Kylie Mingoue Releases Christmas Cover of "Only You"

Twenty-seven years into her musical career, Kylie Minogue finally releases a festively themed LP called Kylie Christmas. Now there's no excuse not to listen to this Diva all year round!

[Countdown] DD's Top 5 Albums of 2014

As we show our bare behinds to what was a pretty uneventful year in music, let me share with you all my Top 5 albums of the 2014.

[Album Review] Kylie + Garibay - "Sleepwalker" EP

Kylie Minogue's last album, Kiss Me Once, didn't exactly set the world alight with its over-produced brand of pop. Though I enjoyed the LP- not as much as her previous releases, mind- something just didn't ring true with its direction or sound. It was as if the album was missing its heart, being a music by numbers creation, rather than a labor of love.

However, Kylie seems to have overcome this with her new EP, Sleepwalker.

Teaming up with music producer Garibay- who has worked with Lady Gaga and Britney Spears- the duo have crafted four tracks that sound so much more "Kylie" than anything found on Kiss Me Once.

[Watch] Coldplay And Kylie Minogue Duet @ 2014 Sydney Show.

Coldplay were joined on stage by one of our favorite Divas -Ms. Kylie Minogue- when it came time for an encore during their show in Australia.

Kylie Minogue Releases Album Sampler For "Kiss Me Once"

Kylie Minogue has released an album teaser for her next LP Kiss Me Once, which is due March 14.

Despite signing to Roc Nation, it doesn't look like the new album has Kylie changing lanes for an urban one- like most expected. Instead, the album sounds to be pretty accurately represented by its lead single Into The Blue, being electro-pop in genre and heavy on the synths. The tracks that immediately caught my attention, after previewing these 50 second teasers, were Million Miles, If Only, Beautiful and Fine, but I'm sure the list will expand when I hear the songs in their fullness.

I can't see Ms. Minogue winning any new fans with Kiss Me Once, but that's no concern of mine. I'm just happy to hear that the album, though not groundbreaking, is still sounding solid.

News Spam: Mariah Carey, Kylie Minogue, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga and Grimes

 

Welcome to a spamming of Diva related news! Each story is too anaemic to deserve a single post, but important enough that I wanted to share and get your opinion on! Enjoy!

Mariah Carey:

OMG, Mariah Carey has a guest appearance in my favourite Seth Macfarlane cartoon, American Dad. (Take that Family Guy!) If I hadn't read about it over at MariahDailyJournal, I would have totally missed her.

In fact I had to watch the clip twice, even though I knew she was going to be in the scene, to figure out which character she actually was. The stupidity of which will become apparent when you see it only has one non cast member in it!

Talk about a crazy use of an A-list celebrity!

Top Ten Biggest Selling Diva Singles (Ever) Of The UK

The OfficialCharts.com have released their list of the top ten biggest selling female singles of the United Kingdom. Having compiled the official UK Charts for just under 60 years, no one else is better placed to give us a reliable run down, figures included, of the impressive accolade.

Take a look at the list below:

[New Music] Kylie Minogue "Flower"

I was not expecting such mature gorgeousness from Kylie Minogue's new material. Shame on me.

New single Flower is a gentle, beautifully arranged ballad, full of strings and romantic overtones. Co-written by the singer, the song showcases the often unheard strength of Ms Minogue's voice. It's a stark contrast to the nasal, biting tone that's usually employed to her brand of electro-pop, but it demonstrates nicely the versatility of the Australian Pop Princess's voice.

Queen Kylie Returns With New Song "Timebomb"

From bubblegum pop to indie queen (Who I loved) to finally finding her feet, Kylie Minogue has been on a roll ever since she started making edgier pop music with album, Light Years . Case in point, a new song entitled Timebomb, released to celebrate her 25 years in the music industry. A feat I don't think many appreciate in terms of the quality of its output or its wider influence on the pop world!

Top Five Criminally Ignored Diva Albums of 2010:

This list has been a long time coming- yes I'm aware its practically 2012- but it's only now that I've found the time to finish this post. So FINALLY I present to you a list of my 5 most unappreciated Diva albums of 2010!

Honourable mention: 

Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas II You: Mariah Carey just scraped into the list with the December release of her second Christmas album Merry II Christmas. This album heralded, for me, the true return of "The Voice", the same voice that the Emancipation album promised but only kind of delivered.

Glorious voice, a return of the vibrato, stunning live instrumentation, the birth of new Christmas classics in the form of When Christmas Comes and Christmas Time is in the Air, and to top it all off a duet with Mariah's opera singing mother, Patricia Carey meant that this album deserved an honourable mention on the list! Please God, let the next Mariah Carey secular album use this one as a reference point vocally.

[Vocal Profile ] Kylie Minogue

Kylie Mingoue

Vocal Type: Soprano
Vocal Range: 3 Octaves 2 notes and a semitone (D3- F#6)
Whistle Register: No
Vocal Pluses: An overall nasal quality is prevalent throughout much of Kylie Minogue's catalogue and as such, most see it to be a trademark of the Australian Diva's voice. It's not present in her lower notes, due to her placement, and here the voice is rounded with a warm sound and a seductive ease [All The Lovers]. But this changes quickly as Kylie climbs the octaves.

The nasal twang, as mentioned above, is what most have come to associate with the singer [Can't Get You Out Of My Head , Fever]. However, she can mitigate, or choose to forgo it entirely in her midrange; demonstrating its use being a stylistic choice rather than due to any limitations of the voice. To eliminate it, Kylie often lightens the voice, giving it a breathier and sweeter timbre [as heard in the verses of Come Into My World and All The Lovers]. As well being able to remove it, Kylie can include it to varying degrees: modifying it to being faintly present [Aphrodite], or making it so strong that the voice gains a metallic, almost computerised effect to it[Speakerphone]. This versatility and control allows for Kylie to create interesting and compelling harmonies, with the contrasting textures layering well upon one another.

Kylie's technique means she can belt into the fifth octave without any issue, all whilst retaining the character of her voice. She has  produced some surprisingly resonant notes in this part of the range [Here] that show that the voice has a power that isn't often (if ever) illustrated by her choice of singles. Kylie can also vary the quality of the notes here depending on how she mixes her chest and head-voice [Here], which once again illustrates just how technically capable a singer she is.

The head-voice is strong and robust and can be operatic and dramatic [Sound Of Music Intro, Your Disco Needs You ] or soft and breezy [Confide In Me]. Her voice seems to have no problem switching to this register, or singing notes here, which further points to her placing in the soprano fach.

Vocal Negatives: The nasal tone is where most find fault in Kylie's voice and though it is clear from a wider listen to her catalouge that this is more an artistic choice than anything else, it still remains that most of her biggest hits are recorded using this tone.

Disaster! Kylie Minogue releases "Better than Today". (Review and Video)

Kylie Minogue Better that today
cover.

From an album full of potential hits someone really dropped the ball in selecting Better than today as Kylie Minogue's next single.

It suffers from a flat, cheap sounding production and an annoying motif in the backing track that is so obviously a desperate attempt to make the song catchy it's painful.

But what do I know? According to wiki, critics love it, with the Kings of impartiality the BBC apparently calling the song a "tech-country strut" that "throws up imagery of line-dancing cyborgs". Whatever that means.

But what frustrates me most about the choice of Better Than Today as a single is that it's delaying the release of the brilliant, stand out title track, Aphrodite. Please PLEASE release it next Kylie, the world need Aphrodite more now than ever!

Video stills from Better Than Today