Struth!

Still sheer pop brilliance, 19 years after its release. It may have only made it into the top 15 on the UK charts, but note the singalong! Clearly, this song still resonates with Nick Cave and (long-time) Kylie Minogue fans.

I read where La Minogue said that after celebrating her "K25" anniversary year and recording "classical" covers of her hits with the London Symphony Orchestra, she had a sort of epiphany about her career. Soon afterwards, she changed her management to Roc Nation and eventually released Kiss Me Once, executive-produced by her and current pop magician Sia Fuller.

Which is not a bad album at all, although it can feel a bit disjointed at times. (Is it pop? Is it dance? Is it alternative? Pick one or two please.) There is the anthemic "Into the Blue" and the moody, subliminally powerful, "I Was Gonna Cancel." There is the emotive "If Only" and the funky, silly "Sexy Love" (which should have been a single). And then there is the turd-in-the-pop-punchbowl that is "Sexercize." And maybe "Beautiful" (a duet with Enrique Iglesias).

All this is to say that I still love you, Kylie, and I think you can still produce pop pixie dust and glow glitter.

Nonetheless, I still wish you'd, ahem, "step back in time" to the heady days of "Where the Wild Roses Grow" and Impossible Princess. You were creating small, precious jewels then--emeralds, rubies, and sapphires for the pop elite, not rhinestones and sequins for the masses.

True, the market for those jewels was paltry at best. No spend-half-your-monthly-income on this. More like "for mere pennies a day." Simply stated, you got the press and the prestige, but your records didn't sell like they should have. Although why your fans couldn't appreciate this or this or this, I'll never fully grasp.

But do the hits need to keep on comin' at this point in your career? You have squillions of dollars, can fill concert halls, work with some pop heavyweights and up-and-comers, and have some artistic credibility, at the very least for reinvention, persistence, and longevity. You may not hit the chart heights like you used to, but all the more reason to step away from the dancefloor and hang out in the after-hours lounge, crooning and trilling songs that, if not quite serious and deep, are at least poignant and lovely.

I know, I know: Nobody asked me, least of all you, dearest Kylie, and it's not like I can figure out how to succeed in my own career, let alone map out yours. But why the heck not? What have you possibly got to lose at this point in time, life, and career?

Other than the megabucks deal with Roc Nation, the homegoods line, the sell-outs at stadia, the mainstream magazine covers . . . .