Album: Kylie Minogue

Body Language, Parlophone

Congratulations are due to Kylie, who with Body Language has completed the process begun on her last couple of albums, by eradicating from her performance any trace of individuality. Though hardly a tragedy, it is sad the way that the natural personality and joie de vivre of "I Should Be So Lucky" has been eroded away, to the point where these routine electro-pop arrangements are fronted by vocals treated to resemble the formulaic wheedlings of any production-line R&B diva. Even the saccharine croon of Scritti Politti's Green Gartside on "Someday" embodies more human warmth and feeling than Kylie's synthetic bleatings here. Ironically, the synthesiser settings lend an aptly android sexuality to these songs, a robo-eroticism in keeping with the fake sensuality of hackwork such as "Red Blooded Woman", in which stock clichés are juggled unconvincingly; or worse still, "Secret", with such insightful gems as "don't confuse emotion with the pleasure principle". Not that either pleasure nor emotion is in plentiful supply on Body Language, which features the kind of characterless dance muzak whose manifold shortcomings, its creators clearly believe, can be papered over by the application of studio trickery. Grim stuff indeed.