Back catalogue: Pop

Review: Italian pop queen Mina proves her enduring brilliance with her 76th - yes, 76th - studio album. Now 84, Mina remains a commanding force in European pop, her octave-spanning voice undimmed by time. The album has been produced by her son Massimiliano Pani and centres on love's complexities, weaving lush textures and timeless arrangements. Tracks like 'Non smetto di aspettarti' showcase her dramatic flair, while 'Senza farmi male' introduces a modern twist with electronic rock. Mina's voice, at times powerful and at others tinged with age, captures the passage of time, reminding listeners of her unmatched legacy.

Review: Kylie Minogue's turn-of-the-2K electropop album mightn't be known to most music fans; they know it by its singles, the best-known of which include 'Spinning Around' and 'On A Night Like This'. Also a return to Kylie's pop roots, it follows her 1997 record Impossible Princess, on which Minogue had taken an experimental turn towards trip-hop and electronica, though this didn't pan out as well as it did for committed actors in the style on which Minogue drew inspiration, such as Bjork. Though the former record gained a cult status in hindsight - a "sexy and reliable secret weapon" by some critics' assessments - Minogue nonetheless rode the critical wave of the time, saying Light Years heard her do "what I do best... pop music is the kind of music that people want from me." It is not to be discounted either, its electric dance sound design serving a kind of eerie hyperreality that likely wasn't registered among her target demographic way back when.

Review: On her 2023 album Tension, Queen of Pop Kyle Minogue leant into dance music culture in a big way, delivering a set of bold, weighty and throbbing dance-pop singalongs rooted in EDM, Euro-dance and the more boisterous and forthright end of LGBTQ club culture (a theme that has been a significant part of her musical output from the earliest days of her career in the 1980s). As a sequel, Tension II is similarly framed - think catchy, effects-laden vocals, trance-adjacent synth stabs, bustling beats and plenty of nods to club sounds old and new. There are a few collaborations, too, most notably with The Blessed Madonna ('The Edge of Saturday Night'), Sia ('Dance Again'), and Orville Peck and Diplo ('Midnight Ride').