Kylie Minogue Finds Pure Release on "Tension"
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But how do you follow up "Padam Padam" — the kind of song that begs to be left in its vacuum of success, unburdened by expectations of replication or longevity — without fumbling? The answer, it turns out, is in cranking up the tension.
The title track from Minogue's upcoming sixteenth studio album, "Tension" doesn't soften the whip-crack intensity of "Padam Padam" by turning to balladry or heartfelt empowerment pop. Instead, it twists the laser-focused eroticism of its predecessor into even tighter spirals, shifting between verses of taut robo-come ons and a cascading sunshower of a chorus, crashing between the two modes with a pressure-spiking precision.
It's hot and fun and flush with colour, blowing the heaving red of "Padam Padam" into a spectrum of gasps and whistles and whispers and coos. There's little chance that "Tension" will have anywhere near the impact that its sister track did, but Minogue has stuck the landing regardless — a surefire way to follow up a massive single is with something even better. What can you say? She's a professional.