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This perfect fusion of hypnotic dance pulses with melodic majesty and is a global smash that even the anti-pop brigade can enjoy
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Last month, Kylie Minogue shared on Instagram a viral video of a dog, eyes closed in blissful repose, nodding along to its favourite song. The tune in question was Minogue’s 2001 classic Can’t Get You Out of My Head, a minimalist, timeless smash that, as the dog’s reaction clearly shows, affects the head as adeptly as the feet. A global No 1 that even the anti-pop brigade can enjoy, it is both the sweaty highlight of any wedding reception dancefloor and the crux of an argument in Words and Music, a gloriously verbose book by critic Paul Morley in which he calls it an example of pop’s “occasional odd shine of mind-changing art”.
Written by then semi-retired pop star Cathy Dennis and the former Mud guitarist Rob Davis, it was initially offered to S Club 7. Quite rightly, their manager Simon Fuller rejected it, before it was rejected again, more surprisingly, by Sophie Ellis-Bextor. It took Kylie 20 seconds of listening to the demo for her to realise the track was special. And what an opening 20 seconds it is: straight out of the gate there is that pulsating, unnervingly timeless bass line, instantly recalling electronic pioneers such as Kraftwerk and New Order (Kylie performed the song’s bootleg mashup with Blue Monday at the Brits in 2002, arriving on a giant CD) before the chorus arrives earlier than expected on a hypnotic flurry of “la, la, las”. (Also of note: the oft-ignored meandering organ flurries that lurk behind the verses, subtly massaging the song’s forward momentum.) Continue reading...