FITTINGLY FOR THE MOST HOTLY-ANTICIPATED POP ALBUM OF THE YEAR, THE BULK OF KYLIE MINOGUE’S TENSION WAS RECORDED DURING A THERMOMETER-MELTING, RECORD-BREAKING SUMMER. WE MEET TWO OF THE LP’S KEY COLLABORATORS, RICHARD ‘BIFF’ STANNARD AND DUCK BLACKWELL, TO HEAR HOW THEY KEPT THEIR COOL DURING THE MAKING OF A REMARKABLE GENRE-SPANNING RECORD.
MARK LINDORES
Dispensing with the themes that have informed Kylie Minogue’s previous two records – 2018’s country-tinged Golden and 2020’s retro-leaning Disco – the no holds barred liberation of new album Tension aims squarely for the dancefloor.
Described by Kylie as “a blend of personal reflection, club abandon and melancholic high,” Tension boasts a panoply of gems encompassing euphoric electro, classic 90s house and exhilarating 80s power-pop – with Minogue at the centre of it all sounding sexier and more confident than she has in years.
Its first two singles, 10 Out Of 10 and Padam Padam, have seen the pop icon team up with DJ Oliver Heldens and producer Lostboy respectively, introducing her to a new audience thanks largely to TikTok. The good news for fans old and new, is that the best is still yet to come from Tension. Crafted over the past 18 months, Kylie has predominantly worked with long-time collaborator Richard ‘Biff’ Stannard and Disco’s Duck Blackwell, who’ve co-written and produced eight of the album’s tracks with her.
“We’re just so excited that everyone is finally getting to hear it,” says Blackwell. “We knew that we’d made a good record and were really pleased with it ourselves, but we still weren’t expecting it to be getting as much love as it is.”
“We’ve had so much positive feedback already, from the label, from people in the music industry and, most importantly, Kylie is very happy with it,” adds Stannard. “Essentially, that’s the most important thing. If the artist is happy and the label is happy, it’s pretty much job done. Everything else is subjective. We’ve had some real moments making this album and we’re all extremely proud of it.”
The foundations of what would become Tension were laid in early 2022 as the logistical nightmare of the still-recovering live music scene, not to mention an overcrowded roster of postponed tours from other artists, saw Kylie shelve plans to take Disco out on the road. Instead, during a period of downtime, while visiting Biff at home, they began experimenting in the studio.
“We had no idea that we were even making an album at the beginning,” he recalls. “We we
