Yes, the X demos looking back were a mixed bag. Haven't listened to a lot of them for a long time now.
Parlophone’s recording strategy after LY and Fever was a mess. They just moved Kylie about to see which songs stuck, as opposed to actually working on and developing a project.
Verses sound great. Listening to the chorus it's understandable as to why they thought it could work with a country makeover.
I quite like the 80s pop/rock feel to it. The second verse needs some additional bits as it sounds empty and the second chorus drop doesn't quite work, but overall I'm feeling it. If the genre hadn't been so overdone recently, I'd be up for an 80s pop/rock album from KM.
I'm watching Infinite Disco for the first time, and holy SHIT this version of All the Lovers with the gospel choir... inject it directly into my veins. Update: I finished it, watched the making-of, and now I'm watching it again. What a woman. What a show.
I'm not usually into the demos, but I love this. I actually prefer the final album version, but this is a nice direction as well. Speaking of the the album track -- with its irresistible, locomotive chorus -- they should have made it a single instead of Golden or A Lifetime to Repair. Yes, she was playing country-pop dress-up on a lot of the album, but One Last Kiss was one of those Golden Tracks -- like Stop me from Falling -- in which she sounded completely at home in this sound.
I just wish One Last Kiss didn't end up "countryfied". Obviously, I get with the direction of Golden as an album the final version we got made more sense. But, it still remains my least favourite song only beaten by the dire Low Blow. The demo on the otherhand, makes me wanna hear it again and again. Love the emoto/electro sound, just classic Kylie to a tee.
It was not meant as a judgement of its quality (although personally I do think it sounds half-finished) but as a fact. As the story goes (can't provide a proper source), Parlophone needed a christmas-release in 2003 and since Coldplay (Edit: It was probably Robbie Williams) weren't ready, they made Kylie release Body Language even though she herself didn't feel it was ready as they had just recently found their groove with the recording of Slow.
Yes, one thing I will say about Body Language, the only song from it that says lead single, is Slow. I wonder how things would have turned out if this song never existed??
How interesting. I never knew all of that, but it makes a good deal of sense listening back to the album. Slow is in a world all its own. Can you imagine if we'd gotten a whole album with the ambition of Slow? [insert we'd all be driving flying cars now meme]
I also heard a rumour once that Chocolate was going to be the lead before Slow came along, Can't imagine that working at all.
I feel like "Red Blooded Woman" could've worked as a lead single from Body Language. Or maybe "Secret (Take You Home)." As much as I enjoy Body Language, it did lack any obvious singles outside of "Slow" and "Red Blooded Woman." I can't imagine "Chocolate" working as a lead single either. Considering the backlash that "Slow" received, I can't even imagine the backlash that "Chocolate" would've received as a lead single. If true, I wonder when the single mix of "Chocolate" was commissioned—at the start of the era when it was initially pegged as a potential lead single or when it was announced as Single No. 3.
I wonder which act caused the hole in Parlophone's schedule - the dates don't make sense for Coldplay, who had only just finished touring their last album and didn't start on the next one until early 2004. Chocolate would never have worked as a lead single; even speaking as a longtime defender of Body Language, Slow was the only choice that made sense.
Some copies of Now 58 included an album edit of Chocolate so maybe the single version wasn't ready by that time.