Kylie Minogue’s Sequel to ‘Tension’ Is a Worthy Follow-Up

With Tension II, pop diva Kylie Minogue extends her startingly long run of great-to-brilliant studio albums that started with 2018’s country-flecked Golden. Last year’s Tension is arguably one of the singer’s best efforts, and even if its sequel doesn’t match up, it’s still a fabulous collection of high-energy electropop tunes. It fails to reach the emotional highs of its predecessor, but Tension II still offers listeners frothy, catchy tunes. It’s a credit to Minogue’s knack for pop ebullience (as well as the skills of her collaborators of songwriters, musicians, and producers) that even if Tension II can sometimes feel like outtakes, the record still sounds fresh and exciting. 

On her 17th studio album, Minogue once again proves that few of her peers or followers understand the art of light dance-pop as well as she does. The songs on Tension II are charming, and though they are not the most innovative or original in Kylie Minogue’s oeuvre, they are one of her most enjoyable. The first single, “Lights Camera Action”, is the kind of track that has become her staple: a slightly eccentric earworm that employs some kind of sonic gimmick. In this case, the deep beat drop launches the memorable chorus. The glowstick synths will recall some of Minogue’s more club-centric material from the mid-1990s when she was searching for a more mature musical guise after leaving Stock Aitken Waterman.

The song is rave-pop at its finest. The lyrics – penned by Minogue and Lewis Thompson of Just Kiddin and Ina Wroldsen – celebrate the Aussie legend’s innate glamour and fashion. The hypnotic tune calls out Karl Lagerfeld and Jean-Paul Gaultier and positions the diva on the dance floor. Deceptively facile and empty, “Lights Camera Action” perfectly encapsulates the best qualities of 21st-century diva pop: it isn’t a choice between style or substance but an equal embrace of both. The confidence she exudes on the tune also proves that the ‘comeback’ of last year’s massive summer hit “Padam Padam” wasn’t just a lucky fluke. Minogue takes it all in her stride, and the new single proves that she’s content with making slick, fashionable dance-pop without chasing another hit. 

With a song like “Taboo”, Minogue pays homage to her dance ancestors, namely ABBA and Madonna. With vague echoes of “Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight) and “Hung Up”, “Taboo” glides effortlessly on a galloping beat and sampled synths. Though an obvious tribute, it’s not derivative or stale – “Taboo” is bright and sexy, with Minogue celebrating her gleeful sexuality. In the pulsing “Diamonds”, Minogue marries her particular brand of pop-friendly neo-disco with trendy dance-pop, nailing a tricky balancing act of being a veteran yet still sounding current. The current pop landscape seems very friendly toward female-driven pop, and “Diamonds” sounds comfortable at home alongside hits by artists like Ariana Grande and Charli XCX. 

Other highlights of Tension II include “Dance to the Music” which sounds like vintage, 2000s-era Kylie Minogue. The simple ‘on the floor’ tune has become one of Minogue’s trademarks. DJ Vaughn Oliver, formerly of Oliver (DJs), takes on production duties on the song and gives the song a pop-friendly glossy Daft Punk-lite shine. On the hooky chorus, Minogue orders her listeners to “Dance to the music / Get you outta bed / Dance to the music / Just like Summer said!” cheekily referencing Disco Queen Donna Summer and the season of partying, disco, and escape. 

One of the things that made Tension so brilliant is that Minogue could pierce hearts with her expansive humanity, even when chirping through layers of studio gloss, synthesizers, Auto-Tune, and vocoder. Though not the greatest balladeer, one of Minogue’s greatest moments in song is exposing her vulnerable side. On a breezy song like “Shoulda Left Ya”, our pop queen is lamenting with regret when she “took a dive in your blue eyes / I thought everything’s cool / I thought everything’s alright” before realizing that “losing my head is not what I came for”.  

As a bonus, Tension II contains some duets Minogue released in the past few years. Though all these songs sound good, they sound tacked on, like an afterthought. This quartet of songs includes collaborations with the Blessed Madonna, Bebe Rexha and Tove Lo, Orville Peck and Diplo, and Sia. The quality and freshness of the songs vary greatly from track to track. The best of this small bunch is the groovy “Edge of Saturday Night” with the Blessed Madonna. A groovy, funk house-pop song, “Edge of Saturday Night” is deliriously euphoric. On the other end is the so-so work with Sia, a perfectly serviceable song that doesn’t tax the gifts of either talented songbird. 

Tension II isn’t the artistic triumph of its predecessor, and its rushed release makes the album feel like a hodgepodge of tracks left over from the previous record’s sessions. Also, even though Minogue is fabulous as an electropop diva, as evident on albums like Disco and Tension, she excels at 1980s-inspired synthpop, allowing her swooning emotion to shine through. These quibbles are minor, however, because Tension II is a fantastic work of pop art.