Kylie Minogue’s ‘X’ Turns Five In The US: Stan & Deliver

Name: Dan Hughes | Location: London, UK | Twitter: @Daneeeboy

2. Like A Drug: If you have the self-assuredness that allows you to permanently delete “2 Hearts” from the opening of X, then “Like A Drug” becomes the album’s opening number, and a good fit it is too. Beginning as a pulsating dance number that begs for strobe lighting in a darkened room, what feels like an atmospheric club track transforms into a melodic pop chorus which reminds us that this isn’t an obscure electro single…or even Rihanna. This is Kylie, and this is pop music. For me, this is the moment when X comes as close to being what it set out to be, while still being true to ‘Kylie’ as it was ever going to. The song plays with the listener in some great electro-burlesque cabaret, teasing with sexually lined verses and exploding with choruses built upon Kylie’s own gasping and groaning backing vocals.

As a lyrical journey, “the way you make me feel is like a drug” is about as cliché a pop moment as you can have, but as with most Kylie tracks, this is largely irrelevant. We are here to dance, not discuss the works of Tolstoy, and Kylie plays possessed electro-vamp with proficiency.