Kylie Minogue’s best B-Sides from ‘Paper Dolls’ to ‘Flower’
Attitude goes beyond the hits to unearth hidden musical treasures.
By Laura McGale
Words: Jamie Tabberer; pictures: Shorfire Media/Darenote Ltd. 2020
We all love Kylie’s hits such as ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’, ‘All the Lovers’, and ‘Better The Devil You Know’. But what about some of her less well-known and/or celebrated tunes?
Attitude’s Jamie Tabberer plunges into the icon’s back catalogue to rediscover the songs we’ve been sleeping on.
B-Side: ‘Say The Word (I’ll Be There)’
A meeting point between her lovably tacky 80s oeuvre and the more sophisticated output that followed, here, Kylie’s swooning, va-va voom vocals glide like syrup over rudimentary keyboard and percussion that’s dangerously close to the EastEnders theme tune. So 90s, it hurts.
B-side: ‘Paper Dolls’
If Smooth Radio ever want to refresh the same seven songs they’re forever repeating, this acoustic guitar-led ‘Indie Kylie’ echo is the epitome of easy listening.
Album track: ‘Your Disco Needs You’
The power top of disco anthems, Kylie’s campest moment was never a UK single, preceding as it did the achingly cool Fever era by a mere eight months. Come for the operatic bombast, stay for the joyously bizarre lyrics about Scrabble.
Rozalla cover: ‘Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)’
Her coquettish ‘Santa Baby’ reigns supreme, but our second choice of Kylie Christmas track is this exercise in steadily rising euphoria with added sleigh bells. Infuriatingly, it lasts barely two minutes, begging another play immediately after.
Single: ‘Flower’
This simple, cinematic ballad is hardly a hidden gem — it was the lead single of, and only original song on, 2012’s The Abbey Road Sessions. Following Kylie’s triumphant Aphrodite comeback in 2010, it charted at number 96 — the first sign Kylie’s days as a singles artist were behind her. Underrated.
The Attitude September/October issue is out now.
