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List Price: $17.98 | | Label: Musicrama/Koch
Salesrank:
Released: October 3, 2001 |
| Our Price: $35.96 |
| Used Price: $3.29 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Hits + Track Listing:
1. Confide in Me
2. Put Yourself in My Place
3. Where Is the Feeling? [Bir Dolphin Mix]
4. Some Kind of Bliss
5. Did It Again
6. Breathe
7. If You Don't Love Me [Rare]
8. Tears [Rare]
9. Gotta Move On [#]
10. Difficult By Design [#]
11. Stay This Way [#]
12. Automatic Love [Acoustic Version][#]
13. Where Has the Love Gone? [Roach Motel Remix][#]
14. Take Me With You [Rare]
Editorial Review:
Between her late 1980s reign as the "I Should Be So Lucky" Aussie soap star turned pop princess and her iconic re-emergence, Kylie Minogue had an altogether different kind of pop career. In the mid-1990s, she released two exquisitely sophisticated albums, both simply titled Kylie Minogue, for the dance label Deconstruction. The best tracks from that period, plus a handful of previously unreleased songs and remixes, fill Hits +. Although the title is somewhat misleading given that the albums from which the tracks come were commercial flops, it's not overstating the case to say that with the likes of "Breathe," "Did It Again," and "Automatic Love" leading the way, this collection contains some wonderfully stylish pop. But it's the haunting singles "Confide in Me," "Put Yourself in My Place," and the Nick Cave duet "Where the Wild Roses Grow," graced by the sumptuously breathy vocals that transformed bubblegum-pop Kylie into a seductress and institution, that are the jewels of this retrospective and her career. --Dan Gennoe
Hits + Reviews:
Kylie Minogue - Hits + 
2005-05-18 - 1. CONFIDE IN ME - Hit single which reached No.1 in Australia and No.2 in the UK. A great song about confiding in someone - 10/10
2. PUT YOURSELF IN MY PLACE - Single which reached No.11 in the UK. A excellent song about love, great to listen to if you have just broken up with someone - 10/10
3. WHERE IS THE FEELING - BIR Dolphin Remix of song reached No.16 in the UK. A great song which is alot better than its original - 10/10
4. SOME KIND OF BLISS - Kylie's lowest charting single in the UK reached No.22. A good song that is slightly repetitive at the end, but this does not affect the song on the whole... - 10/10
5. DID IT AGAIN - My favourite Kylie single ever reached No.15 in Australia and No.14 in the UK. A more snarling Kylie that we have not seen before! - 10/10
6. BREATHE - A great Kylie single which reached No.23 in Australia and No.14 in the UK. This is the faster version - not the album version from Impossible Princess - 10/10
7. WHERE THE WILD ROSES GROW - Duet with Nick Nave reached No.2 in Australia and No.11 in the UK. A great song and quite haunting at times! - 10/10
8. IF YOU DON'T LOVE ME - I would give this song full marks if only it was a bit longer... Gosh! It's only 2 minutes and 10 seconds long! - 9/10
9. TEARS - Possible my favourite non-Kylie single or B-Side. This song is a really great one! - 10/10
10. GOTTA MOVE ON - Another good song where Kylie explains how someone has to move on and they don't belong there anymore. Previously unreleased - 10/10
11. DIFFICULT BY DESIGN - This song is strange. At first I hated i0t and was not impressed but it took me quite awhile to like it! I love it now! Previously unreleased - 10/10
12. STAY THIS WAY - The worst song from the album, however, it is still good. Previously unreleased - 9/10
13. THIS GIRL - This song only lasts for just over 3 minutes but it is so brilliant - the lyrics and the music. Exclusive UK Track - 10/10
14. AUTOMATIC LOVE - The acoustic version of this song is the best version available. Much better than the album version from Kylie Minogue '94! Previously unreleasaed - 10/10
15. WHERE HAS THE LOVE GONE - The Roach Motel Mix of this song is excellent! I think that it is better than the album version - I prefer this 9-and-a-half minute remix! Previously unreleased - 10/10
16. TAKE ME WITH YOU - A rare song that Kylie performed on her Intimate And Live Tour in Sydney in 1998 - 10/10
Overall Score - 158/160 = A = 98% = 5 stars
'deconstruction hits' collection
2004-04-17 - This rare Kylie Collection of hits,is from her first two deconstruction albums,Kylie Minogue '94 and Impossible Princess,both now available as remastered versions.Kylie has come a long way - buy other albums,Light Years,Fever and Recent album Body Language to see how far kylie has come.This is not the 'old' kylie,where we saw hits like I Should be So Lucky.Locomotion,Got To Be Certain,Hand On Your Heart etc... This was the introduction to a new kylie.At the 1993 Brit awards,kylie announced that she'd signed up wuth the label 'Deconstruction' - a rare dance company and one of the best around.My Version of Hits+,has 16 tracks on it - not 14.
Tracklisting:
1 Confide In Me 5.56/5/5/A Single Release
2 Put Yourself In My Place 4.11/5/5/A Single Release
3 Where Is The Feeling? (BIR Dolphin Mix) 4.13/5/5/Originally,a single release
4 Some Kind Of Bliss 4.14/5/5/A Single Release
5 Did It Again 4.18/5/5/A Single Release
6 Breathe 3.39/5/5/A Single Release
7 Where The Wild Roses Grow 3.56/5/5/A Single Release
8 If You Don't Love Me 2.10/4/5/B-Side
9 Tears 4.30/5/5/B-Side
10 Gotta Move On 3.37/5/5/Unreleased
11 Difficult by Design 3.44/5/5/Unreleased
12 Stay This Way 4.35/4/5/Unreleased
13 This Girl 3.07/5/5/Exclusive UK Track
14 Automatic Love (Acoustic) 4.25/5/5/Unreleased
15 Where Has The Love Gone? (Roach Motel Mix) 9.24/5/5/Unreleased
16 Take Me With You 9.10/5/5/Taken From 'Other Sides',a c-d free when you bought 'Impossible Princess' (original)
A wrap-up of Kylie's transition period
2004-03-25 - For those who have all of Kylie's albums up through Fever, the release of Hits+ may or may not elicit a "Wha...?" reaction. This contains material from her two albums under Deconstruction Records, her eponymous fifth album and the techno/industrial misfire of Impossible Princess, as well as rare tracks not on any album.
At the very least, the best songs from each of those albums are here. From Kylie Minogue, we have "Confide In Me," which introduced the new Kylie, from dolorous violin and strings, and then the programmed industrial drum machines forming a backbeat. As a prelude to the title, she sings, "We all get hurt by love, and we all have a cross to bear, and in the name of understanding now, a problem should be shared."
An airy and dreamy aura is heard in the soulful ballad "Put Yourself In My Place" where the protagonist asks for empathy before being told she's no longer in someone's life. One of the better tracks from that album.
The BIR Dolphin Mix of "Where Is The Feeling" ensconces the original in a mix more at home from Impossible Princess rather than the original's nouvelle disco. Not too happy with this version.
However, there's an acoustic version of "Automatic Love," consisting of piano, guitar, and strings instead of the synths and drum machines of the original. I'm kind of getting attached to this version more. The Roach Motel remix of "Where Has The Love Gone?" consists of loud techno and bouncy bass synth beats which I have no complaints over.
From Impossible Princess, we have "Some Kind Of Bliss," which despite the industrial crunch is helped by a jangly guitar, brass section, and strings that are meshed into a weird wall of sound. "Did It Again" incorporates a sitar along with the industrial techno, while "Breathe" is a worthy shot at ambient utilizing Moby and Massive Attack sounds.
Of the new songs, "If You Don't Love Me" is a great Bacharach-like piano only ballad with Kylie trying to sound like Mariah Carey in her higher octave. Love this one and the moody nightclub piano jazz of "Stay This Way." "Tears" is a rapid BPM techno number that belongs on Impossible Princess, with a guitar-like synth blaring on occasions.
With the early-Madonna sounding, "Gotta Move On," along with Swing Out Sister-like jazziness mixed with bubblegum-type drumming, I say "no kidding." Another hidden treasure! "Difficult By Design" fits squarely in her self-titled album, a sister track to the original strings/bubblegum version of "Where Is The Feeling?" with an SOS-like AM jazzy piano. Finally, "Take Me With You" is another Massive Attack-like song with female tribal chants inbetween verses.
I wonder if a schism was created between two sets of Kylie fans, those who first fell for her during her Stock-Aitken-Waterman era (like me), and those who were introduced to her via her brief sojourn away from disco. Whatever the case, this compilation at least serves to close the brief second chapter of the continuing story of Kylie Minogue, and herald the glimmering chapter 3, beginning with Light Years. As for those new piano ballads, rare gems indeed!
Kylie's age of pretention 
2004-03-23 - Well, Kylie is rubbish really and these sound like a bunch of songs Madonna rejected and have been saved from the cutting room floor....Oh and I bet Ms Minogue never wrote a single one of them, that's the ironic thing about Kylie which seems amusing, she releases a great song which in turn gives her some fleeting credibility (something which she has strived for all throughout her career)and they turn out to be songs written by an 80's pop hasbeen normally. Kylie's always taken the easy option out when it comes to taking risks and in achieving respect from her peers and universal credibility in the music press, but this is an album dedicated to an era in which Ms Minogue took herself far too seriously (like Kylie is known for) but at least she doesn't pretend any longer, put it on if you have to and enjoy the worst part of Kylie's disastrous career.
Hits +/- 
2004-03-23 - Before her reemergence with "Fever," pop star Kylie Minogue had a handful of little-known pop albums. Okay, they weren't successful, despite this album's name -- "Hits Plus." But the best of those largely-forgotten albums are collected in "Hits Plus," bogged down by some previously unreleased material that should have stayed that way.
Minogue runs the gamut with plaintive, ethereal ballads (the tearful "If You Don't Love Me"), serene, stately songs (the classical-pop "Confide in Me," the Indian-trip-hop "Take Me With You") and bouncy, catchy dancepop (glittery "Where is the Feeling?", catchy "Tears," and slyly critical "Did It Again"). Having taken the best from those albums, the result is pretty solid.
But padding "Hits Plus" is a variety of previously unreleased tracks. And most of them are more like "Hits Minus." They're primarily dancepop, heavy on the beats and light on much else (the instantly forgettable "Where Has The Love Gone?", perky "Gotta Move On" and "Difficult By Design"). But it also includes pleasant jazz ballad "Stay This Way" and a sweet acoustic version of "Automatic Love" -- neither is really exceptional, but they're nice enough.
Kylie's music tends to be electronic-based dance pop, very clubby stuff. That mold gets broken in "Hits Plus." Like Sarah Brightman, in this album Minogue seems to dip her finger into various kinds of music without sticking heavily to any of them -- Indian-style singing, orchestral influences, and a hint of jazz.
There's also a lot more than electronic beats here. "If You Don't Love Me" and "Stay This Way" depend heavily on the piano, and "Confide in Me" rests on shimmering violin and harp accompaniment. Minogue's voice, never the best, wobbles on some songs like "Automatic Love" but usually holds steady, occasionally better than expected.
"Hits Plus" is certainly not the best album by Kylie Minogue, but it does contain some of her most versatile work. The unreleased tracks aren't really worth it, but the previously-released gems like "Confide in Me" are delightful.
