Golden is the fourteenth studio album by Australian singer Kylie Minogue. On 6 April 2018, BMG Rights Management and Minogue's company Darenote made it available in a variety of formats. This is Minogue's first album with BMG, and her first musical release since Kylie Christmas (2015). Minogue began work on the album in London and Los Angeles before briefly visiting Nashville. She was inspired by Nashville's culture and music, particularly its country music influences. Inspired by her journey, she enlisted several producers to create new music, including Ash Howes, Richard "Biff" Stannard, Sky Adams, Alex Smith, and Mark Taylor, among others.
Golden represents Minogue's musical shift away from traditional dance-pop music and towards country-infused pop and dance music. Minogue co-wrote every song on the album, which features lyrics about failed relationships, death, escapism, family, ageism, and freedom. Music critics praised Minogue's vulnerability and honesty, as well as her songwriting abilities, but they were divided on the composition and overall production standards. Commercially, the album was a success, reaching number one in Australia, Scotland, and the United Kingdom, and earning certification in the latter. The album also made the top ten in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Spain, and Hungary.
Golden produced six singles, including "Dancing", "Stop Me from Falling", "Golden", "A Lifetime to Repair", "Music's Too Sad Without You", and "Sincerely Yours". Minogue appeared at a number of live shows and events to promote the album, primarily in the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States. Minogue also embarked on two concert tours, the first was Kylie Presents Golden, a promotional tour of Europe and the United States that preceded the album's release in March 2018, and her Golden Tour, which traveled throughout Europe and Australia. The critically and commercially successful tour was followed by a live audio and video release on 6 December 2019.
Background and production Between 2014 and 2017, Minogue continued to appear as a featured artist in the works of Giorgio Moroder and Fernando Garibay, eventually branching out into film and television. In 2016, Minogue released Kylie Christmas: Snow Queen Edition, a repackaged version of her previous year's studio album and her final Parlophone release. Minogue signed a deal with BMG Rights Management in February 2017 to release new music while keeping ownership of all of her material. Minogue and BMG agreed in December to release her new album in Australia and New Zealand through Mushroom Music Labels' subsidiary Liberator Music.
Throughout 2017, Minogue worked on new songs with Amy Wadge, Sky Adams, DJ Fresh, Nathan Chapman, Richard "Biff" Stannard, The Invisible Men, and Karen Poole. Initial sessions began in London and Los Angeles, with Minogue describing the material as "synth-pop dance songs" that her fans would "expect from her". However, Minogue's A&R manager Jamie Nelson suggested that she try country music, to which she agreed. In July 2017, she spent two weeks in Nashville recording four songs, and she described how "it all started to make sense. We were able to take inspiration from this country and incorporate it back into my life."
She described the result as "Dolly Parton standing on a dance floor" and added, "I did a lot of work on the album before that, but Nashville had a profound effect on me." Minogue co-wrote every song on Golden, which marks her first time doing so since 1997's Impossible Princess. Minogue "kept writing songs" without intending to, and the results were very "cathartic"; additionally, the singer believed the song's lyrics came across as more "authentic" and "story-telling" than her previous work. In Nashville, she described her songwriting process as "therapy".
Composition and content
Golden marks Minogue's musical departure from traditional dance-pop music and towards country-infused pop and dance music. Regarding the album's sound, Laure Snapes of The Guardian stated "Kylie opts not for copper-bottomed songcraft, but the unholy intersection of country and EDM: drops beget scratchy fiddle breakdowns, while banjo clucks meet tropical house in a mush of mild euphoria." Ben Cardaw from Pitchfork wrote that “She borrows from the sledgehammer-subtle EDM Americana of Avicii's "Wake Me Up," where fingerpicked guitars meet thundering bass drums and teeth-rotting synths in the year of our lord 2013." Additionally, Slant Magazine editor Sal Cinquemani said that "While country signifiers abound, from foot-stomping to fiddling, the songs on Golden also smartly juxtapose contemporary pop elements like soaring synth hooks and pitched-up vocals."
The album opens with the lead single "Dancing", a country-dance-pop hybrid that lacks a bridge section and is lyrically about Minogue's perspective on death, with the lyrics "When I go out, I wanna go out dancing", describing how the singer wishes to feel in that situation before death. "Stop Me from Falling" has a similar country-dance sound, with handclaps, "toe-tappin'" basslines, and banjo riffs. "Golden" is a self-empowerment anthem that appears on soundtracks for Spaghetti Western films, specifically referencing Ennio Morricone's The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly theme song with the yodelling. Lyrically, "A Lifetime to Repair" delves into failed relationships and contrasts "lolling" country guitars with "drawling" vocals and "glittery" pop music.
"Sincerely Yours" is a pop ballad that serves as a "love letter" to her fans, sounding similar to the work of Canadian duo Tegan & Sara. "One Last Kiss" is a "basic" country song featuring live guitar riffs, drums, and banjo instrumentation. "Live a Little" has a similar dance-country sound to the album's opener "Dancing", and the lyrics "slept by candlelight, scared of running out of time" describe her age expectations and desire to be free and have fun. "Shelby 68'" has been compared to American singer Taylor Swift's work for its "ill-fitting Tennessee twang" and midtempo rhythm, and the title is a reference to her father's mustang and the year Minogue was born, as well as audio from the vehicle recorded by Minogue's brother Brendan.
"Radio On" is another ballad with a stripped-down production of acoustic guitars and violins, featuring "thin" vocals and the singer's willingness to forget a previous breakup by "listening to the radio". The lyric "lying in your lover's T-shirt" in "Love" refers to previous breakups as well as the aforementioned theme. "Raining Glitter" combines lilting acoustic guitar, disco beats, [and] a whooping vocal effect" that was compared to the Spiritual Life / Ibadan remix of Beth Orton's "Central Reservation". The standard edition album closer, "Music's Too Sad Without You", was written in collaboration with English-Italian musician Jack Savoretti and has been compared to American artists Beck and Lana Del Rey.
Release and formats Golden was released in a variety of formats on Minogue's website on 6 April 2018. It is her fourteenth studio release, and the first from BMG Rights Management and Minogue's company Darenote. The standard album contains 12 tracks totalling more than 40 minutes in length, while the deluxe edition includes four additional songs: "Lost Without You", "Every Little Part of Me", "Rollin'", and "Low Blow". Pre-release versions included a signed autograph. Both the standard and deluxe editions include slipcases, digipacks, and a mediabook.CD formats listed below:
There were also five vinyl variants available: a standard black vinyl, a clear vinyl with gatefold packaging, a picture disc, a limited white test pressing of the album, and a coffee-table book with 30 large gloss pages containing both the vinyl and standard disc.Vinyl formats listed below: With the exception of the picture disc and white test pressing versions, each vinyl included a digital copy of the album. Four cassette tapes were also released: a black tape, a gold tape, a collectors tape featuring a special message from Minogue, and a Christmas-themed collectors tape.Cassette formats listed below: The latter two cassette versions were created so that Shazam users could access exclusive content. Golden was also available in digital and streaming formats, including the standard and deluxe edition.
Leif Podhajsky, an Australian art director and graphic designer, developed the creative direction and design for Golden, while British photographer Simon Emmett took the photographs. In a lengthy article about the artwork, Idolator's Mike Wass wrote, "She casually poses on a sofa with tousled hair and minimal make-up. There's even a (sequined) guitar next to her, not an instrument you would normally associate with the Queen of dance/pop."
Promotion Singles and other songs
Golden released six singles. Minogue released "Dancing" as the album's lead single on 19 January 2018, marking her first collaboration with BMG Rights Management. The single's formats included B-side and bonus track "Rollin'" and additional remixes."Dancing" formats listed below: The single debuted on Minogue's YouTube channel and received widespread praise from music critics for its music and production, with many hailing it as one of her best singles. Commercially, "Dancing" performed well, reaching the top forty in both Australia and the United Kingdom and earning certifications in both countries. It also charted in Belgium, France, Hungary, New Zealand, and Spain, and became her 14th number-one single on the US Billboard Dance Club Songs chart.
"Stop Me from Falling" was released as the second single on 9 March 2018, with digital formats including various remixes; the single version featured Cuban music duo Gente de Zona and Spanish lyrics sung by both the duo and Kylie Minogue."Stop Me from Falling" formats listed below: It received favourable feedback for its production quality and catchiness. Commercially, it performed moderately, reaching the top sixty of the United Kingdom and other component charts in Australia, France, and Japan. Minogue and Gente de Zona appear in the track's music video, which was shot in Havana, Cuba.Music videos for "Stop Me from Falling":
"Raining Glitter" was the album's only promotional single, reaching number 188 on the French Digital Singles Chart and 98 on the Scottish Singles Chart. On 28 May 2018, "Golden" was released as the album's third single, featuring remixes by Weiss. Critics praised the song's sound and Minogue's vocals, but it peaked at number 43 on Belgium's Ultratip Bubbling Under chart. Minogue's 50th birthday prompted the release of a music video on YouTube, which was also shot in Havana. "A Lifetime to Repair" was the album's fourth single, released on radio on 4 August and digitally on 17 August 2018. The album's fifth single, "Music's Too Sad Without You", a duet with Jack Savoretti, debuted on 9 October 2018, along with a music video shot in Venice, Italy. On 9 November 2018 "Sincerely Yours" was released as the album's sixth and final single, and it received airplay in Australia and New Zealand.
Live appearances
Minogue and BMG promoted Golden with a comprehensive marketing campaign prior to and during the album's release. Graham Norton interviewed her on BBC Radio 2 prior to her performance of "Dancing" on Saturday Night Takeaway on 24 February 2018. During her Kylie Presents Golden promotional tour, Minogue debuted several tracks from Golden at Café de Paris nightclub on 13 March. She performed "Dancing" and answered phone lines for Sports Relief the next day, as well as a special concert for Spotify fans at Porchester Hall on 22 March.