Kylie Minogue’s new album Tension expected to top the charts

Kylie Minogue has confirmed she is a superstar for the ages, following the release of her new album Tension. See why it’s tipped to be one of her best yet.

Kylie Minogue is guaranteed to complete a hat-trick of No. 1 albums in five years with Tension, universally acclaimed as one of the best albums of her four decades’ career.

In the wake of club hook-up anthem Padam Padam reigniting the pop survivor’s global popularity, fans have feverishly anticipated the release of her 16th studio record which will follow Golden in 2018 and Disco in 2020 to land at the top of the ARIA charts next week.

It is full of club bangers to soundtrack the Australian summer but also songs which hint at some heartbreak after the end of five-year relationship with British GQ executive Paul Solomons due to the strains of distance after she moved back to Australia last year.

The fiercely private pop superstar, who rarely comments on her romantic life, appears to channel the questions we ask ourselves and desire for one last dance as a relationship draws to an end on Hold On To Now and Things We Do For Love.

Kylie Minogue’s 16th studio album is set to race up the charts. Picture: Edward Cooke

“A strong DNA of my music is, even if it’s a challenging subject or emotion, it remains hopeful,” she told Grammy.com about Tension.

Minogue has said the record was made in the spirit of liberation as she ditched tying the record to any musical or lyrical theme as she had done on the country pop Golden and Studio 54-inspired Disco.

The only advice she received during the writing of Tension from her “A & R”, the label executive who collaborates with an artist on a new record, was to “do a Kylie song”. And it better not be “boring”.

“My A & R said to me, almost as an aside, ‘Just go in, write songs. Do a Kylie song.’ We know kind of what that is, but actually doing it’s another matter,” she said.

“And he said, ‘As long as it’s not boring.’ That’s actually not the worst advice. Yes, you want it to be amazing and moving, or escapism or whatever, but I think we can safely say that we did our best to make sure it’s not boring.”

Minogue’s Padam Padam has seen her reclaim the title of pop princess. Picture: Edward Cooke

Tension is, in fact, an exciting listen, even for the casual Kylie fan. Like most pop survivors, she has been occasionally guilty over her long career of producing records which may have three killer tracks peppered among a lot of filler.

Despite her assertion her 16th studio record doesn’t have an overarching theme, Tension holds together strongly because it is all Kylie.

She is a pop bower bird, not only giving her take on the sound of now, as Padam Padam and the title track single so emphatically demonstrated, but self-referencing her own 80s, 90s and 00s musical incarnations.

The new album 'Tension'.

She has relaxed into being her 80s ingenue self on tracks like One More Time, an update on the early Stock Aitken Waterman popification of underground dance music with Hand On Your Heart.

Tracks like the punchy You Still Get Me High signal the adoration of electronic music pioneer Giorgio Moroder and his signature synth sound she shares with her longtime songwriting and production team.

The R & B raptastic Hands tips its hats to the brilliance of 90s girl groups TLC and En Vogue and delivers a ridiculously timely lyrical shout-out to Barbie.

Minogue has already reclaimed her pop queen title with Padam Padam – and reignited the conversation about ageism on commercial radio – and with the Tension album, she confirms she is a superstar for the ages.

Originally published as Kylie Minogue’s new album Tension expected to top the charts