Pint-sized Aussie sexpot Kylie Minogue's 11th studio album is titled Aphrodite, but if we're referencing Greek mythology, perhaps Sisyphus would be more appropriate.
Although there's no denying Kylie's sex appeal — and sure, a "goddess of love," whatever — she's still fruitlessly pushing that pseudo Top 40 disco-pop boulder up the hill of a suddenly dance-conscious America. And yes, it's going to fall right back down as the Gagas and La Rouxs take the hipster chairlift straight to the top. Executive-produced by Stuart Price — best known for his work on Madonna's 2005 Confessions on a Dance Floor and in Les Rythmes Digitales and Zoot Woman — Aphrodite feels like a disjointed hodge-podge of shallow Hi-NRG dance-floor bangers for a decidedly older crowd.
Sonically aided by today's electro-pop tramp-stamp, Minogue still knows how to pack the dance floor, and few will walk off it during bubbling lead single "All the Lovers" and the already-sounds-like-a-bloghaus-remix "Cupid Boy." But dance music is now a 24-hour entity also absorbed outside the nightclubs, and even a cavalry of co-writers (Calvin Harris, Scissor Sisters, the bloke from Keane) can't add the depth that Minogue has been lacking since 2001's "Can't Get You Out of My Head." It's fine to push that disco ball — just know what's atop that mountain.
