So, I’ve spent the past hour or so grimacing over the various performances on the KylieX2008 Tour, thinking of all the things that could have been done better throughout the entire X project (A different single release order and a different costume designer for the tour, for starters). Sorry Gaultier, but this isn’t flattering. Or this. And certainly not this.
But perhaps one of the greatest misfortunes of the X era was the lack of inclusion of album reject, “Lose Control.” Another borrowed track from Kish Mauve, creators of Kylie’s comeback stomper, “2 Hearts,” the song features a winding, bouncy bass and tinny vocals that peel away into madness as the track unfolds. Atop a yelping, canned background vocal, Kylie coolly croons in between dirty, grinding electro pulsations: “Twisting, turning, I have lost my soul.” By the three minute mark, the usually chirpy disco-pop princess stumbles deeper and deeper into a deliciously hollow place, moaning like a prisoner’s unintelligible cries bouncing off empty dungeon walls. A brief moment of perfection, no doubt.
This song’s simplistic format is damningly addictive, and much more relevant and “hip” than the songs created to pander to the masses (refer here to the Fergie-licious, inappropriately childish “Nu-Di-Ty” and the painfully lackluster “All I See”). The song could have made for a wonderfully gothic avant-garde video featuring some darker, abstract imagery. Easily one of the darkest tracks of X, “Lose Control” has been unjustly tossed aside amongst the heap of discarded album sessions. Shame.