watched in its history,[8] she stated that she would like to create a "pop-disco album" and return to recording new material.[9][10]

Production on Disco subsequently began in autumn 2019.[11] As with Golden, Minogue did not have a concept solidified when beginning work on the album.[12] However, she felt inspired musically following the Golden Tour (2018–19), which had a section influenced by Studio 54 in its setlist.[12] Discussions with her A&R took place and, following her first few studio sessions, Minogue felt her creative direction was "heading straight back to the dance floor" with a disco-influenced album.[12]

Work continued on the record during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, with Minogue using her home studio to record throughout lockdown.[13] Alistair Norbury, president of Minogue's record label BMG, announced to industry title Music Week that the singer was learning to record and engineer her own vocals using Logic Pro to complete Disco.[14] Ninety percent of the album was created via her home studio, with Minogue honing the album's theme of escapism during lockdown restrictions.[15] Each track on Disco was co-written by Minogue, notably similar to Impossible Princess (1997) and Golden,[16] but was the first time she had engineered her own work.[17]

"Say Something" was released as the lead single from the album. It premiered on 23 July at 08:30 BST on BBC Radio 2 during the The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show.[18] The song was acclaimed by music critics[19] and peaked at number 56 on the UK Singles Chart.[20] It also reached number nine on the UK Singles Downloads and Sales charts.[21][22] In the United States, it debuted at number three on Billboard's Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales.[23] The music video for the song was directed by Sophie Muller[24] and filmed at the Black Island Studios in London, England, while adhering to social distancing measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It depicts the singer travelling through the universe mounted upon a golden horse sculpture, shooting lasers from her hands and flying on a hovercraft.[25][26]

"Magic" debuted on The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show on 24 September[27] and was released onto music services at 8am BST the same day, receiving positive reactions from music critics.[28][29] The song was released as a single edit,[30] while the album cut alongside "Say Something" appeared with the track on streaming services.[31][32] It peaked at number 53 on the UK Singles Chart and number 9 on the Scottish Singles Chart.[33] Also directed by Muller, the music video for "Magic" was filmed at Fabric, a nightclub in Farringdon, London.[34] It features Minogue dressed as a druid with a magic staff dancing in the club alongside several dancers and then sitting on a throne wearing a gold medallion dress reminiscent of Cleopatra. According to Minogue, although Fabric was closed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, she wanted "to give fans a moment of escapism to celebrate on a fantasy dance floor."[35]

"I Love It" was released as a promotional single on 23 October 2020.[36] On digital music platforms the track was released as an EP that also featured "Magic" and "Say Something".[37][38] Two remixes of "Magic" were also included.[37][38]

"Real Groove" was confirmed by Minogue on BBC Radio 2 as the third single on 5 December 2020.[39][40] The "Studio 2054 Remix" of the song featuring Dua Lipa was released to digital platforms on 31 December 2020.[1][2] The remix featured updated production, handled by Lipa's musical director William Bowerman, as well as an extended instrumental section in the middle of the song.[41]

Minogue and BMG publicised Disco with an extensive marketing campaign ahead of and during the album's launch.[42] On 9 August 2020, Minogue did a promotional appearance on The Sound.[43] On 17 September, she performed "Say Something" remotely on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.[44] On 16 October, she was interviewed on UOL and Papel Pop on the next day.[45] On 29 October, Minogue was interviewed on 7.30.[46] On 1 November, she returned to The Sound performing "Say Something".[47] On 2 November, she was interviewed by Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1.[48] To mark the release of the album, Minogue appeared on Sunrise, The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show, Good Morning America and The Graham Norton Show to discuss the album and perform songs on 6 November.[49][50][51][52] The next day, she live streamed a special concert, 'Infinite Disco', featuring songs from the album as well as previously released songs spanning her career,[53] the latter reworked by Minogue's longtime contributors Richard Stannard and Steve Anderson.[54] The performance took place on 7 November 2020[53][55] and was co-directed by Rob Sinclair and Kate Moross,[54] with the numbers choreographed by Ashley Wallen.[54] A special also aired on Rage that same day.[56] On 10 November she gave an interview to Magic Radio's Breakfast Show, Reuters and made an appearance on The One Show.[57] On 11 November Minogue was interviewed on The Morning Show, ET Canada and performed "Magic" on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.[58][59][60] The next day, she appeared on BBC Breakfast and This Morning.[61][62] She was interviewed on Sunday Brunch on 15 November and on Lorraine on 17 November.[63][64] On 19 November she appeared on El Hormiguero and on Skavlan the next day.[65][66] On 27 November Minogue performed "Real Groove" and "Electricity" with Dua Lipa on her live stream concert Studio 2054.[67] On 1 December she was interviewed on Quotidien.[68] On 5 December Minogue was interviewed on Graham Norton's Saturday Morning Show on BBC Radio 2 and performed "Real Groove" on The Jonathan Ross Show.[39][40] She gave an interview to Les Enfants de la télé on 13 December.[69] On 25 December, Minogue appeared on Lorraine and smoothfm.[70][71] She gave an interview to Today on 29 December. On 31 December, she live streamed 'Infinite Disco' again and performed "Magic" on NBC's New Year's Eve and New Year's Eve Live.[72]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	7.2/10[73]
Metacritic	72/100[74]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[75]
Clash	8/10[76]
DIY	[77]
The Guardian	[78]
The Independent	[79]
NME	[80]
Pitchfork	5.6/10[81]
Rolling Stone	[82]
Slant Magazine	[83]
The Times	[84]

Disco received positive reviews from music critics.[85] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 72 based on 16 reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews".[74]

In a positive review for NME, Nick Levine described the album as "a consistently uplifting set that feels like Minogue's best album since 2010's Aphrodite [...] Disco shimmers with a warm glittery glow that's just irresistible."[80] Robin Murray of music title Clash called Disco "sheer escapism from start to finish, an exit point from the darkness that has fallen over 2020", while also complimenting the album's fusion of vintage and modern styles.[76]

Describing the album as "pure fantasia", Will Hodgkinson of The Times said: "the best thing about Disco, coming at a time when hopefulness has been at a premium, is how optimistic it sounds."[84] Writing in The Guardian, Michael Cragg described Disco as being "saturated in Kylie's supernatural mix of high camp and total sincerity", while also praising the album for its "consistent sonic palette".[78] Elisa Bray of i News called the album "pure euphoria", praising the its production while describing its sound as "unabashedly retro [...] with a thoroughly modern sheen".[86] Bray described "Miss a Thing" as being reminiscent of the works of Moloko and Daft Punk, with "Last Chance" redolent of Abba's "Voulez-Vous" (1979).[86]

Neil Z. Yeung of AllMusic praised the album for reaching the same "highs" as her albums from the early 2000s and considered it a return to form following Golden.[75] Arts critic, Ben Neutze, writing for The Guardian on 17 November 2020, gave Disco a 4-out-of-5-star rating and commented: "It's a fitting album to rack up this milestone: a collection of songs exemplifying the cathartic joy that's been central to Kylie's brand since the beginning. It's music that makes you want to dance, and while the dance floors where many of her fans gather are currently off limits, it doesn't feel like a tease. Instead, it's a gift."[87]

On 21 August 2020, the head of BMG, Alistair Norbury, gave an interview with Music Week about the marketing campaign for Disco. According to Norbury, Disco was outperforming her previous studio album Golden when compared with the same stage in its album campaign. This was according to key metrics such as streaming, Amazon pre-orders, D2C pre-orders and video views.[104]

In the UK, the album debuted at number one on the Official Albums Chart on November 13, 2020 with 54,905 chart sales – displacing Lady Gaga's Chromatica as biggest opening week release of 2020 so far.[105][106] The feat was later broken by AC/DC's Power Up, which sold 62,000 in its first week.[107] Disco debuted 5,000 units ahead of its closest competitor, Confetti by Little Mix, in what several outlets deemed to be a hotly contested chart battle.[105][108] Disco became Minogue's eighth number one album in the UK and in the process, Minogue broke the record as the first female artist to earn a number one album in five consecutive decades, following Kylie (1988), Enjoy Yourself (1989), Greatest Hits (1992), Fever (2001), Aphrodite (2010), Golden (2018) and Step Back In Time: The Definitive Collection (2019).[109] The album was certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on 20 November 2020 and upgraded to Gold on 18 December 2020.

In Australia, Disco debuted at number one becoming her 7th chart topping on the ARIA Charts,[110] whilst in New Zealand, the album opened at number 9 on their regional chart, Minogue's first top-ten entry since Fever in 2001.[111]

In the United States, Disco debuted at number 26 on the Billboard 200 with 19,000 album-equivalent units, 15,000 of which were pure sales, becoming her third highest charting album in the country after Fever in 2002 and Aphrodite in 2010.[112][113] It also debuted at number 2 on the Billboard Top Albums Sales chart[114][115] and atop the Dance/Electronic Albums chart, making it her first number-one on the chart.[116]

Notes

• ^{^a} signifies an additional producer.
• ^{^b} signifies a vocal producer.
• ^{^c} signifies a remixer.

Credits taken from Tidal.[118]

• List of number-one albums of 2020 (Australia)
• List of Irish Independent Albums Chart number ones of 2020
• List of number-one albums of 2020 (Scotland)
• List of UK Albums Chart number ones of the 2020s
• List of UK top-ten albums in 2020
• List of Billboard number-one electronic albums of 2020