The album featured contributions from Sia Furler.

(meta data) TITLE: Kylie Minogue Discusses Pharrell, Sia And New Album 'Kiss Me Once': Idolator Interview

# Kylie Minogue Discusses Pharrell, Sia And New Album 'Kiss Me Once': Idolator Interview

Over the decades, the musical force that is Kylie Minogue has offered us one variation or another of her on-stage image while still maintaining enough of a "girl next door" likeability that we truly wish she would just move in down the block already.

Listening to her upcoming 12th album Kiss Me Once (out March 18), however, conjures up a new persona for the Australian pop queen: Comforting Kylie.

Making the album wasn't an easy road for the singer, by her own admission.

And once countless tracks were done after a year of working with a multitude of collaborators, there came the arduous task of whittling them all down to one cohesive, Kylie-worthy set.

Knowledge of that melts away, though, when listening to the record, as what ultimately shines through on Kiss Me Once is the radiant positivity, particularly with the optimistic lyrics that fill songs like lead single "Into The Blue," the uplifting Ariel Rechtshaid composition "If Only" and the album's title track, on which Minogue worked with the LP's executive producer Sia Furler.

Kylie spent time cluing us in to what the process of piecing together her first studio album in four years was like, from switching her management over to Roc Nation to working with talents ranging from hit maker Pharrell Williams to French actor Clément Sibony.

Head below for the full Idolator interview with Kylie Minogue.

I've given Kiss Me Once about five full listens ahead of our little chat.

The song that's jumping out immediately is the title track.

Yeah, I think it's got a lot to offer, that track.

It's probably the most old school Kylie, I would say.

Sia co-wrote "Kiss Me Once" and co-executive-produced the whole album along with you.

How did this collaboration with her come about?

We worked together a couple of times — with her as a writer and me looking at some tracks she had already written, and also doing some writing together.

Around about what turned out to be the halfway mark of making this album — I didn't know how long it would take, so I didn't realize that at the time — I asked her if she would executive-produce.

I didn't know if it was something she had done or was interested in, or if maybe she just preferred writing and doing her own music.

Anyway, she said yes immediately and I was thrilled, because I really admire her.

How was it different with Sia in this role as opposed to Stuart Price, who executive-produced your last album, Aphrodite?

Well, Stuart has more to do with the production side.

Sia is involved with the production, but a lot of that is left to the producers.

I totally adore him and I think he did a fantastic job with Aphrodite.

But, yeah, it just seemed a little different [this time].

So, I gave Sia everything I had recorded up until that [halfway] point, which was already a lot, and it was good to have someone help me make sense of what I had.

Crazily enough, it was around that time, or shortly after, when she said, "There's no sex!

Next thing, there's three songs — sex, sex, sex — on my album, the most noticeable one being hers, which is "Sexercize."

Kylie Minogue — Kiss Me Once album sampler

When all those "sex" titles were revealed, I thought, Well, now we know what kind of mood Kylie has been in.

But I'd say they're more like "pop" hot, if that makes any sense.

Even "Sexercize" — obviously it's a memorable title.

But I have to confess, the first time Sia told me about it, I thought, "Sexercize"?

But it's Sia's genius that she can make it cool and make it a great song.

But it's definitely got everyone talking.

At this particular moment, "Les Sex" is a personal favorite.

That was with MNDR, who I fawned over because I love "Bang Bang Bang," her song with Mark Ronson.

I also worked with her and Fernando Garibay, but the songs didn't make it, although they were also really good!

I worked with so many people, and I want everyone who was a part of this album — whether they were a part of the final tracklisting or not — I hope they know that even when we took a turn that wasn't the right turn, it was an important one and [they] helped to make this album.

A lot of people were excited to hear you'd recorded with Ariel Rechtshaid.

Sky Ferreira, Haim — that was all fantastic.

How many tracks did you record with him?

We did two, but only one of those is on the album, which is "If Only."

I love it because it's got that feel he brings to the track that kind of makes me feel like a school disco — just feeling like you're desperately in love with someone and you're probably alone.

Would you be open to talking about particular collaborations that didn't make the cut of the album?

Some people who were more just starting out.

You just never know where you're going to get a song from, and then it's a case of putting them all together.

I can't tell you how many versions of this album have been put into a list.

I mean, I've made more lists in the last year than I care to think of.

And, really down to the very end, there were so many contenders.

I felt like no matter which way the song list went, there was going to be some disappointment [over what was cut] on my side and on the side of other writers and producers.

But once I realized, okay, there is no happy ending for everyone, in the back of mind was that there are always other releases.

The songs will find the right home when it's the right time.

Getting it just right sounds like a particularly grueling process, particularly with Kiss Me Once.

You just think, Come on — they're all great.

There are some people I trust who'd make their own list, and some of them were completely different.

That song from 11 months ago that we'd all almost forgotten about has suddenly come back into the running.

It's a strange little process…or big process.

But right up until the wire we were making last minute decisions.

We probably had eight tracks that everyone was absolutely certain about, and the others it was just, what would work best for the album?

I'm a little bit shocked that it's done, like an out of body experience.

My mindset has been working on it for such a long time.

It's really, really exciting that now I get to share what I've been working on.

Tags: Kylie Minogue, Pharrell, Sia, Spotlight

Life and career.:2013–2016: "Kiss Me Once" and "Kylie Christmas".

In September, she was featured on Italian singer-songwriter Laura Pausini's single "Limpido", which was a number-one hit in Italy and received a nomination for "World's Best Song" at the 2013 World Music Awards. In the same month, Minogue was hired as a coach for the third series of BBC One's talent competition "The Voice UK", alongside record producer and Black Eyed Peas member, will.i.am, Kaiser Chiefs' lead singer Ricky Wilson and singer Sir Tom Jones. The show opened with 9.35 million views from the UK, a large percentage increase from the second season. It accumulated an estimated 8.10 million viewers on average. Minogue's judging and personality on the show were singled out for praise. Ed Power from "The Daily Telegraph" gave the series premiere 3 stars, praising Minogue for being "glamorous, agreeably giggly [and] a card-carrying national treasure". In November, she was hired as a coach for the third season of "The Voice Australia".
 In March 2014, Minogue released her twelfth studio album, "Kiss Me Once".


The album featured contributions from Mike Del Rio.

(meta data) TITLE: Kylie Minogue Discusses Pharrell, Sia And New Album 'Kiss Me Once': Idolator Interview

# Kylie Minogue Discusses Pharrell, Sia And New Album 'Kiss Me Once': Idolator Interview

Over the decades, the musical force that is Kylie Minogue has offered us one variation or another of her on-stage image while still maintaining enough of a "girl next door" likeability that we truly wish she would just move in down the block already.

Listening to her upcoming 12th album Kiss Me Once (out March 18), however, conjures up a new persona for the Australian pop queen: Comforting Kylie.

Making the album wasn't an easy road for the singer, by her own admission.

And once countless tracks were done after a year of working with a multitude of collaborators, there came the arduous task of whittling them all down to one cohesive, Kylie-worthy set.

Knowledge of that melts away, though, when listening to the record, as what ultimately shines through on Kiss Me Once is the radiant positivity, particularly with the optimistic lyrics that fill songs like lead single "Into The Blue," the uplifting Ariel Rechtshaid composition "If Only" and the album's title track, on which Minogue worked with the LP's executive producer Sia Furler.

Kylie spent time cluing us in to what the process of piecing together her first studio album in four years was like, from switching her management over to Roc Nation to working with talents ranging from hit maker Pharrell Williams to French actor Clément Sibony.

Head below for the full Idolator interview with Kylie Minogue.

I've given Kiss Me Once about five full listens ahead of our little chat.

The song that's jumping out immediately is the title track.

Yeah, I think it's got a lot to offer, that track.

It's probably the most old school Kylie, I would say.

Sia co-wrote "Kiss Me Once" and co-executive-produced the whole album along with you.

How did this collaboration with her come about?

We worked together a couple of times — with her as a writer and me looking at some tracks she had already written, and also doing some writing together.

Around about what turned out to be the halfway mark of making this album — I didn't know how long it would take, so I didn't realize that at the time — I asked her if she would executive-produce.

I didn't know if it was something she had done or was interested in, or if maybe she just preferred writing and doing her own music.

Anyway, she said yes immediately and I was thrilled, because I really admire her.

How was it different with Sia in this role as opposed to Stuart Price, who executive-produced your last album, Aphrodite?

Well, Stuart has more to do with the production side.

Sia is involved with the production, but a lot of that is left to the producers.

I totally adore him and I think he did a fantastic job with Aphrodite.

But, yeah, it just seemed a little different [this time].

So, I gave Sia everything I had recorded up until that [halfway] point, which was already a lot, and it was good to have someone help me make sense of what I had.

Crazily enough, it was around that time, or shortly after, when she said, "There's no sex!

Next thing, there's three songs — sex, sex, sex — on my album, the most noticeable one being hers, which is "Sexercize."

Kylie Minogue — Kiss Me Once album sampler

When all those "sex" titles were revealed, I thought, Well, now we know what kind of mood Kylie has been in.

But I'd say they're more like "pop" hot, if that makes any sense.

Even "Sexercize" — obviously it's a memorable title.

But I have to confess, the first time Sia told me about it, I thought, "Sexercize"?

But it's Sia's genius that she can make it cool and make it a great song.

But it's definitely got everyone talking.

At this particular moment, "Les Sex" is a personal favorite.

That was with MNDR, who I fawned over because I love "Bang Bang Bang," her song with Mark Ronson.

I also worked with her and Fernando Garibay, but the songs didn't make it, although they were also really good!

I worked with so many people, and I want everyone who was a part of this album — whether they were a part of the final tracklisting or not — I hope they know that even when we took a turn that wasn't the right turn, it was an important one and [they] helped to make this album.

A lot of people were excited to hear you'd recorded with Ariel Rechtshaid.

Sky Ferreira, Haim — that was all fantastic.

How many tracks did you record with him?

We did two, but only one of those is on the album, which is "If Only."

I love it because it's got that feel he brings to the track that kind of makes me feel like a school disco — just feeling like you're desperately in love with someone and you're probably alone.

Would you be open to talking about particular collaborations that didn't make the cut of the album?

Some people who were more just starting out.

You just never know where you're going to get a song from, and then it's a case of putting them all together.

I can't tell you how many versions of this album have been put into a list.

I mean, I've made more lists in the last year than I care to think of.

And, really down to the very end, there were so many contenders.

I felt like no matter which way the song list went, there was going to be some disappointment [over what was cut] on my side and on the side of other writers and producers.

But once I realized, okay, there is no happy ending for everyone, in the back of mind was that there are always other releases.

The songs will find the right home when it's the right time.

Getting it just right sounds like a particularly grueling process, particularly with Kiss Me Once.

You just think, Come on — they're all great.

There are some people I trust who'd make their own list, and some of them were completely different.

That song from 11 months ago that we'd all almost forgotten about has suddenly come back into the running.

It's a strange little process…or big process.

But right up until the wire we were making last minute decisions.

We probably had eight tracks that everyone was absolutely certain about, and the others it was just, what would work best for the album?

I'm a little bit shocked that it's done, like an out of body experience.

My mindset has been working on it for such a long time.

It's really, really exciting that now I get to share what I've been working on.

Tags: Kylie Minogue, Pharrell, Sia, Spotlight

In September, she was featured on Italian singer-songwriter Laura Pausini's single "Limpido", which was a number-one hit in Italy and received a nomination for "World's Best Song" at the 2013 World Music Awards. In the same month, Minogue was hired as a coach for the third series of BBC One's talent competition "The Voice UK", alongside record producer and Black Eyed Peas member, will.i.am, Kaiser Chiefs' lead singer Ricky Wilson and singer Sir Tom Jones. The show opened with 9.35 million views from the UK, a large percentage increase from the second season. It accumulated an estimated 8.10 million viewers on average. Minogue's judging and personality on the show were singled out for praise. Ed Power from "The Daily Telegraph" gave the series premiere 3 stars, praising Minogue for being "glamorous, agreeably giggly [and] a card-carrying national treasure". In November, she was hired as a coach for the third season of "The Voice Australia".
 In March 2014, Minogue released her twelfth studio album, "Kiss Me Once". The album featured contributions from Sia Furler.


The album featured contributions from Cutfather.

(meta data) TITLE: Kylie Minogue Discusses Pharrell, Sia And New Album 'Kiss Me Once': Idolator Interview

# Kylie Minogue Discusses Pharrell, Sia And New Album 'Kiss Me Once': Idolator Interview

Over the decades, the musical force that is Kylie Minogue has offered us one variation or another of her on-stage image while still maintaining enough of a "girl next door" likeability that we truly wish she would just move in down the block already.

Listening to her upcoming 12th album Kiss Me Once (out March 18), however, conjures up a new persona for the Australian pop queen: Comforting Kylie.

Making the album wasn't an easy road for the singer, by her own admission.

And once countless tracks were done after a year of working with a multitude of collaborators, there came the arduous task of whittling them all down to one cohesive, Kylie-worthy set.

Knowledge of that melts away, though, when listening to the record, as what ultimately shines through on Kiss Me Once is the radiant positivity, particularly with the optimistic lyrics that fill songs like lead single "Into The Blue," the uplifting Ariel Rechtshaid composition "If Only" and the album's title track, on which Minogue worked with the LP's executive producer Sia Furler.

Kylie spent time cluing us in to what the process of piecing together her first studio album in four years was like, from switching her management over to Roc Nation to working with talents ranging from hit maker Pharrell Williams to French actor Clément Sibony.

Head below for the full Idolator interview with Kylie Minogue.

I've given Kiss Me Once about five full listens ahead of our little chat.

The song that's jumping out immediately is the title track.

Yeah, I think it's got a lot to offer, that track.

It's probably the most old school Kylie, I would say.

Sia co-wrote "Kiss Me Once" and co-executive-produced the whole album along with you.

How did this collaboration with her come about?

We worked together a couple of times — with her as a writer and me looking at some tracks she had already written, and also doing some writing together.

Around about what turned out to be the halfway mark of making this album — I didn't know how long it would take, so I didn't realize that at the time — I asked her if she would executive-produce.

I didn't know if it was something she had done or was interested in, or if maybe she just preferred writing and doing her own music.

Anyway, she said yes immediately and I was thrilled, because I really admire her.

How was it different with Sia in this role as opposed to Stuart Price, who executive-produced your last album, Aphrodite?

Well, Stuart has more to do with the production side.

Sia is involved with the production, but a lot of that is left to the producers.

I totally adore him and I think he did a fantastic job with Aphrodite.

But, yeah, it just seemed a little different [this time].

So, I gave Sia everything I had recorded up until that [halfway] point, which was already a lot, and it was good to have someone help me make sense of what I had.

Crazily enough, it was around that time, or shortly after, when she said, "There's no sex!

Next thing, there's three songs — sex, sex, sex — on my album, the most noticeable one being hers, which is "Sexercize."

Kylie Minogue — Kiss Me Once album sampler

When all those "sex" titles were revealed, I thought, Well, now we know what kind of mood Kylie has been in.

But I'd say they're more like "pop" hot, if that makes any sense.

Even "Sexercize" — obviously it's a memorable title.

But I have to confess, the first time Sia told me about it, I thought, "Sexercize"?

But it's Sia's genius that she can make it cool and make it a great song.

But it's definitely got everyone talking.

At this particular moment, "Les Sex" is a personal favorite.

That was with MNDR, who I fawned over because I love "Bang Bang Bang," her song with Mark Ronson.

I also worked with her and Fernando Garibay, but the songs didn't make it, although they were also really good!

I worked with so many people, and I want everyone who was a part of this album — whether they were a part of the final tracklisting or not — I hope they know that even when we took a turn that wasn't the right turn, it was an important one and [they] helped to make this album.

A lot of people were excited to hear you'd recorded with Ariel Rechtshaid.

Sky Ferreira, Haim — that was all fantastic.

How many tracks did you record with him?

We did two, but only one of those is on the album, which is "If Only."

I love it because it's got that feel he brings to the track that kind of makes me feel like a school disco — just feeling like you're desperately in love with someone and you're probably alone.

Would you be open to talking about particular collaborations that didn't make the cut of the album?

Some people who were more just starting out.

You just never know where you're going to get a song from, and then it's a case of putting them all together.

I can't tell you how many versions of this album have been put into a list.

I mean, I've made more lists in the last year than I care to think of.

And, really down to the very end, there were so many contenders.

I felt like no matter which way the song list went, there was going to be some disappointment [over what was cut] on my side and on the side of other writers and producers.

But once I realized, okay, there is no happy ending for everyone, in the back of mind was that there are always other releases.

The songs will find the right home when it's the right time.

Getting it just right sounds like a particularly grueling process, particularly with Kiss Me Once.

You just think, Come on — they're all great.

There are some people I trust who'd make their own list, and some of them were completely different.

That song from 11 months ago that we'd all almost forgotten about has suddenly come back into the running.

It's a strange little process…or big process.

But right up until the wire we were making last minute decisions.

We probably had eight tracks that everyone was absolutely certain about, and the others it was just, what would work best for the album?

I'm a little bit shocked that it's done, like an out of body experience.

My mindset has been working on it for such a long time.

It's really, really exciting that now I get to share what I've been working on.

Tags: Kylie Minogue, Pharrell, Sia, Spotlight

In September, she was featured on Italian singer-songwriter Laura Pausini's single "Limpido", which was a number-one hit in Italy and received a nomination for "World's Best Song" at the 2013 World Music Awards. In the same month, Minogue was hired as a coach for the third series of BBC One's talent competition "The Voice UK", alongside record producer and Black Eyed Peas member, will.i.am, Kaiser Chiefs' lead singer Ricky Wilson and singer Sir Tom Jones. The show opened with 9.35 million views from the UK, a large percentage increase from the second season. It accumulated an estimated 8.10 million viewers on average. Minogue's judging and personality on the show were singled out for praise. Ed Power from "The Daily Telegraph" gave the series premiere 3 stars, praising Minogue for being "glamorous, agreeably giggly [and] a card-carrying national treasure". In November, she was hired as a coach for the third season of "The Voice Australia".
 In March 2014, Minogue released her twelfth studio album, "Kiss Me Once". The album featured contributions from Sia Furler. The album featured contributions from Mike Del Rio.


The album featured contributions from Pharrell Williams.

(meta data) TITLE: Kylie Minogue Discusses Pharrell, Sia And New Album 'Kiss Me Once': Idolator Interview

# Kylie Minogue Discusses Pharrell, Sia And New Album 'Kiss Me Once': Idolator Interview

Over the decades, the musical force that is Kylie Minogue has offered us one variation or another of her on-stage image while still maintaining enough of a "girl next door" likeability that we truly wish she would just move in down the block already.

Listening to her upcoming 12th album Kiss Me Once (out March 18), however, conjures up a new persona for the Australian pop queen: Comforting Kylie.

Making the album wasn't an easy road for the singer, by her own admission.

And once countless tracks were done after a year of working with a multitude of collaborators, there came the arduous task of whittling them all down to one cohesive, Kylie-worthy set.

Knowledge of that melts away, though, when listening to the record, as what ultimately shines through on Kiss Me Once is the radiant positivity, particularly with the optimistic lyrics that fill songs like lead single "Into The Blue," the uplifting Ariel Rechtshaid composition "If Only" and the album's title track, on which Minogue worked with the LP's executive producer Sia Furler.

Kylie spent time cluing us in to what the process of piecing together her first studio album in four years was like, from switching her management over to Roc Nation to working with talents ranging from hit maker Pharrell Williams to French actor Clément Sibony.

Head below for the full Idolator interview with Kylie Minogue.

I've given Kiss Me Once about five full listens ahead of our little chat.

The song that's jumping out immediately is the title track.

Yeah, I think it's got a lot to offer, that track.

It's probably the most old school Kylie, I would say.

Sia co-wrote "Kiss Me Once" and co-executive-produced the whole album along with you.

How did this collaboration with her come about?

We worked together a couple of times — with her as a writer and me looking at some tracks she had already written, and also doing some writing together.

Around about what turned out to be the halfway mark of making this album — I didn't know how long it would take, so I didn't realize that at the time — I asked her if she would executive-produce.

I didn't know if it was something she had done or was interested in, or if maybe she just preferred writing and doing her own music.

Anyway, she said yes immediately and I was thrilled, because I really admire her.

How was it different with Sia in this role as opposed to Stuart Price, who executive-produced your last album, Aphrodite?

Well, Stuart has more to do with the production side.

Sia is involved with the production, but a lot of that is left to the producers.

I totally adore him and I think he did a fantastic job with Aphrodite.

But, yeah, it just seemed a little different [this time].

So, I gave Sia everything I had recorded up until that [halfway] point, which was already a lot, and it was good to have someone help me make sense of what I had.

Crazily enough, it was around that time, or shortly after, when she said, "There's no sex!

Next thing, there's three songs — sex, sex, sex — on my album, the most noticeable one being hers, which is "Sexercize."

Kylie Minogue — Kiss Me Once album sampler

When all those "sex" titles were revealed, I thought, Well, now we know what kind of mood Kylie has been in.

But I'd say they're more like "pop" hot, if that makes any sense.

Even "Sexercize" — obviously it's a memorable title.

But I have to confess, the first time Sia told me about it, I thought, "Sexercize"?

But it's Sia's genius that she can make it cool and make it a great song.

But it's definitely got everyone talking.

At this particular moment, "Les Sex" is a personal favorite.

That was with MNDR, who I fawned over because I love "Bang Bang Bang," her song with Mark Ronson.

I also worked with her and Fernando Garibay, but the songs didn't make it, although they were also really good!

I worked with so many people, and I want everyone who was a part of this album — whether they were a part of the final tracklisting or not — I hope they know that even when we took a turn that wasn't the right turn, it was an important one and [they] helped to make this album.

A lot of people were excited to hear you'd recorded with Ariel Rechtshaid.

Sky Ferreira, Haim — that was all fantastic.

How many tracks did you record with him?

We did two, but only one of those is on the album, which is "If Only."

I love it because it's got that feel he brings to the track that kind of makes me feel like a school disco — just feeling like you're desperately in love with someone and you're probably alone.

Would you be open to talking about particular collaborations that didn't make the cut of the album?

Some people who were more just starting out.

You just never know where you're going to get a song from, and then it's a case of putting them all together.

I can't tell you how many versions of this album have been put into a list.

I mean, I've made more lists in the last year than I care to think of.

And, really down to the very end, there were so many contenders.

I felt like no matter which way the song list went, there was going to be some disappointment [over what was cut] on my side and on the side of other writers and producers.

But once I realized, okay, there is no happy ending for everyone, in the back of mind was that there are always other releases.

The songs will find the right home when it's the right time.

Getting it just right sounds like a particularly grueling process, particularly with Kiss Me Once.

You just think, Come on — they're all great.

There are some people I trust who'd make their own list, and some of them were completely different.

That song from 11 months ago that we'd all almost forgotten about has suddenly come back into the running.

It's a strange little process…or big process.

But right up until the wire we were making last minute decisions.

We probably had eight tracks that everyone was absolutely certain about, and the others it was just, what would work best for the album?

I'm a little bit shocked that it's done, like an out of body experience.

My mindset has been working on it for such a long time.

It's really, really exciting that now I get to share what I've been working on.

Tags: Kylie Minogue, Pharrell, Sia, Spotlight

In September, she was featured on Italian singer-songwriter Laura Pausini's single "Limpido", which was a number-one hit in Italy and received a nomination for "World's Best Song" at the 2013 World Music Awards. In the same month, Minogue was hired as a coach for the third series of BBC One's talent competition "The Voice UK", alongside record producer and Black Eyed Peas member, will.i.am, Kaiser Chiefs' lead singer Ricky Wilson and singer Sir Tom Jones. The show opened with 9.35 million views from the UK, a large percentage increase from the second season. It accumulated an estimated 8.10 million viewers on average. Minogue's judging and personality on the show were singled out for praise. Ed Power from "The Daily Telegraph" gave the series premiere 3 stars, praising Minogue for being "glamorous, agreeably giggly [and] a card-carrying national treasure". In November, she was hired as a coach for the third season of "The Voice Australia".
 In March 2014, Minogue released her twelfth studio album, "Kiss Me Once". The album featured contributions from Sia Furler. The album featured contributions from Mike Del Rio. The album featured contributions from Cutfather.


The album featured contributions from MNEK.

(meta data) TITLE: Kylie Minogue Discusses Pharrell, Sia And New Album 'Kiss Me Once': Idolator Interview

# Kylie Minogue Discusses Pharrell, Sia And New Album 'Kiss Me Once': Idolator Interview

Over the decades, the musical force that is Kylie Minogue has offered us one variation or another of her on-stage image while still maintaining enough of a "girl next door" likeability that we truly wish she would just move in down the block already.

Listening to her upcoming 12th album Kiss Me Once (out March 18), however, conjures up a new persona for the Australian pop queen: Comforting Kylie.

Making the album wasn't an easy road for the singer, by her own admission.

And once countless tracks were done after a year of working with a multitude of collaborators, there came the arduous task of whittling them all down to one cohesive, Kylie-worthy set.

Knowledge of that melts away, though, when listening to the record, as what ultimately shines through on Kiss Me Once is the radiant positivity, particularly with the optimistic lyrics that fill songs like lead single "Into The Blue," the uplifting Ariel Rechtshaid composition "If Only" and the album's title track, on which Minogue worked with the LP's executive producer Sia Furler.

Kylie spent time cluing us in to what the process of piecing together her first studio album in four years was like, from switching her management over to Roc Nation to working with talents ranging from hit maker Pharrell Williams to French actor Clément Sibony.

Head below for the full Idolator interview with Kylie Minogue.

I've given Kiss Me Once about five full listens ahead of our little chat.

The song that's jumping out immediately is the title track.

Yeah, I think it's got a lot to offer, that track.

It's probably the most old school Kylie, I would say.

Sia co-wrote "Kiss Me Once" and co-executive-produced the whole album along with you.

How did this collaboration with her come about?

We worked together a couple of times — with her as a writer and me looking at some tracks she had already written, and also doing some writing together.

Around about what turned out to be the halfway mark of making this album — I didn't know how long it would take, so I didn't realize that at the time — I asked her if she would executive-produce.

I didn't know if it was something she had done or was interested in, or if maybe she just preferred writing and doing her own music.

Anyway, she said yes immediately and I was thrilled, because I really admire her.

How was it different with Sia in this role as opposed to Stuart Price, who executive-produced your last album, Aphrodite?

Well, Stuart has more to do with the production side.

Sia is involved with the production, but a lot of that is left to the producers.

I totally adore him and I think he did a fantastic job with Aphrodite.

But, yeah, it just seemed a little different [this time].

So, I gave Sia everything I had recorded up until that [halfway] point, which was already a lot, and it was good to have someone help me make sense of what I had.

Crazily enough, it was around that time, or shortly after, when she said, "There's no sex!

Next thing, there's three songs — sex, sex, sex — on my album, the most noticeable one being hers, which is "Sexercize."

Kylie Minogue — Kiss Me Once album sampler

When all those "sex" titles were revealed, I thought, Well, now we know what kind of mood Kylie has been in.

But I'd say they're more like "pop" hot, if that makes any sense.

Even "Sexercize" — obviously it's a memorable title.

But I have to confess, the first time Sia told me about it, I thought, "Sexercize"?

But it's Sia's genius that she can make it cool and make it a great song.

But it's definitely got everyone talking.

At this particular moment, "Les Sex" is a personal favorite.

That was with MNDR, who I fawned over because I love "Bang Bang Bang," her song with Mark Ronson.

I also worked with her and Fernando Garibay, but the songs didn't make it, although they were also really good!

I worked with so many people, and I want everyone who was a part of this album — whether they were a part of the final tracklisting or not — I hope they know that even when we took a turn that wasn't the right turn, it was an important one and [they] helped to make this album.

A lot of people were excited to hear you'd recorded with Ariel Rechtshaid.

Sky Ferreira, Haim — that was all fantastic.

How many tracks did you record with him?

We did two, but only one of those is on the album, which is "If Only."

I love it because it's got that feel he brings to the track that kind of makes me feel like a school disco — just feeling like you're desperately in love with someone and you're probably alone.

Would you be open to talking about particular collaborations that didn't make the cut of the album?

Some people who were more just starting out.

You just never know where you're going to get a song from, and then it's a case of putting them all together.

I can't tell you how many versions of this album have been put into a list.

I mean, I've made more lists in the last year than I care to think of.

And, really down to the very end, there were so many contenders.

I felt like no matter which way the song list went, there was going to be some disappointment [over what was cut] on my side and on the side of other writers and producers.

But once I realized, okay, there is no happy ending for everyone, in the back of mind was that there are always other releases.

The songs will find the right home when it's the right time.

Getting it just right sounds like a particularly grueling process, particularly with Kiss Me Once.

You just think, Come on — they're all great.

There are some people I trust who'd make their own list, and some of them were completely different.

That song from 11 months ago that we'd all almost forgotten about has suddenly come back into the running.

It's a strange little process…or big process.

But right up until the wire we were making last minute decisions.

We probably had eight tracks that everyone was absolutely certain about, and the others it was just, what would work best for the album?

I'm a little bit shocked that it's done, like an out of body experience.

My mindset has been working on it for such a long time.

It's really, really exciting that now I get to share what I've been working on.

Tags: Kylie Minogue, Pharrell, Sia, Spotlight

In September, she was featured on Italian singer-songwriter Laura Pausini's single "Limpido", which was a number-one hit in Italy and received a nomination for "World's Best Song" at the 2013 World Music Awards. In the same month, Minogue was hired as a coach for the third series of BBC One's talent competition "The Voice UK", alongside record producer and Black Eyed Peas member, will.i.am, Kaiser Chiefs' lead singer Ricky Wilson and singer Sir Tom Jones. The show opened with 9.35 million views from the UK, a large percentage increase from the second season. It accumulated an estimated 8.10 million viewers on average. Minogue's judging and personality on the show were singled out for praise. Ed Power from "The Daily Telegraph" gave the series premiere 3 stars, praising Minogue for being "glamorous, agreeably giggly [and] a card-carrying national treasure". In November, she was hired as a coach for the third season of "The Voice Australia".
 In March 2014, Minogue released her twelfth studio album, "Kiss Me Once". The album featured contributions from Sia Furler. The album featured contributions from Mike Del Rio. The album featured contributions from Cutfather. The album featured contributions from Pharrell Williams.


The album featured contributions from Ariel Rechtshaid.

(meta data) TITLE: Kylie Minogue Discusses Pharrell, Sia And New Album 'Kiss Me Once': Idolator Interview

# Kylie Minogue Discusses Pharrell, Sia And New Album 'Kiss Me Once': Idolator Interview

Over the decades, the musical force that is Kylie Minogue has offered us one variation or another of her on-stage image while still maintaining enough of a "girl next door" likeability that we truly wish she would just move in down the block already.

Listening to her upcoming 12th album Kiss Me Once (out March 18), however, conjures up a new persona for the Australian pop queen: Comforting Kylie.

Making the album wasn't an easy road for the singer, by her own admission.

And once countless tracks were done after a year of working with a multitude of collaborators, there came the arduous task of whittling them all down to one cohesive, Kylie-worthy set.

Knowledge of that melts away, though, when listening to the record, as what ultimately shines through on Kiss Me Once is the radiant positivity, particularly with the optimistic lyrics that fill songs like lead single "Into The Blue," the uplifting Ariel Rechtshaid composition "If Only" and the album's title track, on which Minogue worked with the LP's executive producer Sia Furler.

Kylie spent time cluing us in to what the process of piecing together her first studio album in four years was like, from switching her management over to Roc Nation to working with talents ranging from hit maker Pharrell Williams to French actor Clément Sibony.

Head below for the full Idolator interview with Kylie Minogue.

I've given Kiss Me Once about five full listens ahead of our little chat.

The song that's jumping out immediately is the title track.

Yeah, I think it's got a lot to offer, that track.

It's probably the most old school Kylie, I would say.

Sia co-wrote "Kiss Me Once" and co-executive-produced the whole album along with you.

How did this collaboration with her come about?

We worked together a couple of times — with her as a writer and me looking at some tracks she had already written, and also doing some writing together.

Around about what turned out to be the halfway mark of making this album — I didn't know how long it would take, so I didn't realize that at the time — I asked her if she would executive-produce.

I didn't know if it was something she had done or was interested in, or if maybe she just preferred writing and doing her own music.

Anyway, she said yes immediately and I was thrilled, because I really admire her.

How was it different with Sia in this role as opposed to Stuart Price, who executive-produced your last album, Aphrodite?

Well, Stuart has more to do with the production side.

Sia is involved with the production, but a lot of that is left to the producers.

I totally adore him and I think he did a fantastic job with Aphrodite.

But, yeah, it just seemed a little different [this time].

So, I gave Sia everything I had recorded up until that [halfway] point, which was already a lot, and it was good to have someone help me make sense of what I had.

Crazily enough, it was around that time, or shortly after, when she said, "There's no sex!

Next thing, there's three songs — sex, sex, sex — on my album, the most noticeable one being hers, which is "Sexercize."

Kylie Minogue — Kiss Me Once album sampler

When all those "sex" titles were revealed, I thought, Well, now we know what kind of mood Kylie has been in.

But I'd say they're more like "pop" hot, if that makes any sense.

Even "Sexercize" — obviously it's a memorable title.

But I have to confess, the first time Sia told me about it, I thought, "Sexercize"?

But it's Sia's genius that she can make it cool and make it a great song.

But it's definitely got everyone talking.

At this particular moment, "Les Sex" is a personal favorite.

That was with MNDR, who I fawned over because I love "Bang Bang Bang," her song with Mark Ronson.

I also worked with her and Fernando Garibay, but the songs didn't make it, although they were also really good!

I worked with so many people, and I want everyone who was a part of this album — whether they were a part of the final tracklisting or not — I hope they know that even when we took a turn that wasn't the right turn, it was an important one and [they] helped to make this album.

A lot of people were excited to hear you'd recorded with Ariel Rechtshaid.

Sky Ferreira, Haim — that was all fantastic.

How many tracks did you record with him?

We did two, but only one of those is on the album, which is "If Only."

I love it because it's got that feel he brings to the track that kind of makes me feel like a school disco — just feeling like you're desperately in love with someone and you're probably alone.

Would you be open to talking about particular collaborations that didn't make the cut of the album?

Some people who were more just starting out.

You just never know where you're going to get a song from, and then it's a case of putting them all together.

I can't tell you how many versions of this album have been put into a list.

I mean, I've made more lists in the last year than I care to think of.

And, really down to the very end, there were so many contenders.

I felt like no matter which way the song list went, there was going to be some disappointment [over what was cut] on my side and on the side of other writers and producers.

But once I realized, okay, there is no happy ending for everyone, in the back of mind was that there are always other releases.

The songs will find the right home when it's the right time.

Getting it just right sounds like a particularly grueling process, particularly with Kiss Me Once.

You just think, Come on — they're all great.

There are some people I trust who'd make their own list, and some of them were completely different.

That song from 11 months ago that we'd all almost forgotten about has suddenly come back into the running.

It's a strange little process…or big process.

But right up until the wire we were making last minute decisions.

We probably had eight tracks that everyone was absolutely certain about, and the others it was just, what would work best for the album?

I'm a little bit shocked that it's done, like an out of body experience.

My mindset has been working on it for such a long time.

It's really, really exciting that now I get to share what I've been working on.

Tags: Kylie Minogue, Pharrell, Sia, Spotlight

In September, she was featured on Italian singer-songwriter Laura Pausini's single "Limpido", which was a number-one hit in Italy and received a nomination for "World's Best Song" at the 2013 World Music Awards. In the same month, Minogue was hired as a coach for the third series of BBC One's talent competition "The Voice UK", alongside record producer and Black Eyed Peas member, will.i.am, Kaiser Chiefs' lead singer Ricky Wilson and singer Sir Tom Jones. The show opened with 9.35 million views from the UK, a large percentage increase from the second season. It accumulated an estimated 8.10 million viewers on average. Minogue's judging and personality on the show were singled out for praise. Ed Power from "The Daily Telegraph" gave the series premiere 3 stars, praising Minogue for being "glamorous, agreeably giggly [and] a card-carrying national treasure". In November, she was hired as a coach for the third season of "The Voice Australia".
 In March 2014, Minogue released her twelfth studio album, "Kiss Me Once". The album featured contributions from Sia Furler. The album featured contributions from Mike Del Rio. The album featured contributions from Cutfather. The album featured contributions from Pharrell Williams. The album featured contributions from MNEK.


In Tripoli, the GNC announced the temporary closure of the borders with Algeria, Niger, Chad and Sudan.

(meta data) TITLE: GNC announces temporary closure of southern borders and declares south a "closed military zone" |

# GNC announces temporary closure of southern borders and declares south a "closed military zone"

The General National Congress (GNC) declared much of the south a closed military zone on Sunday evening and announced that it would temporarily close the borders with Niger, Chad, Sudan and Algeria, state news agency LANA reported.

GNC members passed the exceptional legislation with a majority of 136, designating the areas around Ghadamis, Ghat, Awbari, Al-Shati, Sebha, Murzuq and Kufra as closed zones of military operations.

Members also voted to close Libya's southern borders, but said that they would reopen them at an undesignated time in coordination with their neighbouring states.

This article is only available to subscribers.

Serraj Interior Minister calls for ending of fuel distribution monopoly

Serraj government discussing further funding for NOC to activate Libyan economy

Air Ambulance Cessna returns from Malta after delayed maintenance

launches AMAL mental health service in Libya

Abducted HoR member Sirgiwa still missing, HRW calls for active investigation

Tripoli condemns torture and killing of prisoners

UNSMIL condemns LNA airstrikes on Zuara airport

Richard Norland confirmed as new U.S. ambassador to Libya

UNSMIL welcomes reduced fighting, confirms truce violations, invites truce extension and prisoner exchange

Go-slow at Libyan-Tunisian border crossings blamed on Tunisians

Libya's oil revenues up by LD 1.96 bn to LD 17.4 bn on budget projections

Mitiga airport and Sug Juma shelled by Hafter during Eid truce – Tripoli forces claim

Serraj government denounced another Tripoli water cut, called on southern social leaders to intervene

Five-state joint statement welcomes Libya Eid fighting truce

On 15 December, three Libyan soldiers, including two Captains, were killed in Bani Walid when they were ambushed by gunmen who were then reported to have taken full control of the Darha area. The next day, four policemen were killed in two attacks by Islamist gunmen in Benghazi.


In Tripoli, the GNC declared southern Libya as a "closed military zone".

(meta data) TITLE: GNC announces temporary closure of southern borders and declares south a "closed military zone" |

# GNC announces temporary closure of southern borders and declares south a "closed military zone"

The General National Congress (GNC) declared much of the south a closed military zone on Sunday evening and announced that it would temporarily close the borders with Niger, Chad, Sudan and Algeria, state news agency LANA reported.

GNC members passed the exceptional legislation with a majority of 136, designating the areas around Ghadamis, Ghat, Awbari, Al-Shati, Sebha, Murzuq and Kufra as closed zones of military operations.

Members also voted to close Libya's southern borders, but said that they would reopen them at an undesignated time in coordination with their neighbouring states.

This article is only available to subscribers.

Serraj Interior Minister calls for ending of fuel distribution monopoly

Serraj government discussing further funding for NOC to activate Libyan economy

Air Ambulance Cessna returns from Malta after delayed maintenance

launches AMAL mental health service in Libya

Abducted HoR member Sirgiwa still missing, HRW calls for active investigation

Tripoli condemns torture and killing of prisoners

UNSMIL condemns LNA airstrikes on Zuara airport

Richard Norland confirmed as new U.S. ambassador to Libya

UNSMIL welcomes reduced fighting, confirms truce violations, invites truce extension and prisoner exchange

Go-slow at Libyan-Tunisian border crossings blamed on Tunisians

Libya's oil revenues up by LD 1.96 bn to LD 17.4 bn on budget projections

Mitiga airport and Sug Juma shelled by Hafter during Eid truce – Tripoli forces claim

Serraj government denounced another Tripoli water cut, called on southern social leaders to intervene

Five-state joint statement welcomes Libya Eid fighting truce

On 15 December, three Libyan soldiers, including two Captains, were killed in Bani Walid when they were ambushed by gunmen who were then reported to have taken full control of the Darha area. The next day, four policemen were killed in two attacks by Islamist gunmen in Benghazi. In Tripoli, the GNC announced the temporary closure of the borders with Algeria, Niger, Chad and Sudan.


In November 2006, Hirst was curator of "In the darkest hour there may be light".

(meta data) TITLE: The Oxonian Review » High Art Lite in the Darkest Hour

1 March, 2007 • Issue 6.2 • Europe • The Arts • Visual Arts

Works from Damien Hirst's murderme collection

Although Damien Hirst and his every breath get miles of press in the British tabloid and other newspapers, critical appreciation of the work of Hirst and his generation has been scarce.

This is particularly evident among post-YBA (Young British Artists), and artists in the other notable art worlds.

New York, LA and Berlin—cities whose markets are sufficiently inflated to merit swathes of attention from not only their own but also foreign press—have dismissed British art in general with a slight sniff of disdain.

Eric C. Banks, writing in Artforum in January 2002, put his finger on the problem: 'The notorious difficulty of writing about many of the Young British Artists has always been the Hobson's choice of approaching them with sombre detachment and overshooting the runway or, alternatively, treating them on their own terms and never really going anywhere at all.'

This circularity has extended to next generation artists, British or otherwise, who seem loath to reference or engage in dialogue with their predecessors—not to mention with the surge of cash that has flooded the London art world, for better or for worse, since their coming.

From across the calming waters of the Atlantic Ocean, Thomas Crow, the British art historian now ensconced in the Getty's cracked ivory towers, has made some lone, valiant attempts to tackle this conundrum.

These have mostly taken the form of a Marxian analysis that foregrounds the evidence of social history within the work.

In the case of Hirst alone, he has offered an awed take on his recent Mexican intervention.

In general, however, the non-YBA British art world largely hangs its head in horror at the thought of acknowledging the bastard breed.

In the darkest hour there may be light therefore offered an opportunity to take a deep breath and be drawn in.

It included a number of seminal works from the YBA-era, alongside their 1980s New York predecessors Jeff Koons, Richard Prince and Haim Steinbach, as well as some predictably dismal tat from Banksy and his younger, and by the looks of it slightly lost, generation of British artists.

To quickly address the curating: since Hirst managed to catalyse the coming into being of the Young British Art world in the early 1990s, he has played a significant role in subsidising it, not to mention keeping Koons and a few secondary market dealers happy.

His 'murderme' collection contains some fantastic work but, like most collections it contains some pretty dreadful efforts as well (such as Banksy: a more literal image-maker would be hard to find but, frankly, who would want to look?).

The show was therefore a bit of a mess, not only in terms of quality but also with respect to its display.

Items looked shoved into place with scant attention to size, scale, theme or attribute—but such sloppiness could have been exaggerated and thereby made more convincing, more satisfyingly, by making it less clear how exactly it is that Hirst differentiates between his obsessive collection of curiosities and art.

Why not go for it and really clutter the Serpentine Gallery?

This style of curation is due, in part, to Hirst the phenomenon, as more than one newspaper reviewer pointed out: given his massive pulling power, the Serpentine needs the artist's patronage more than he needs their floor space, and he can therefore curate as he sees fit.

In fact, Hirst's work in general, with its gleeful mass production and mass concatenation (think a thousand flies, a thousand spin paintings, a thousand years) could often do with a good edit.

But perhaps that is somehow the point: he, like Warhol, has the ability and the brazen gumption to churn out as much as he wants—although perhaps he isn't as much of a whore as Andy: he never solicited portraits of the great dictators as the ultimate Pop vixen did of Farah Dibah and the Shah.

Hirst's closest contemporaries, Angus Fairhurst and Sarah Lucas, with whom he collaborated most recently on the 2004 Tate show 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida', both come up trumps at the Serpentine—and another look at their work sheds a clearer light on the terms under which a critical engagement with the YBAs might be negotiated.

Lucas's Percival (2006) is a bronze replica of a tchotchke of a horse-drawn cart carrying a massive cement gherkin.

Blown up to ten times its size, coloured in so that it looks exactly like its ceramic forebear, and plonked on the lawn in front of the gallery, Percy manages to be both hilarious and hardcore.

Such a combination is present in all of Lucas's best work; inside, her Sunday Sport collages, cigarette sculptures, and banged-up car with crude wanking arm mechanism offer a mini-retrospective of the artist.

Pietà (1996), his photographic self-portrait, quotes the famous Michaelangelo painting in the Vatican (inter alia from the art historical canon).

In this version, however, the artist, who takes on the role of Christ, is cradled by an empty gorilla suit, deftly conjuring pathos through a visual joke.

Likewise his life-size sculpture of a bronze gorilla, A Couple of Differences Between Thinking and Feeling II (2003), who looks in front of him seemingly dumbfounded at his left arm, which appears to have dropped off.

Both Fairhurst and Lucas know how to deliver an uneasy punchline; Gavin Turk's soiled sleeping bag minus tramp, installed unceremoniously on the Serpentine's floor, also fits in this category.

It is these artists' adept manipulation of the joke that ought to prompt a critical appreciation of the poor little YBA paragons.

The gags are subversive—it is high art lite—

as we all know, you make your victim laugh before you deliver the sucker punch… all the way to the bank if need be.

Emily Spears Meers is a writer, translator and equestrienne, and an MPhil student in international relations at Balliol College, Oxford.

Go In Peace: On erasure and the neo-Western politics of resistance in Filho and Dornelles' Bacurau

The poetic in Anne Carson's Autobiography of Red

the surface of my stainless steel piece is pure sex

An Ode to the Truman Show, Twenty Years On


"In the darkest hour there may be light" was shown at the Serpentine Gallery in London.

(meta data) TITLE: The Oxonian Review » High Art Lite in the Darkest Hour

1 March, 2007 • Issue 6.2 • Europe • The Arts • Visual Arts

Works from Damien Hirst's murderme collection

Although Damien Hirst and his every breath get miles of press in the British tabloid and other newspapers, critical appreciation of the work of Hirst and his generation has been scarce.

This is particularly evident among post-YBA (Young British Artists), and artists in the other notable art worlds.

New York, LA and Berlin—cities whose markets are sufficiently inflated to merit swathes of attention from not only their own but also foreign press—have dismissed British art in general with a slight sniff of disdain.

Eric C. Banks, writing in Artforum in January 2002, put his finger on the problem: 'The notorious difficulty of writing about many of the Young British Artists has always been the Hobson's choice of approaching them with sombre detachment and overshooting the runway or, alternatively, treating them on their own terms and never really going anywhere at all.'

This circularity has extended to next generation artists, British or otherwise, who seem loath to reference or engage in dialogue with their predecessors—not to mention with the surge of cash that has flooded the London art world, for better or for worse, since their coming.

From across the calming waters of the Atlantic Ocean, Thomas Crow, the British art historian now ensconced in the Getty's cracked ivory towers, has made some lone, valiant attempts to tackle this conundrum.

These have mostly taken the form of a Marxian analysis that foregrounds the evidence of social history within the work.

In the case of Hirst alone, he has offered an awed take on his recent Mexican intervention.

In general, however, the non-YBA British art world largely hangs its head in horror at the thought of acknowledging the bastard breed.

In the darkest hour there may be light therefore offered an opportunity to take a deep breath and be drawn in.

It included a number of seminal works from the YBA-era, alongside their 1980s New York predecessors Jeff Koons, Richard Prince and Haim Steinbach, as well as some predictably dismal tat from Banksy and his younger, and by the looks of it slightly lost, generation of British artists.

To quickly address the curating: since Hirst managed to catalyse the coming into being of the Young British Art world in the early 1990s, he has played a significant role in subsidising it, not to mention keeping Koons and a few secondary market dealers happy.

His 'murderme' collection contains some fantastic work but, like most collections it contains some pretty dreadful efforts as well (such as Banksy: a more literal image-maker would be hard to find but, frankly, who would want to look?).

The show was therefore a bit of a mess, not only in terms of quality but also with respect to its display.

Items looked shoved into place with scant attention to size, scale, theme or attribute—but such sloppiness could have been exaggerated and thereby made more convincing, more satisfyingly, by making it less clear how exactly it is that Hirst differentiates between his obsessive collection of curiosities and art.

Why not go for it and really clutter the Serpentine Gallery?

This style of curation is due, in part, to Hirst the phenomenon, as more than one newspaper reviewer pointed out: given his massive pulling power, the Serpentine needs the artist's patronage more than he needs their floor space, and he can therefore curate as he sees fit.

In fact, Hirst's work in general, with its gleeful mass production and mass concatenation (think a thousand flies, a thousand spin paintings, a thousand years) could often do with a good edit.

But perhaps that is somehow the point: he, like Warhol, has the ability and the brazen gumption to churn out as much as he wants—although perhaps he isn't as much of a whore as Andy: he never solicited portraits of the great dictators as the ultimate Pop vixen did of Farah Dibah and the Shah.

Hirst's closest contemporaries, Angus Fairhurst and Sarah Lucas, with whom he collaborated most recently on the 2004 Tate show 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida', both come up trumps at the Serpentine—and another look at their work sheds a clearer light on the terms under which a critical engagement with the YBAs might be negotiated.

Lucas's Percival (2006) is a bronze replica of a tchotchke of a horse-drawn cart carrying a massive cement gherkin.

Blown up to ten times its size, coloured in so that it looks exactly like its ceramic forebear, and plonked on the lawn in front of the gallery, Percy manages to be both hilarious and hardcore.

Such a combination is present in all of Lucas's best work; inside, her Sunday Sport collages, cigarette sculptures, and banged-up car with crude wanking arm mechanism offer a mini-retrospective of the artist.

Pietà (1996), his photographic self-portrait, quotes the famous Michaelangelo painting in the Vatican (inter alia from the art historical canon).

In this version, however, the artist, who takes on the role of Christ, is cradled by an empty gorilla suit, deftly conjuring pathos through a visual joke.

Likewise his life-size sculpture of a bronze gorilla, A Couple of Differences Between Thinking and Feeling II (2003), who looks in front of him seemingly dumbfounded at his left arm, which appears to have dropped off.

Both Fairhurst and Lucas know how to deliver an uneasy punchline; Gavin Turk's soiled sleeping bag minus tramp, installed unceremoniously on the Serpentine's floor, also fits in this category.

It is these artists' adept manipulation of the joke that ought to prompt a critical appreciation of the poor little YBA paragons.

The gags are subversive—it is high art lite—

as we all know, you make your victim laugh before you deliver the sucker punch… all the way to the bank if need be.

Emily Spears Meers is a writer, translator and equestrienne, and an MPhil student in international relations at Balliol College, Oxford.

Go In Peace: On erasure and the neo-Western politics of resistance in Filho and Dornelles' Bacurau

The poetic in Anne Carson's Autobiography of Red

the surface of my stainless steel piece is pure sex

An Ode to the Truman Show, Twenty Years On

In November 2006, Hirst was curator of "In the darkest hour there may be light".


"In the darkest hour there may be light" was the first public exhibition of (a small part of) his own collection.

(meta data) TITLE: The Oxonian Review » High Art Lite in the Darkest Hour

1 March, 2007 • Issue 6.2 • Europe • The Arts • Visual Arts

Works from Damien Hirst's murderme collection

Although Damien Hirst and his every breath get miles of press in the British tabloid and other newspapers, critical appreciation of the work of Hirst and his generation has been scarce.

This is particularly evident among post-YBA (Young British Artists), and artists in the other notable art worlds.

New York, LA and Berlin—cities whose markets are sufficiently inflated to merit swathes of attention from not only their own but also foreign press—have dismissed British art in general with a slight sniff of disdain.

Eric C. Banks, writing in Artforum in January 2002, put his finger on the problem: 'The notorious difficulty of writing about many of the Young British Artists has always been the Hobson's choice of approaching them with sombre detachment and overshooting the runway or, alternatively, treating them on their own terms and never really going anywhere at all.'

This circularity has extended to next generation artists, British or otherwise, who seem loath to reference or engage in dialogue with their predecessors—not to mention with the surge of cash that has flooded the London art world, for better or for worse, since their coming.

From across the calming waters of the Atlantic Ocean, Thomas Crow, the British art historian now ensconced in the Getty's cracked ivory towers, has made some lone, valiant attempts to tackle this conundrum.

These have mostly taken the form of a Marxian analysis that foregrounds the evidence of social history within the work.

In the case of Hirst alone, he has offered an awed take on his recent Mexican intervention.

In general, however, the non-YBA British art world largely hangs its head in horror at the thought of acknowledging the bastard breed.

In the darkest hour there may be light therefore offered an opportunity to take a deep breath and be drawn in.

It included a number of seminal works from the YBA-era, alongside their 1980s New York predecessors Jeff Koons, Richard Prince and Haim Steinbach, as well as some predictably dismal tat from Banksy and his younger, and by the looks of it slightly lost, generation of British artists.

To quickly address the curating: since Hirst managed to catalyse the coming into being of the Young British Art world in the early 1990s, he has played a significant role in subsidising it, not to mention keeping Koons and a few secondary market dealers happy.

His 'murderme' collection contains some fantastic work but, like most collections it contains some pretty dreadful efforts as well (such as Banksy: a more literal image-maker would be hard to find but, frankly, who would want to look?).

The show was therefore a bit of a mess, not only in terms of quality but also with respect to its display.

Items looked shoved into place with scant attention to size, scale, theme or attribute—but such sloppiness could have been exaggerated and thereby made more convincing, more satisfyingly, by making it less clear how exactly it is that Hirst differentiates between his obsessive collection of curiosities and art.

Why not go for it and really clutter the Serpentine Gallery?

This style of curation is due, in part, to Hirst the phenomenon, as more than one newspaper reviewer pointed out: given his massive pulling power, the Serpentine needs the artist's patronage more than he needs their floor space, and he can therefore curate as he sees fit.

In fact, Hirst's work in general, with its gleeful mass production and mass concatenation (think a thousand flies, a thousand spin paintings, a thousand years) could often do with a good edit.

But perhaps that is somehow the point: he, like Warhol, has the ability and the brazen gumption to churn out as much as he wants—although perhaps he isn't as much of a whore as Andy: he never solicited portraits of the great dictators as the ultimate Pop vixen did of Farah Dibah and the Shah.

Hirst's closest contemporaries, Angus Fairhurst and Sarah Lucas, with whom he collaborated most recently on the 2004 Tate show 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida', both come up trumps at the Serpentine—and another look at their work sheds a clearer light on the terms under which a critical engagement with the YBAs might be negotiated.

Lucas's Percival (2006) is a bronze replica of a tchotchke of a horse-drawn cart carrying a massive cement gherkin.

Blown up to ten times its size, coloured in so that it looks exactly like its ceramic forebear, and plonked on the lawn in front of the gallery, Percy manages to be both hilarious and hardcore.

Such a combination is present in all of Lucas's best work; inside, her Sunday Sport collages, cigarette sculptures, and banged-up car with crude wanking arm mechanism offer a mini-retrospective of the artist.

Pietà (1996), his photographic self-portrait, quotes the famous Michaelangelo painting in the Vatican (inter alia from the art historical canon).

In this version, however, the artist, who takes on the role of Christ, is cradled by an empty gorilla suit, deftly conjuring pathos through a visual joke.

Likewise his life-size sculpture of a bronze gorilla, A Couple of Differences Between Thinking and Feeling II (2003), who looks in front of him seemingly dumbfounded at his left arm, which appears to have dropped off.

Both Fairhurst and Lucas know how to deliver an uneasy punchline; Gavin Turk's soiled sleeping bag minus tramp, installed unceremoniously on the Serpentine's floor, also fits in this category.

It is these artists' adept manipulation of the joke that ought to prompt a critical appreciation of the poor little YBA paragons.

The gags are subversive—it is high art lite—

as we all know, you make your victim laugh before you deliver the sucker punch… all the way to the bank if need be.

Emily Spears Meers is a writer, translator and equestrienne, and an MPhil student in international relations at Balliol College, Oxford.

Go In Peace: On erasure and the neo-Western politics of resistance in Filho and Dornelles' Bacurau

The poetic in Anne Carson's Autobiography of Red

the surface of my stainless steel piece is pure sex

An Ode to the Truman Show, Twenty Years On

In November 2006, Hirst was curator of "In the darkest hour there may be light". "In the darkest hour there may be light" was shown at the Serpentine Gallery in London.


Some have argued that the methodology behind the determination of those who are subject to being detained at such facilities is not scientific and rational.

(meta data) TITLE: Opinion | Sex Offenders Locked Up on a Hunch - The New York Times

(meta data) AUTHOR: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/opinion/editorialboard.html

(meta data) PUBLISHED DATETIME: 2015-08-15

Skip to contentSkip to site indexSunday ReviewLog InToday's PaperSunday Review|Sex Offenders Locked Up on a Hunch

Aug 15, 2015ImageCreditCreditHanna Barczyk

The essence of the American criminal justice system is reactive, not predictive: You are punished for the crime you committed.

You can't be punished simply because you might commit one someday.

You certainly can't be held indefinitely to prevent that possibility.

And yet that is exactly what is happening to about 5,000 people convicted of sex crimes around the country.

This population, which nearly doubled in the last decade, has completed prison sentences but remains held in what is deceptively called civil commitment — the practice of keeping someone locked up in an institution for months, years or even decades for the purpose of preventing possible future offenses.

The authorities have the power to detain people with mental illnesses or disorders who cannot function independently, or who pose a danger to themselves or others.

But since the early 1990s, this power has been used increasingly to imprison one distinct group: sex offenders.

Federal law and the laws in 20 states and the District of Columbia allow people convicted of violent sex crimes — such as rape or child molestation — to be held in custody indefinitely past the end of their criminal sentences.

The Supreme Court has upheld these laws on the grounds that they are not intended to punish or deter crime, but only to hold people until they are no longer a threat.

In theory, a civilly committed person gets treatment and is released as soon as possible.

In practice, however, it usually means leaving one prison for another — civil commitment facilities are generally high-security buildings patrolled by armed guards and ringed with barbed wire — from which many are never released.

In a decision in June, a federal judge ruled that Minnesota's civil-commitment law for sex offenders violates the Constitution.

Federal District Judge Donovan Frank said the law imposes "a punitive system that segregates and indefinitely detains a class of potentially dangerous individuals without the safeguards of the criminal justice system."

For example, local prosecutors — not clinicians or mental health professionals — choose whether to seek continued detention based on a screening test that claims to predict a person's likelihood of committing another sex offense, though there is no clear evidence such tests are accurate.

Yet based largely on those screening tests, more than 700 Minnesotans who have completed their prison sentences are locked up, at an annual cost of more than $120,000 per person — triple the cost of prison.

This civil commitment rate is by far the highest in the country.

Some people have been held for more than 20 years.

During that time, not one person has been released from the program unconditionally.

A central flaw, Judge Frank said, is that Minnesota does not perform reassessments of risk, so the burden lies with the detainees to prove they no longer pose a danger.

On Aug. 12, Judge Frank ordered the state to come up with constitutionally valid reforms by the end of September, or he "may demand a more forceful solution."

Despite the public perception that all sex offenders are recidivists — a belief that drove these laws in the first place — sexual re-offense rates are in fact lower than those for other crimes (though an unknown number of sex crimes go unreported).

In addition, while some states' laws make it easier for detainees to earn their way out, 30 states have no civil-commitment laws at all, and there is no evidence that a state's sexual-violence rate is affected by whether it has such a law.

As with California's three-strikes law or harsh mandatory-minimum sentences nationwide, the indefinite detention of sex offenders reflects the politics of fear and overreaction that drive so much of criminal justice policy.

That was the case in Minnesota, which drastically increased the number of people it committed after a recently released sex offender sexually assaulted and murdered a college student named Dru Sjodin in 2003.

Public safety would be better served if resources were directed toward community supervision and other services for those leaving prison, rather than toward skirting the edges of the Constitution to keep them locked away.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter, and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter.

A version of this article appears in print on , Section SR, Page 8 of the New York edition with the headline: Indefinite Imprisonment, on a Hunch.

Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

The facility has been the subject of controversy as it has been considered by some to be a place of unconstitutionally punitive detention for those fraudulently deemed both dangerous and mentally ill despite the state knowing otherwise.
 It is a maximum security facility labelled (by the government of the state of California) as a "civil-commitment facility" and others as a prison. According to the state, it was built to ensure that individuals labelled as "sexually violent predators" receive treatment for their mental disorder(s) and do not re-offend within the community as a result of their mental disorders. According to others, it is merely a prison.


(meta data) TITLE: Opinion | Sex Offenders Locked Up on a Hunch - The New York Times

(meta data) AUTHOR: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/opinion/editorialboard.html

(meta data) PUBLISHED DATETIME: 2015-08-15

Skip to contentSkip to site indexSunday ReviewLog InToday's PaperSunday Review|Sex Offenders Locked Up on a Hunch

Aug 15, 2015ImageCreditCreditHanna Barczyk

The essence of the American criminal justice system is reactive, not predictive: You are punished for the crime you committed.

You can't be punished simply because you might commit one someday.

You certainly can't be held indefinitely to prevent that possibility.

And yet that is exactly what is happening to about 5,000 people convicted of sex crimes around the country.

This population, which nearly doubled in the last decade, has completed prison sentences but remains held in what is deceptively called civil commitment — the practice of keeping someone locked up in an institution for months, years or even decades for the purpose of preventing possible future offenses.

The authorities have the power to detain people with mental illnesses or disorders who cannot function independently, or who pose a danger to themselves or others.

But since the early 1990s, this power has been used increasingly to imprison one distinct group: sex offenders.

Federal law and the laws in 20 states and the District of Columbia allow people convicted of violent sex crimes — such as rape or child molestation — to be held in custody indefinitely past the end of their criminal sentences.

The Supreme Court has upheld these laws on the grounds that they are not intended to punish or deter crime, but only to hold people until they are no longer a threat.

In theory, a civilly committed person gets treatment and is released as soon as possible.

In practice, however, it usually means leaving one prison for another — civil commitment facilities are generally high-security buildings patrolled by armed guards and ringed with barbed wire — from which many are never released.

In a decision in June, a federal judge ruled that Minnesota's civil-commitment law for sex offenders violates the Constitution.

Federal District Judge Donovan Frank said the law imposes "a punitive system that segregates and indefinitely detains a class of potentially dangerous individuals without the safeguards of the criminal justice system."

For example, local prosecutors — not clinicians or mental health professionals — choose whether to seek continued detention based on a screening test that claims to predict a person's likelihood of committing another sex offense, though there is no clear evidence such tests are accurate.

Yet based largely on those screening tests, more than 700 Minnesotans who have completed their prison sentences are locked up, at an annual cost of more than $120,000 per person — triple the cost of prison.

This civil commitment rate is by far the highest in the country.

Some people have been held for more than 20 years.

During that time, not one person has been released from the program unconditionally.

A central flaw, Judge Frank said, is that Minnesota does not perform reassessments of risk, so the burden lies with the detainees to prove they no longer pose a danger.

On Aug. 12, Judge Frank ordered the state to come up with constitutionally valid reforms by the end of September, or he "may demand a more forceful solution."

Despite the public perception that all sex offenders are recidivists — a belief that drove these laws in the first place — sexual re-offense rates are in fact lower than those for other crimes (though an unknown number of sex crimes go unreported).

In addition, while some states' laws make it easier for detainees to earn their way out, 30 states have no civil-commitment laws at all, and there is no evidence that a state's sexual-violence rate is affected by whether it has such a law.

As with California's three-strikes law or harsh mandatory-minimum sentences nationwide, the indefinite detention of sex offenders reflects the politics of fear and overreaction that drive so much of criminal justice policy.

That was the case in Minnesota, which drastically increased the number of people it committed after a recently released sex offender sexually assaulted and murdered a college student named Dru Sjodin in 2003.

Public safety would be better served if resources were directed toward community supervision and other services for those leaving prison, rather than toward skirting the edges of the Constitution to keep them locked away.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter, and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter.

A version of this article appears in print on , Section SR, Page 8 of the New York edition with the headline: Indefinite Imprisonment, on a Hunch.

Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

The facility has been the subject of controversy as it has been considered by some to be a place of unconstitutionally punitive detention for those fraudulently deemed both dangerous and mentally ill despite the state knowing otherwise.
 It is a maximum security facility labelled (by the government of the state of California) as a "civil-commitment facility" and others as a prison. According to the state, it was built to ensure that individuals labelled as "sexually violent predators" receive treatment for their mental disorder(s) and do not re-offend within the community as a result of their mental disorders. According to others, it is merely a prison. Some have argued that the methodology behind the determination of those who are subject to being detained at such facilities is not scientific and rational.