Showgirl was recorded on Kylie’s Homecoming tour of Australia in November 2006. Given her recent circumstances, any negative reviews of the record will seem unnecessarily mean-spirited. This may lead some to believe that all positive critical notices it receives are undeserved, and merely an act of charity on the critic’s part.
A shame, because this is a frequently scintillating double-disc that deserves to be appreciated on its own merits. Like all decent live albums, it is ultimately unsatisfactory, as it provokes a craving for the visual dimension it can never provide.
Showgirl sensibly avoids Kylie’s brief dalliance with the world of indie, save for a pleasing detour into her ace Nick Cave duet ‘Where The Wild Roses Grow’ (during ‘Red Blooded Woman’). James Dean Bradfield collaborations are mercifully confined to the wheelie-bin of history, replaced – for the most part – by sparkling, bubbly disco-pop.
In truth, Kylie’s back catalogue is damn good, but not great. She would struggle to put together one 'Best Of' as good as the two Madonna has delivered. Still, when her finest moments are delivered in rapid-fire succession, the effect is undoubtedly intoxicating.
Disc One’s opening salvo is particularly fabulous; the glitzy, achingly melodic ‘Better The Devil You Know’ is followed by the sleek, irresistible ‘In Your Eyes’. The hedonistic rush of ‘Spinning Around’ gives way to the lavish, Eastern-tinged melancholy of ‘Confide In Me’.
Kylie appears unstoppable at this point, but Disc One then proceeds to tail off a little, salvaged only by the wonderfully precise robo-disco of ‘Slow’. Bono shows up to take Robbie Williams’ place on ‘Kids’, a substitution that does little to mask the original track’s weaknesses – a chunky, graceless number that's audibly more Williams than Minogue.
Things pick up again during the second disc, though. The electronic pulse of ‘Come Into My World’ is re-cast wonderfully as a rich, twinkling ballad, while ‘I Should Be So Lucky’ remains relatively unchanged, provoking an unmistakeable twinge of nostalgia. ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’ is still her finest moment, a danceable pop classic with a heart-rending undercurrent of longing and sadness.
A decent night’s work, all in all. Good to have her back.