Enjoy Yourself (Kylie Minogue)

Enjoy Yourself is Kylie Minogue's second studio album which was released on October 9, 1989 by Mushroom Records & Geffen Records.
==Album Background==
Kylie Minogue first came to public attention in 1986 when she was cast in the popular soap opera Neighbours as Charlene Robinson, a schoolgirl turned garage mechanic. She signed with Mushroom Records in early 1987 and released her self-titled debut studio album in July 1988.
Fueled by the hit singles like "I Should Be So Lucky", "The Loco-Motion" and "Got to Be Certain", "Kylie" peaked at number one and was the best-selling album of 1988 in the United Kingdom.
In her native Australia, the album peaked at number two and was certified four times platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). It has sold over five million copies worldwide.
The album helped Minogue launch her career as a pop artist at a time when not many established actors in TV chose to make a record.
Minogue relocated to London after filming her final scenes for Neighbours in June and July 1988. In November of that same year, she lent her voice to the song "Especially for You", a duet with her then-boyfriend Jason Donovan (who also played her love interest in "Neighbours").
Written and produced by Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW), it became the fourth highest-selling single of 1988 and the first number-one single of 1989 in the United Kingdom.
In February 1989, she reunited with the producers at PWL Studios 1 & 4 in London The trio (who had served as producers and writers on "Kylie") had Minogue record the tracks "Hand on Your Heart" & "Wouldn't Change a Thing" while working on her sophomore album.
Two months later, it was announced that Minogue had accepted the lead part of Lola Lovell in the Australian-based film, "The Delinquents" directed by Chris Thomson. Trying to establish herself as a serious actress, she believed the role as a rebellious and passionate country girl would differentiate her from her girl-next-door image in "Neighbours."
Principal photography began in Maryborough, Queensland, in May and lasted about two months. Minogue resumed work on her album in London for three weeks until July. The recording sessions were intense since she was still promoting her debut album.
Minogue recorded "Never Too Late" and a cover of Little Anthony and the Imperials' song, "Tears on My Pillow." during the final sessions in July; the song was chosen after Minogue had heard the original version while dining at Pete Waterman's house.
==Tracklisting==
#Hand On Your Heart 3:56
#Wouldn't Change A Thing 3:17
#Never Too Late 3:27
#Nothing To Lose 3:24
#Tell Tale Signs 2:27
#My Secret Heart 2:44
#I'm Over Dreaming (Over You) 3:28
#Tears On My Pillow 2:33
#Heaven And Earth 3:47
#Enjoy Yourself 3:46
==Chart Performance==
"Enjoy Yourself" debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and remained in the top 10 for sixteen weeks. It was certified double platinum by the British Phonographic Industry two days after its release, powered by pre-sales of over 600,000 copies. It went on to sell over one million copies in the first ten weeks of its release.
"Enjoy Yourself" was the sixth best-selling album of 1989 in the UK and was certified four times platinum on 1 January 1990.
In her native Australia, the album debuted at number fifteen before reaching number nine in the second week, and was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association in January 1990 for selling over 70,000 copies.
"Enjoy Yourself" debuted at number sixteen in New Zealand and peaked at number six three weeks later. It was certified gold by the Recorded Music NZ in June 1990.
In Japan, the album was Minogue's first top-ten entry on the Oricon Albums Chart, peaking at number seven. It was certified gold by Recording Industry Association of Japan in November 1989, her second and last certification there, and had sold 49,000 copies as of 2006.
The album also peaked in the top 30 in Finland, France and Switzerland.
In North America, "Enjoy Yourself" failed to find an audience and did not appear on any major charts, leading to Minogue being dropped as an act by Geffen Records. It would be her last album released there until her eighth studio album, "Fever" was picked up by Capitol Records in 2002.
==Critical Reception==
"Enjoy Yourself" received mixed reviews from music critics, many of whom compared it to Minogue's debut album. 
AllMusic's Chris True awarded the album two-and-a-half stars out of five, saying it was a "good companion to her debut" and the producers "knew what they had and they crafted songs that kept [Minogue] in the public eye."
Nick Levine of Digital Spy opined that despite the lack of strong tunes, the album still had "a bit more variety" than her first one and Minogue was "at her most ingenuous".
Echoing the same sentiments, Richard Lowe of Smash Hits praised the diversity of the songs and called it a "magnificent pop [album]." 
In a review for the 2015 reissue of "Enjoy Yourself", PopMatters' Joe Sweeney deemed it a more ambitious production and felt Minogue's vocals were "notably stronger" than before. However, he felt the result sounded "like a messy document of artistic maturation." Sean Smith described it as an extension of Kylie; the result was just "another Charlene album."
In the 2011 book, "Encyclopedia of Popular Music," British writer Colin Larkin gave the album three out of five stars as he did with Minogue's debut album.
Reactions by American critics were generally unfavourable. The staff of People magazine viewed it as an attempt to exploit the success of the debut album in a "particularly lazy, unimaginative way". They felt the producers overpowered Minogue, describing her as "a cog in a gray-noise machine" and that "she project[ed] practically zero personality".
In a one-star out of five review, Arion Berger of Rolling Stone dismissed the singer's "abysmal" vocals as well as the "hopelessly retro" tracks. He called the album "inept" and felt Minogue had a long way to go to display any artistic innovation.
Billboard's reviewer called the album another "[meringue] from SAW's clockwork sweet shoppe" and panned the computer-generated songs, saying they "won't win any Nobels for deep thought, but young fans will still gobble it up like Baskin-Robbins".
All three publications singled out "Tears on My Pillow" for praise, calling it "substantial" and the "[only] proven hit".
In a review in 2018, Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani wrote that "Enjoy Yourself" repeats "Kylie's sonic template almost verbatim" and criticized "Hand on Your Heart" as the "tonally incongruent lead single". He described it as Minogue's second-worst studio album.
Category:1980s albums
Category:Pop
Category:Kylie Minogue albums