Kylie - A Retro Review of Her First Album

Kylie is the debut studio album by Australian recording artist Kylie Minogue, released on 4 July 1988 by Mushroom Records. Minogue had established herself as a child actress before signing to the record label in early 1987. The success of her debut single, "Locomotion", resulted in her working with Stock, Aitken and Waterman, who produced the album and wrote nine of its ten tracks. Their recording sessions, which started in September 1987 and took place in London and Melbourne, coincided with Minogue filming for the soap opera Neighbours. Musically, Kylie is a bubblegum pop and dance-pop album. It received mixed reviews from contemporary music critics who criticized its dated production. It was a commercial success, peaking at number one in the United Kingdom for six weeks and becoming the best-selling album of 1988. It is her only number-one album in New Zealand, while peaking at number two in her native Australia. In the United States, it was certified gold for selling over 500,000 copies. Kylie was certified six times platinum in the United Kingdom and has sold over five million copies worldwide. To promote Kylie, "I Should Be So Lucky" was released as the first single by the newly founded PWL Records in late December 1987. It reached number one in Australia and the United Kingdom, the first for any artist. The subsequent singles—"Got to Be Certain", the re-recorded "The Loco-Motion", and "Je ne sais pas pourquoi" all peaked in the top two on the UK Singles Chart. "It's No Secret" was her third top-forty single on the Billboard Hot 100, while "Turn It into Love" was released exclusively in Japan. Kylie was re-issued in 1988 as The Kylie Collection, and in 2015 when it returned to the UK Albums Chart.