X (Kylie Minogue album) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids X
Studio album by Kylie Minogue
Released	21 November 2007 (2007-11-21)
Recorded	July 2006 – August 2007
Studio	Jonas Jeberg's studio (Copenhagen) Magnetic (Ibiza) EMI Publishing (London) Metropolis (London) Olympic (London) Sleeper (London) Stanley House (London) Echo (Los Angeles) Murlyn (Stockholm)
Genre	Dance-pop electronica
Length	45:12
Label	Parlophone
Producer	Bloodshy & Avant Guy Chambers Cutfather Cathy Dennis Freemasons Calvin Harris Jonas Jeberg Kish Mauve Greg Kurstin Karen Poole Matt Prisne Richard "Biff" Stannard Eg White
Kylie Minogue chronology
Confide in Me: The Irresistible Kylie (2007) X (2007) Boombox (2008)
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X is the tenth studio album by Australian singer Kylie Minogue. EMI Music Japan released it first in Japan on 21 November 2007, before its release in Australia by Warner Music Australia two days later. The album was released in the United Kingdom by Parlophone on 26 November 2007, and in the United States by Capitol and Astralwerks on 1 April 2008. Work on the album began in July 2006, following Minogue's gradual recovery from breast cancer. After finishing Showgirl: The Homecoming Tour in late 2006, she returned to the studio to complete the album, with the help from many producers including Bloodshy & Avant, Calvin Harris, Greg Kurstin, and Freemasons.

X is a dance-pop and electronica album. Music critics praised the production but were ambivalent towards its consistency and lyrical content. Minogue garnered several nominations for X, including Brit Award for Best International Album and Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album. Commercially, X debuted at number one on the Australian Albums Chart and peaked at number four on the UK Albums Chart. The album reached the top 20 in other countries, including Austria, Germany, Ireland, France, Scotland, and Switzerland.

Five singles were released from X. The lead single, "2 Hearts", peaked inside the top 10 in several countries, including Australia, Spain, and the United Kingdom. "Wow" was released in Australia and the UK, while "In My Arms" was issued in Europe. "All I See" and "The One" were released as digital singles: the former to promote the album in the United States and the latter in Europe. Minogue promoted X by performing in the US during March and May 2008, and with the KylieX2008 concert tour, which saw her perform around Europe, Oceania, South America, and Asia. The album has sold over one million copies worldwide.

Background and development

In 2004, Kylie Minogue released her second major greatest hits album, Ultimate Kylie. The album peaked within the top 10 and reached multi-platinum status in the UK, Ireland, and Australia. In May 2005, while promoting Ultimate Kylie with the Showgirl: The Greatest Hits Tour, Minogue was diagnosed with breast cancer. She canceled the remaining concert dates and underwent immediate treatment: she had a partial mastectomy to remove a lump from her left breast and spent the next six months receiving chemotherapy. Her hospitalization and treatment in Melbourne garnered intense media coverage. Following her recovery, Minogue worried about not having sung in some time and whether she could return to performing so soon after her treatment. The resumption of the tour was first announced in June 2006. The rescheduled tour, renamed Showgirl: The Homecoming Tour, began in November and travelled to Australia and England.

In July of the same year, Australian concert promoter Michael Gudinski revealed Minogue was in the studio recording new material. She recalled feeling happy to be back in the studio and not under pressure to record an album. At the start of the tour in November, Minogue said she was recording new tracks, and felt more inspired than she had for a long period of time. Once the tour ended in January 2007, she returned to the studio to complete the album, feeling that finalizing it was a personal goal she had set. "I had to go back to the studio just to test myself and to get something off my chest, which I did", Minogue recalled. X was the first album Minogue had consciously prepared for the recording process—she had been engaged in a cycle of record, release, and tour for much of her career. The production took a year and a half to finish, with more than 40 songs recorded. Finishing with X was a great relief to Minogue, who felt she was ready for more.

Themes and vocals

"The One" has a reference to Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam (c. 1508–1512) in the lyrics.

Minogue described X as a sensual and feel-good pop collection that is "much more of a celebration" than her previous releases. "Stars", "No More Rain" and "Cosmic" touch upon Minogue's experience following her cancer treatment. On "No More Rain", Minogue wonders about the universe and fantasises about her return to the performing stage. On "Stars", she contemplates the meaning of life, advides listener not to let a chance of love slip away, and to find joy in everyday life. "Cosmic" has Minogue listing things she wants to do, including writing a song called "Cosmic" and speaking without the interruption. Minogue recalled writing these songs as a mantra for positivity, and a tribute for the support she received from the public during her recovery. Minogue refused to release an album full of material about her cancer treatment, thinking it would be seen as Impossible Princess 2 and be equally critiqued. Several critics commented on the decision to ignore her health struggle and her breakup with French actor Olivier Martinez on X. Evan Sawdey of PopMatters felt the album missed "a chance to say something deeply profound that would reach millions of people". He compared X to Sheryl Crow's Detours (2008), an album which explicitly addressed Crow's cancer struggle and her breakup with Lance Armstrong. O'Connell said Minogue "might well have fancied a bit of fashionable recorded exorcism" similar to Spears' Blackout.

Minogue's high-pitched and light tone of vocals on X attracted comments from several critics. Josh Love of The News & Observer thought her voice can match with the "chirpy buoyancy" of Stefani, Spears and Janet Jackson. O'Connell linked her delivery to the breathy suggestiveness of Marilyn Monroe and the trademark falsetto of André 3000. Critics also noted the hyper treatment of Minogue's voice, which is distorted and sliced-up on some tracks. Petridis and Hubbard felt her delivery through electronic effects was robotic and made her sounds less connected to the music.

Promotion

Minogue and her dancers performing album single "In My Arms" during one of the dates of the KylieX2008 tour

To promote the album's release, Minogue performed on an exclusive show on ITV called The Kylie Show, aired on 10 November 2007. Minogue performed songs from her previous albums and sneak peek songs from X, while also doing comedy sketches with her sister Dannii, her former co-star Jason Donovan, and Simon Cowell. The show aired on the Australian Seven Network on 5 February 2008. Minogue joined Jo Whiley on BBC Radio 1 for a special show, Kylie and Whiley, during which they recreated a scene from the Australian TV series Neighbours. Minogue appeared on 14 January 2008 on the Australian morning program Sunrise, her first in-studio breakfast interview in more than a decade.

Minogue went on several television shows in the US to promote the album. On 31 March 2008, she gave an interview on the Today show with Matt Lauer inside the NBC Studios in Manhattan. On 1 April, the same day X hit US stores, Minogue performed "All I See" and "Can't Get You Out of My Head" live on a season 6 episode of the American program Dancing with the Stars. It was her first performance on American TV in five years and was viewed by more than 17 million people. She was interviewed and performed "All I See" on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Her last appearance on the US-promo tour was on Idol Gives Back, an American Idol charitable campaign of on April 9.

To promote the album, Minogue announced her tenth concert tour in late November 2007, titled KylieX2008. It began in May 2008 and concluded in December. Travelling to Europe, South America, Asia, and Australasia, Minogue spent $20 million for the production, making it her most expensive tour at the time; in comparison, Showgirl: The Greatest Hits Tour cost her $5 million. The concerts were divided into eight segments: Xlectro Static, Cheer Squad, Beach Party, Xposed, Naughty Manga Girl, Starry Nights, Black Versus White, and the encore. Tickets for the first eight shows sold out in less than two hours in early December 2007. KylieX2008 was commercially successful, grossing $70,000,000 from ticket sales. The DVD of the tour, KylieX2008, was released on December 1, 2008.

Singles

Minogue performing the album's lead single, "2 Hearts", during the KylieX2008 tour

"2 Hearts" was released as the lead single from X in October 2007. "I Don't Know What It Is" and "King or Queen" were included on the single's B-side. The single and its remixes were leaked onto file-sharing websites on 9 October 2007, forcing it to be premiered on British radio the following day. Dawn Shadforth directed the music video for "2 Hearts" filmed at Shepperton Studios in Surrey in September. The video shows Minogue singing on a stage with a band with a look similar to that of American actress Marilyn Monroe. "2 Hearts" debuted atop of the Australian Singles Chart, becoming her first number-one single since "Slow" (2003) and her tenth overall. On the UK Singles Chart, it reached a peak position of number four and remained in the top 75 for 13 weeks.

The next two singles, "Wow" and "In My Arms", were released simultaneously. "In My Arms" was issued in several European countries on 15 February 2008, while "Wow" was released as the second single in the UK and Australia two days later. "In My Arms" was later released in the UK in May. Both singles had several new mixes and previously unreleased tracks "Carried Away", "Cherry Bomb", and "Do It Again" as the B-side tracks. Melina Matsoukas filmed two music videos back-to-back for "Wow" and "In My Arms" in Los Angeles. The videos, which show Minogue dancing in a futuristic and colourful setting, were released concurrently in late January–early February. Both singles peaked within the top 10 in the UK and Scotland.

"All I See" was released as the lead single in the US on 11 March, with a version featuring rapper Mims. The black and white music video for the song was made between rehearsals for the KylieX2008 tour and released in April 2008 on Minogue's official website. The track peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. "The One" was digitally released as the fifth and final single in July, reaching number 36 on the UK chart. Ben Ib directed the music video in a green screen studio in the Manchester Evening News Arena, influenced by images of Carol Lombard and Lauren Bacall. On 15 December 2007, a mashup single titled "X Allmixedup" was released on iTunes in Australia and New Zealand, containing four songs from X: "2 Hearts", "The One", "In My Arms" and "Like a ...". Despite never having been released as a single, "Speakerphone" reached number 87 on the Canadian Hot 100 based on high downloads from the album. A version of "Sensitized" featuring French singer Christophe Willem served as a promotional single in Europe, but did not appear on any major record charts.

Accolades

Courtney Devores of The Charlotte Observer hailed X as one of the best mainstream dance-pop albums of 2008. The same publication ranked the album as the most underrated dance record of the year. At the 2008 Brit Awards, Minogue was nominated for International Female Solo Artist and Best International Album for X. At the ceremony, she scored her second win in the former category while losing to Foo Fighters' Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (2008) in the latter category. At the 22nd ARIA Music Awards, X garnered two nominations for Best Female Artist and Best Pop Release, ultimately losing both to Gabriella Cilmi's Lessons to Be Learned (2008). For their contribution to the KylieX2008, Frontier Touring Company was nominated for the Helpmann Awards for Best Australian Contemporary Concert in 2009. In the United States, Minogue received a Grammy nomination in the Best Dance/Electronic Album category, her fifth overall. At the ceremony, Minogue's album lost to Daft Punk's Alive 2007 (2007).

Track listing

Notes

• signifies a vocal co-producer
• signifies an additional producer
• "Sensitized" incorporates a sample from "Bonnie and Clyde", written by Serge Gainsbourg, performed by Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot.
• "All I See" contains an interpolation of "Outstanding", written by Raymond Calhoun, performed by The Gap Band.
• The Chinese edition replaces the solo version of "In My Arms" with the version featuring Jolin Tsai, while omitting the tracks "Like a ...", "Speakerphone" and "Nu-di-ty" due to censorship.

Charts

See also

• List of number-one albums of 2007 (Australia)
• List of UK Album Downloads Chart number ones of the 2000s
• List of UK top-ten albums in 2007