Dannii Minogue Albums (5)
What The Critics Say
There's something about those Minogue sisters. No matter how many times they seem to be down for the count, a surprise comeback hit is always just around the corner. Dannii has never quite achieved the level of superstardom that sister Kylie has attained, but she has shown equal tenacity. Released in 1997, Girl may have been a commercial failure, but it succeeded in repositioning her as a sophisticated club artist rather than a B-list pop singer. That album caught on in the burgeoning trance scene of the mid-'90s, and Neon Nights partially follows that trend into the 2000s on tracks such as "Who Do You Love Now?," the out-of-nowhere comeback collaboration with Riva that gave Dannii the biggest hit of her career. However, Neon Nights is a more varied collection, a veritable pick and mix of the European dance scene at the turn of the century. Songs such as the sleazy "Put the Needle on It" and the pulsating "A Piece of Time" are pure electroclash, whereas the bouncy "For the Record" and "Mystified" caught on at the beginning of the major '80s revival that took off in a big way over the next few years. Despite the variety of influences, the album flows better than any of Dannii's albums have before, with only the overly crass "Vibe On" even approaching filler status. Minogue is no faceless vocalist either; she infuses the tracks with her persona, sexually charged but smart and slightly aloof. There is a revelatory performance on the album's closing track and only ballad, "It Won't Work Out." Against a chilly, spare musical backing, Dannii delivers a heartfelt, unadorned vocal somewhat reminiscent of the best moments of Everything But the Girl. Although the album contains no cover versions, the success of the singles was augmented by the bootlegging craze. "I Begin to Wonder" was mashed with Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record") for the clubs, and "Don't Wanna Lose This Feeling" became the first track ever to be granted permission to sample from Madonna's "Into the Groove." These mixes helped these songs reach the widest audience of Minogue's career, topping U.S. club charts as well as those in the U.K. and Europe. Without a doubt the most confident and forward-thinking release yet for Dannii, it didn't quite make her the major star it should have, but it did give her the best run of hits of her career, and continued to show she was much more than the sum of her family name. ~ John Lucas, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Kylie Minogue's younger sister attracted a good deal of scorn when she launched her own pop career in 1991 with Love and Kisses. In spite of her critics, however, Minogue Jr. managed to spin an impressive five hit singles from her debut album. It is often overlooked that she was actually a singer before her sister, on Australian television shows like Young Talent Time. Her voice is as strong as her sister's, if not stronger, although it has a slight nasal quality which can make her phrasing a little difficult to distinguish. She would rectify this problem on her later recordings. The songs on Love and Kisses are heavily indebted to the New Jack swing and R&B sounds prevalent on the American charts at the time. This approach has mixed results. The title track is an entertaining piece of fluff but it has dated badly, particularly the cringe-worthy rap section. Second single "Success" is even worse, and its aspirational lyrics became something of an albatross for Minogue given her struggle to achieve the career momentum of her sister. However "Baby Love," originally recorded by Regina Belle, is a genuinely credible early-'90s house number which benefited from a number of highly popular remixes, signalling the direction Dannii's career would take in the late '90s and into the 21st century. Elsewhere on the album, a fairly perfunctory cover of Stacy Lattisaw's "Jump to the Beat" kept Dannii in the charts, but adds nothing to the original. Other tracks are largely forgettable filler. A somewhat entertaining collection of early-'90s pop music, but the singles are available on Dannii's excellent The Hits & Beyond compilation, rendering this an album for purists only. ~ John Lucas, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
After a brief burst of success in the early '90s, the career of Dannii Minogue seemed to be over, the failure of her second album Get Into You signposting her as another flash in the pan clinging to the coattails of a more famous sibling. Or so it seemed. After a three year absence the younger Minogue returned with an updated sound and a striking new look. Where the cover of her debut album Love and Kisses depicted Dannii as a slightly plain girl next door, the Girl artwork is sleek and sexy, with Minogue sporting newly blonde hair and a tanned, toned body. The music too was no longer so concerned with aping American trends; it was clearly influenced by the British dance club sounds of the mid-'90s. In short, Dannii was finally carving an identity for herself, and her decision to drop her famous surname from her records at this point was highly significant. Lead single "All I Wanna Do" was a stunning and unexpected comeback. Written by Brian Higgins, who would later write "Believe" for Cher, and the majority of Girls Aloud's hits, it arguably went further into club territory than any Kylie single that had preceded it, and a number of enormously popular remixes saw it topping the club charts and sailing into the U.K. Top Five, the biggest hit of her career at that point. Elsewhere, Girl is impressive in its consistency, not just in quality but in direction. Where Love and Kisses was heavy on filler and Get Into You was a bit too varied to work as a collection, Girl remains true to the image and sounds established on that fantastic lead single. "So in Love with Yourself" is a cold and contemptuous attack on a vain former lover with an impressively aloof vocal, and "Everything I Wanted" is a sophisticated and understated trance song which made a commercially disastrous but extremely interesting second single. Once again it was a bigger hit in the clubs than it was in the U.K. charts. The centerpiece of the album is third single "Disremembrance." Clocking in at over eight minutes in its original form, it mixes trance beats with sweeping orchestral strings and soul searching lyrics you'd normally associate more with an artist like Björk than a fairly lightweight dance diva. Released too long after the album had lost momentum, the track stalled outside the U.K. Top 20, but it was yet another club hit and remains by far one of Dannii's best loved songs. A few strange choices interrupt the flow of the album in places, such as an extended dub mix of the track "Movin' Up" (titled "If It Moves...Dub It") placed halfway through the album, and the trippy, six-minute spoken word "Everybody Changes Underwater," but all in all, Girl is an exciting and forward thinking return from a singer who most critics had long since written off. Like Janet Jackson before her, Dannii had stepped out of her famous elder sibling's shadow and emerged as an artist worth watching. ~ John Lucas, All Music Guide
