Off the Wall

Off the Wall is the fifth studio album by American singer Michael Jackson, released on August 10, 1979, by Epic Records. It was Jackson's first album released through Epic Records, and the first produced by Quincy Jones, whom he met while working on the 1978 film The Wiz. Several critics observed that Off the Wall was crafted from disco, pop, funk, R&B, soft rock and Broadway ballads. Its lyrical themes include escapism, liberation, loneliness, hedonism and romance. The album features songwriting contributions from Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Rod Temperton, Tom Bahler, and David Foster, alongside three tracks penned by Jackson himself.

Between 1972 and 1975, Jackson released a total of four solo studio albums with Motown as part of The Jackson 5 franchise: Got to Be There (1972), Ben (1972), Music & Me (1973) and Forever, Michael (1975). Before recording his next album, which came to be Off the Wall, Jackson desired to create a record not sounding like a Jacksons record, but rather showcasing creative freedom and individualism. Off the Wall peaked at number three on the Billboard Top LPs & Tapes chart and number one on the Top Black Albums chart, staying at number one on the latter for 16 weeks, and was an enormous critical success. Five singles were released from the album. Jackson wrote three songs, including the Billboard Hot 100 number-one single "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough", his first solo number-one single in the United States since "Ben" seven years prior. The second single, "Rock with You", also topped the chart. With following singles "Off the Wall" and "She's Out of My Life" also reaching the US top 10, Jackson became the first solo artist to have four singles from the same album reach the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100.

Off the Wall was a significant departure from Jackson's previous work for Motown and was hailed as a major breakthrough for him. In retrospect, writers have hailed it a landmark release of the disco era and, along with his next album Thriller (1982), among the greatest albums in history. Off the Wall has sold over 20 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time. On February 2, 2021, it was certified 9× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in the US. At the 1980 Grammy Awards, it was nominated for two Grammy Awards, with Jackson winning Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough". In 2008, Off the Wall was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

## Background

Between 1972 and 1975, Jackson released a total of four solo studio albums with Motown: Got to Be There, Ben, Music & Me, and Forever, Michael. These were released as part of The Jackson 5 franchise, and produced successful singles such as "Got to Be There", "Ben" and a remake of Bobby Day's "Rockin' Robin". The Jackson 5's sales, however, began declining in 1973, and the band members chafed under Motown's strict refusal to allow them creative control or input. Although the group scored several top 40 hits, including the top five disco single "Dancing Machine" and the top 20 hit "I Am Love", The Jackson 5 (minus Jermaine Jackson) left Motown in 1975. The Jackson 5 signed a new contract with CBS Records in June 1975, first joining the Philadelphia International Records division and then Epic Records. As a result of legal proceedings, the group was renamed The Jacksons. After the name change, the band continued to tour internationally, releasing five more studio albums between 1976 and 1984: their self-titled eleventh album, Goin' Places, Destiny, Triumph, and Victory, as well as a live concert album in 1981. During that period, Michael was not only the lead singer, but also the chief songwriter for the group, writing or co-writing such hits as "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)", "This Place Hotel" and "Can You Feel It".

In 1978, Jackson starred as Scarecrow in the film musical The Wiz. The musical scores were arranged by Quincy Jones, who formed a partnership with Jackson during the film's production and agreed to produce the singer's solo album Off the Wall. Jackson was dedicated to the role, and watched videotapes of gazelles, cheetahs and panthers in order to learn graceful movements for his part in the movie. Jones recalled working with Jackson as one of his favorite experiences from The Wiz, and spoke of Jackson's dedication to his role, comparing his acting style to Sammy Davis, Jr. Critics panned The Wiz upon its October 1978 release, but Jackson's performance as the Scarecrow was one of the only positively reviewed elements of the film, with critics noting that Jackson possessed "genuine acting talent" and "provided the only genuinely memorable moments." Of the results of the film, Jackson stated: "I don't think it could have been any better, I really don't". In 1980, Jackson stated that his time working on The Wiz was "my greatest experience so far...I'll never forget that".

## Production

When Jackson began the Off the Wall project he was not sure what he wanted as the final result; however, he did not want another record that sounded like The Jacksons, but rather he wanted more creative freedom, something he had not been allowed on prior albums. Jackson's father Joseph also approved of the project and allowed him to record it on the condition that it did not interfere with group business. Despite his brothers' desire to work with him, Jackson wanted to make the album independently of his family. Nevertheless, his brother Randy still contributed percussion to "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough".

Jones produced "Off the Wall", with co-production credit given to Jackson on the songs he wrote for the album. Songwriters included Jackson, Heatwave's Rod Temperton, Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney. All sessions took place at Los Angeles County-based recording studios, with recording taking place between December 4, 1978 and June 3, 1979. Rhythm tracks and vocals were recorded at Allen Zentz Recording, the horn section's contributions took place at Westlake Audio, and string instrumentation was recorded at Cherokee Studios in West Hollywood. Following the initial sessions, audio mixing was handled by Grammy-winning engineer Bruce Swedien at Westlake Audio, after which the original tapes went to the A&M Recording Studio, also located in L.A., for mastering. Swedien would later mix the recording sessions for Jackson's next album and his most well-known work, 1982's Thriller. Jones recalled that, at first, he found Jackson to be very introverted, shy and non-assertive.

"She's Out of My Life" had been written for Jones by Tom Bahler three years earlier. Jackson heard and enjoyed it, and Jones allowed him to use it on the record. Jones called in Heatwave's keyboardist Rod Temperton to write three songs. The intention was for Jackson and Jones to select one of his songs, but Jackson, liking them all, included all of them in the final cut. Jackson stayed up all night to learn the lyrics to these songs instead of singing from a sheet. He finished the vocals to these three Temperton songs in two recording sessions. Temperton took a different approach to his songwriting after spending some time researching the background to Jackson's music style. Temperton mixed his traditional harmony segments with the idea of adding shorter note melodies to suit Jackson's aggressive style. Jackson wrote "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" after humming a melody in his kitchen. After listening to hundreds of songs, Jackson and Jones decided upon a batch to record. In hindsight, Jones believed they took a lot of risks in the production of Off the Wall and the final choice of album tracks. Attention was also paid to the album cover, which shows Jackson smiling, wearing a tuxedo and trademark socks. John Branca, Jackson's manager stated, "The tuxedo was the overall plan for the Off the Wall project and package. The tuxedo was our idea, the socks were Michael'".

## Music and vocals

Music critics Stephen Thomas Erlewine and Stephen Holden of AllMusic observed that Off the Wall was crafted from funk, disco-pop, soul, soft rock, and pop ballads. Prominent examples include the ballad "She's Out of My Life", the funk tune "Workin' Day and Night", and the disco song "Get on the Floor". "I Can't Help It" is a jazz piece. Quincy Jones in his autobiography compares Jackson to other jazz singers, noting that Jackson "has some of the same qualities as the great jazz singers I'd worked with: Ella, Sinatra, Sassy, Aretha, Ray Charles, Dinah. Each of them had that purity, that strong signature sound and that open wound that pushed them to greatness." "She's Out of My Life" is a melodic pop ballad. The end of the former song showed an "emotional" Jackson crying as the track concluded. Of the song, rhythm and blues writer Nelson George proclaimed, "[It] became a Jackson signature similar to the way "My Way" served Frank Sinatra. The vulnerability, verging on fragility that would become embedded in Michael's persona found, perhaps, its richest expression in this wistful ballad". "Rock with You" is a romantic, mid-tempo song. The album's songs have a tempo ranging from 66 beats per minute on "She's Out of My Life", to 128 on "Workin' Day and Night".

With the arrival of Off the Wall in the late 1970s, Jackson's abilities as a vocalist were well regarded; AllMusic writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine described him as a "blindingly gifted vocalist". At the time, Rolling Stone compared his vocals to the "breathless, dreamy stutter" of Stevie Wonder. Their analysis was also that "Jackson's feathery-timbered tenor is extraordinarily beautiful. It slides smoothly into a startling falsetto that's used very daringly". Writer, journalist and biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli expressed the opinion that Jackson sings with "sexy falsetto" vocals in "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough". Taraborrelli also stated, "Fans and industry peers alike were left with their mouths agape when Off the Wall was issued to the public. Fans proclaimed that they hadn't heard him sing with such joy and abandon since the early Jackson 5 days".

## Release and commercial reception

Off the Wall was released on the 10th of August, 1979. It peaked at number three on the Billboard Top LPs & Tapes chart and number one on the Billboard R&B Albums chart, staying at number one on the latter chart for 16 weeks. An enormous commercial success, it was the third-best-selling album of 1980 in the United States, as well as the United Kingdom. "Off the Wall" was sold three million copies in the United States before the end of 1979, while the Jacksons were still on tour. Off the Wall is certified 9× Platinum in the US and has sold over 20 million copies worldwide. It has also gained Platinum certifications in eleven other countries. The album's success led to the start of a nine-year partnership between Jackson and Jones; their next collaboration would be Thriller (1982), which is the best-selling album of all time.

On October 16, 2001, a special edition reissue of Off the Wall was released by Sony Records. It was re-released again on February 26, 2016. The material found strong praise from critics more than 20 years after the original release. On January 7, 2016, Sony Music and The Estate of Michael Jackson announced that Off the Wall would be reissued and packaged with a new documentary directed by Spike Lee titled Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall. The reissue and documentary were both released on February 26, 2016.

## Singles

"Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" was released on July 10, 1979, under Epic Records which was Jackson's first solo single not released under Motown Records. The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 on October 10, making it Jackson's first solo number one single since "Ben", seven years prior.

"Rock with You" also reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Jackson's third number-one single of his career and it also reached the top spot on R&B charts. It spent four consecutive weeks at number one starting January 19, 1980 and was the fourth-biggest single of 1980.

In February the album's title track was released as a single, and went to number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and became a top 10 hit in four countries. "She's Out of My Life" was released after that, also reaching number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in June. The song was also one of Jackson's slowest songs, with a tempo of 66 beats per minute. Off the Wall became the first album by a solo artist to generate four US top 10 hits.

## Critical reception

Off the Wall was hailed as a major breakthrough for Jackson, while receiving widespread critical recognition, along with praises, from major music publications. In a 1979 review of the album, Rolling Stone magazine contributor Stephen Holden praised Jackson's maturity and transition from his early Motown material, stating that the album "represents discofied post-Motown glamour at its classiest." Holden went on to compare Jackson to Stevie Wonder, another Motown performer who began recording at a young age and gained critical acclaim for his transition.

In The Village Voice, critic Robert Christgau credited Jackson and Quincy Jones with "fashion[ing] the dance groove of the year" and stated that "Michael's vocabulary of grunts, squeals, hiccups, moans, and asides is a vivid reminder that he's grown up." In a review for Melody Maker Phil McNeill expressed the opinion that in Off the Wall Jackson sounded comfortable, confident and in control. He believed "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" had a "classy" introduction and that it was the best song on the album. He also praised "Rock with You", describing it as "masterful". The reviewer concurred with a colleague that Jackson was "probably the best singer in the world right now in terms of style and technique". Giving the album a favorable review in Smash Hits, David Hepworth said that Jackson "sings like an angel". Sounds shared the same point of view, qualifying Jackson's voice as "astonishingly agile".

In 1980, Jackson won three awards at the American Music Awards for his solo efforts: Favorite Soul/R&B Album, Favorite Male Soul/R&B Artist and Favorite Soul/R&B Single. That year, he also won the Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. Despite its commercial success, Jackson felt Off the Wall should have made a much bigger impact, and was determined to exceed expectations with his next release. In particular, Jackson was disappointed that he had only won a single Grammy Award at the 1980 Grammy Awards, the Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. Jackson stated that "It was totally unfair that it didn't get Record of the Year and it can never happen again".

## Legacy and influence

### Impact

Off the Wall is widely considered by critics and publications as one of the greatest albums of all time. Although it was not as commercially successful as Bad, Dangerous and HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I, the album is often debated by critics between itself and Thriller as Jackson's best. According to some music journalists, it epitomized the peak of the disco era, being part of a group of landmark disco albums including Donna Summer's Bad Girls (1979) and Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever (1977).

James Wilson-Taylor of PopBuzz believed that the album influenced artists including The Weeknd, Justin Bieber and Beyoncé. The Weeknd cited it as a major influence on his artistry, saying, "I found my falsetto, because of Off The Wall [and] "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough"...I always use Michael [Jackson] as, first and foremost, a vocal inspiration, and Off the Wall was definitely the one that made me feel like I could sing." Britni Danielle of Ebony highlighted Chris Brown's "Fine China" for being a "surprisingly lush and infectious tune reminiscent of Jackson's Off the Wall ['vibe']". Regarding the comparison to Jackson's Off the Wall 'vibe', Brown himself stated "I really wanted to kind of bring that essence of music back with that single." Writing for Pitchfork, Ryan Dombal said that the influence of "I Can't Help It" on Pharrell's "off-kilter funk cannot be overstated". During Sean Combs' acceptance speech for the Recording Academy's Salute to Industry Icon award at the Clive Davis' Pre-Grammy Gala, where he expressed his disappointment towards the Grammy Award's due to the lack of big award wins for Black artists, Combs' spoke on Thriller being Jackson's "revenge" for "not being nominated [enough] for Off the Wall". Combs' also dedicated his award to Off the Wall. A writer of PR Newswire credits the album for "smashing the ceiling on record sales for black artists [and] ushering in an exciting new era of R&B-to-pop crossover airplay, chart, marketing and sales trends not seen before in modern pop music."

According to the same writer,

> "Off The Wall transcended music and entertainment altogether [to Black America]. The success of the album marked a level of national and international achievement that conjured pride in a culture that as late as the end of the 1970s was still fighting for the kind of social acceptance that Jackson's album received. Because of ''Off the Walls indelible influence, 21st century artists as disparate as Beyonce, Pharrell, Kendrick Lamar and The Weeknd all have a blueprint they turned to for creating their superstardom."

### Reappraisal

Recent reviews have continued to praise Off the Wall for its appeal in the 21st century. Blender gave the record a full five star review stating that it was, "A blockbuster party LP that looked beyond funk to the future of dance music, and beyond soul ballads to the future of heart-tuggers—in fact, beyond R&B to color-blind pop. Hence, the forgivable Wings cover". AllMusic gave the record a five star review, praising the record's disco-tinged funk and mainstream pop blend, along with Jackson's songwriting and Jones' crafty production. The publication believed, "[Off the Wall] is an enormously fresh record, one that remains vibrant and giddily exciting years after its release".

A writer for Rolling Stone wrote "the unstoppable dance tracks on Off the Wall – sculpted by Jackson and producer Quincy Jones – remain more or less perfect examples of why disco didn't suck. 'Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough', 'Rock With You' and 'Burn This Disco Out' still get the party started today." David O'Donnell, writing for the BBC, described Off the Wall as "one of the finest pop albums ever made" and showcasing Jackson as a "gifted and versatile vocalist, comfortable performing on ballads as well as upbeat disco tracks." Tom Ewing of The Guardian regarded Off the Wall as superior to Thriller: "... we can say with more certainty that Thriller will keep its position as the highest-selling LP ever – but it's Off the Wall that critics routinely hail as Jackson's masterpiece." and also wrote "... with [Off the Wall] Jackson and his mentor Jones made pop's great coming-of-age album." In August 2018, on the occasion of what would have been Jackson's 60th birthday, Entertainment Weekly reevaluated the album, giving it a score of A−, saying that the album was Jackson's first musical statement as an adult, that it was "a featherweight rapture of disco-flecked R&B" containing dance-floor favorites and some lesser songs. Wilson-Taylor also claimed that Off the Wall is "arguably, the greatest pop album of all time" and credited it for being the pathway of Jackson becoming a "genuine musical phenomenon".

Nelson George wrote of Jackson and his music, "the argument for his greatness in the recording studio begins with his arrangements of 'Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough'. The layers of percussion and the stacks of backing vocals, both artfully choreographed to create drama and ecstasy on the dance floor, still rock parties in the 21st century". A writer for Rolling Stone credited the album for "inventing modern pop as we know it". Ryan Burleson of Consequence of Sound wrote that the album "almost immediately affirmed" Jackson as the "preeminent pop talent of his day" and praised Off the Wall as an "instant classic that married the prevailing sounds of the funk, soul, and disco-inflected 70s with an innovative zeal" that has rarely been replicated since. Burleson also called it a "masterpiece" and a "groundbreaking pop record for the masses that continues to be transformative even today." Blender wrote "[Off the Wall] was the first suggestion that disco need not be tacky" and that the album's "immaculately produced, pre-Thriller tracks are now too familiar to shock, but in 1979, they were revolutionary." With regards to the album, the magazine also wrote "perfection is timeless."

### Rankings

In 2003, Off the Wall was ranked number 68 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, maintaining the ranking in a 2012 revised list until the current revision of 2020 which has been ranked at number 36. In Blender's 100 Greatest American Albums of All Time list, it was ranked number 13. The album was included in the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. In Colin Larkin's third edition of the All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000), it was ranked at number 235. It was also ranked number 7 in the Soul/R&B – All Time Top 50 albums. The National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM), in conjunction with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, ranked the album at number 80 of the Definitive 200 Albums of All Time. In 2008, Off the Wall was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. It was ranked number 56 in The Guardian's list of the 100 Best Albums Ever. Additionally, The Guardian's list of the 50 Key Events in the History of Pop Music ranked 'Michael Jackson starts work on Off the Wall' at number 23. The album was ranked at number 85 on Consequence of Sound's list of The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2015, Billboard ranked Off the Wall at number 149 on its list of the Greatest of All Time Billboard 200 Albums. It was also ranked third in their list of the Greatest of All Time Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, out of 100 albums. Uncut ranked Off the Wall at number 46 on its list of the 200 Greatest Albums Of All Time. In 2019, The Independent included it in its list of The 40 Best Albums to Listen to Before You Die.

### Accolades

## Track listing

Notes'''

- The original LP, cassette pressings and some early CD issues pressed in Japan contain the original mixes of "Rock with You" and "Get on the Floor".
- Every song on the album is available either as A or B sides of single releases both in 7 or 12 inch format. Seven of the songs out of ten saw US release either as A or B sides and the UK had the remaining three songs available also as A or B sides of singles. As of 2000 the singles are available in both 7 and 12 inch formats and few different mixes, even though some releases have been more targeted to a UK/Europe audience. The original album mix of the title track is not available as a single and the original mix was kept for future reissues of the album, unlike the two songs mentioned in the upper note, the single mix did not replace the title track on all future reissues.

## Personnel

Personnel as listed in the album's booklet.

- Michael Jackson – lead vocals (all tracks), background vocals (1-6, 9, 10), co-producer (1, 3, 4), percussion (1, 3), vocal arrangements (1, 3, 4, 6), rhythm and percussion arrangements (1, 3)
- Patti Austin – lead and backing vocals (track 9)
- Tom Bahler – rhythm arrangement (track 6), vocal arrangement (9)
- Michael Boddicker – synthesizer (track 2), programming (5, 8)
- Larry Carlton – guitar (track 7)
- Paulinho Da Costa – percussion (tracks 1, 3-5, 8, 10)
- George Duke – synthesizer and synthesizer programming (tracks 5, 6)
- David Foster – synthesizer (tracks 6, 9), rhythm arrangement (9)
- Jim Gilstrap – background vocals (tracks 1, 4)
- Gary Grant – trumpet (tracks 1-6, 8-10)
- Richard Heath – percussion (track 1)
- Marlo Henderson – guitar (tracks 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 10)
- Jerry Hey – horn arrangements, trumpet, and flugelhorn (tracks 1-6, 8-10)
- Kim Hutchcroft – baritone saxophone, tenor saxophone, and flute (tracks 1-6, 8-10)
- Randy Jackson – percussion (track 1)
- Mortonette Jenkins – background vocals (tracks 1, 4)
- Augie Johnson – background vocals (tracks 1, 4)
- Louis Johnson – bass guitar (tracks 1, 3-10), rhythm arrangement (4)
- Quincy Jones – producer (all tracks), rhythm arrangements (4, 6, 9), vocal arrangements (6, 9)
- Johnny Mandel – strings arrangement (tracks 7, 8)
- Paulette McWilliams – background vocals (tracks 1, 4)
- Greg Phillinganes – electric piano (tracks 1, 3, 5-10), synthesizer (1, 2, 5, 8), clavinet (4), rhythm arrangements (1, 3, 6, 8)
- Steve Porcaro – synthesizer programming (tracks 6, 9)
- Bill Reichenbach Jr. – trombone (tracks 1-6, 8-10)
- John Robinson – drums (tracks 1-6, 8-10), percussion (3)
- Bruce Swedien – recording engineer and audio mixer (all tracks)
- Rod Temperton – rhythm and vocal arrangements (tracks 2, 5, 10)
- Phil Upchurch – guitar (track 3)
- Gerald Vinci – concertmaster (tracks 1, 2, 4, 7, 8)
- Bobby Watson – bass guitar (track 2)
- Wah Wah Watson – guitar (tracks 4, 6, 9)
- David Williams – guitar (tracks 1-3, 5, 10)
- Larry Williams – tenor saxophone, alto saxophone, and flute (tracks 1-6, 8-10), alto saxophone solo (6)
- Zedrick Williams – background vocals (tracks 1, 4)
- Hawk Wolinski – Fender Rhodes (track 2)
- Stevie Wonder – rhythm arrangement (track 8)
- Ben Wright – strings arrangements (tracks 1, 2, 4)

## Charts

### Weekly charts

### Year-end charts

## Certifications and sales

Albums recorded at Westlake Recording Studios


4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Romanian: 4 luni, 3 săptămâni și 2 zile) is a 2007 Romanian art film written and directed by Cristian Mungiu and starring Anamaria Marinca, Laura Vasiliu, and Vlad Ivanov. The film is set in Communist Romania in the final years of the Nicolae Ceaușescu era. It tells the story of two students, roommates in a university dormitory, who try to procure an illegal abortion. Inspired by an anecdote from the period and the general social historic context, it depicts the loyalty of the two friends and the struggles they face.

Mungiu and cinematographer Oleg Mutu shot it in Bucharest and other Romanian locations in 2006. After making its world premiere at Cannes, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days made its Romanian debut on 1 June 2007, at the Transilvania International Film Festival. It opened to critical acclaim, and was noted for its minimalism and intense themes.

The film won three awards at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, including the Palme d'Or. It went on to win numerous honours, including Best Film at the European Film Awards and Romania's national Gopo Awards. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days became the subject of some controversy over censorship, the abortion debate, and its exclusion from the 80th Academy Awards, but in 2016 it was ranked No. 15 on the BBC's list of 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century.

## Plot

In 1987, two university students in an unnamed Romanian town, Otilia Mihărtescu and Gabriela "Găbița" Drăguț, are roommates in a dormitory. When Găbița becomes pregnant, the two young women arrange a meeting with Mr. Bebe in a hotel, where he is to perform an illegal abortion. At the college dorm, Găbița and Otilia review the items they need for the day. As Găbița nervously sits and waits, Otilia barters and buys soap and cigarettes from the dormitory shop. Afterwards, Otilia takes a bus to visit her boyfriend Adi, from whom she borrows money. Adi asks Otilia to visit his family that night, as it is his mother's birthday. Otilia initially declines, relenting after Adi becomes upset.

Otilia heads to the Unirea hotel where Găbița has booked a room, only to be informed by an unfriendly receptionist that there is no reservation under Găbița's last name. Otilia visits another hotel, the Tineretului, and after much begging and haggling, is able to book a room at an expensive rate. After speaking with Găbița on the telephone, Otilia goes to a rendezvous point to meet with Bebe, although he had asked Găbița that she meet him personally. Mr. Bebe grows angry upon hearing that Găbița is not at the planned hotel.

At the Tineretului, Bebe discovers that Găbița's claim that her pregnancy was in its second or third month was a lie, and that it has been at least four months. This changes the procedure and also adds the risk of a murder charge. While the two women were certain that they would pay no more than 3,000 lei for the abortion, it slowly becomes clear that Bebe expects both women to have sex with him. Desperate and distressed, Otilia has sex with Bebe, as does Găbița. Bebe then performs the abortion by injecting a probe and an unnamed fluid into Găbița's uterus, and leaves Otilia instructions on how to dispose of the fetus when it comes out. Otilia is exasperated by Găbița's lies, yet continues to help and care for her.

Otilia leaves Găbița at the Tineretului to attend Adi's mother's birthday party. She is still disturbed but stays and has dinner with Adi's mother's friends, who are mostly doctors. They converse about trivial matters while Otilia and Adi remain silent. After Otilia accepts a cigarette in front of Adi's parents, one of the guests starts talking about lost values and respect for elders. Adi and Otilia retreat to his room, where she tells him about Găbița's abortion. They begin debating what would happen if it were Otilia who was pregnant, as Adi is opposed to abortion. After the argument, Otilia calls Găbița from Adi's house. Găbița does not answer, so Otilia decides to return to the hotel.

When Otilia enters the hotel room Găbița is lying on the bed, and she tells Otilia that the fetus has been expelled and is in the bathroom. Otilia wraps the fetus with some towels and puts it in a bag, while Găbița asks her to bury it. Otilia walks outside, finally climbing to the top of a building, as Mr. Bebe had suggested, and dropping the bag in a trash chute. She returns to the Tineretului and finds Găbița sitting in its restaurant. Otilia sits and tells Găbița that they are never going to talk about the episode again. Otilia stares blankly at Găbița.

## Production

### Historical background

Romanian Communist Party General Secretary Nicolae Ceaușescu enacted the abortion law Decree 770 in 1966 in order to increase the birth rates in the country. The procedure was permitted in only extremely limited circumstances. The law was not based on any religious opposition to abortion, but on the government's authority and control over its citizens. Academic Adriana Cordali Gradea further argued justifications for the decree rendered a view of women as second-class citizens, with no right to be heard. In the 1980s, the decree was strengthened to mandate gynecological appointments, to assess if individual women could reproduce. Author Dominique Nasta judged the film to be an accurate portrait of the oppression, and on the poor state of the economy of the Socialist Republic of Romania in the later days of Ceaușescu's regime.

During the years of Decree 770, the only available abortion methods, all illegal, could prove fatal to women, causing thousands of deaths. According to Mungiu's notes he shared with the press, the death toll was 500,000. Gradea cited a conservative 10,000 estimate. Sanctions against contraception were also in place, and sex education was rare. Following the 1989 Revolution, abortion was made lawful, and subsequently unrestricted in the first 14 weeks.

### Development

The initial idea for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days was inspired by an anecdote from Communist Romania that director Cristian Mungiu had heard. Though he had heard it from a friend 15 years prior to the film, the incident occurred five years before that, in 1987, a date that Mungiu noted in the screenplay. Mungiu, himself a decrețel (born in the time of Decree 770), wanted to create a serious film focusing on the true story, which still affected him and felt tragic more than 15 years later. He conducted interviews with others who lived through the period, to determine if the experience was common. Aside from the anecdote, depicting the 1980s in Romania was appealing because he remembered the time, and "The attraction is for the stories that I know from that period. They belong to me. They belong to my generation". He hoped that basing the story on a factual account would also distinguish it from previous Romanian films:

> I remember watching many propagandistic examples of Romanian cinema and thinking nothing like that ever happened to us. These people were talking the same language but still looked like aliens.

In setting out to write the screenplay, he intended the focus to be less on the abortion, and more on the time and its people. He said, "it's also a film about responsibilities and decision-making". As he continued writing, he stated pushing a political point was not so much a factor in editing, as he opted not to delete potential scenes if they felt credible, asking "Would this reasonably have happened, and does it make sense to the story to keep it?"

Mungiu revised the screenplay numerous times during productions, creating 17 drafts. The major revision was the emergence of Otilia as the sole protagonist, while Găbița's part was reduced. In Mungiu's mind, Otilia had become determined to help Găbița because their shared life in the dormitory over four years would have created an emotional tie between them. The film was produced on a budget of under €600,000.

### Casting

Casting took place during the autumn of 2006. Because of the extended takes, Mungiu sought actors who could remember large amounts of dialogue, and found that Vlad Ivanov was ideal for a 25-minute sequence.

Mungiu viewed auditions of many young women for the two protagonists. Anamaria Marinca had not worked with Mungiu before reading the screenplay, and found the story intriguing. She had performed on television, but had not appeared in a film before. On initially meeting Marinca, the director could not picture her in the lead role, but was won over when she began reading the first page of the screenplay. She had experience on stage, so the lengthy takes were agreeable to her. Laura Vasiliu also had stage experience.

### Filming

Filming began in October 2006, with the objective to complete it by May, so that it could be entered into the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. After location scouting during the fall, most of the filming was done in Bucharest, with some scenes filmed in a hotel in Ploiești. Bucharest in 2006 was no longer how it would have appeared in 1987, due to new windows and other additions to the historic buildings. Production designer Mihaela Poenaru drew on her recollections of the period to prepare the locations. The Mr. Bebe character was also given a red Dacia car. In several scenes, the indoor locations were so small that the camera had to be placed outside of the room.

To highlight the emotional state of the characters, the film was shot in long takes, close-ups were avoided, and a score was not used. In Mungiu's mind, this would "keep a proper distance from the subject and be honest with the story". Cinematographer Oleg Mutu opted for a minimalist approach, lighting the backgrounds to display items common in 1987 while attempting not to distract from the characters too much. Mutu and Mungiu had previously developed a formula of lengthy takes and medium shots with the director's first feature film, Occident. With 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Mutu used an Arriflex 535. Mungiu found the dinner scene to be the most difficult to shoot, as including a large number of actors in a long take made it difficult to focus. It took 17 attempts over five days to complete the scene.

In one scene, the aborted fetus is visible on screen for approximately 14 seconds, the length it took for the actors to deliver the dialogue, with Mungiu opting not to edit out the shot since it "was part of the story". The chute featured at the end of the film was constructed for the film, as there was not one at the location. The crew dropped bags of cabbage and potatoes to create the sound effect.

Due to Mungiu saying Romania did not use streetlights in 1987, Mutu considered other ways to light the final scenes, where the camera would move with Marinca for 200 metres. Mutu set up lights from building roofs for this sequence, employing a rod and paper lanterns for the camera. A scene showing Găbița visiting her father (played by Costica Babu) was deleted for narrative purposes, given Otilia is the protagonist.

## Themes and interpretations

Academic Judit Pieldner summed up the plot as "the story of a friendship facing a moral test". Scholar Florentina C. Andreescu opined the two female protagonists share emotional loyalty, while in the wake of Mr. Bebe's abuses, Otilia becomes increasingly suspicious of Adi.

Professor László Strausz said that the film emphasises the ways that Romania's abortion laws inflicted humiliations on the protagonists, particularly between people of differing authority and sex. He argued that class and generational conflicts are presented in the dinner party scene, where the characters have more food than lower classes, discuss social issues such as conscription into the Romanian Armed Forces, and treat Otilia as representative of the "new generation" that does not appreciate what it has been given. Academic Claudiu Turcuș remarked that the dinner scene, where the characters look down on some careers and act as if smoking in front of one's elders is disrespectful, shows how regressive they are. Ovidius University author Ileana Jitaru credited the film for reconstructing "an entire communist class ideology which divided society into 'working class people' and 'intellectuals'". Jitaru specifically cited the dinner scene, where the conversation makes much of the divide between those with university degrees and those with none. The attendees boast about belonging to the middle class, and make denigrating comments about Otilia's rural origins.

The term "communism" is never mentioned, the existence of Decree 770 is only implied, and president Nicolae Ceaușescu is never named. Despite this, communism is a major subject. Andreescu found that in many locations, one power is dominant; in some, the government, while in others, an underground power or Heterotopia forms. The hotel room where the abortion is performed becomes a location outside of the government's supervision. Mr. Bebe exploits this, boasts of the worth of his expertise and notes the risk he is taking, in order to extort the women for sex. Turcuș instead interpreted the scene as Mr. Bebe presenting himself as the "new man", sharing the women's legal peril and an openness to sexuality, while in fact being "the communist brute". Jump Cut writer Constantin Parvulescu stated "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days provides an astute balance of ostalgia and anti-communist memorial". Parvulescu elaborated that the beginning gives a view of place and possessions that could be nostalgic, but these become overruled by crisis in the communist society. Essayist Adriana Cordali Gradea suggested that silence is a theme of the film, and that citizens of communist nations would use silence to endure and resist. This is seen at the end, where Otilia forbids further discussion of the abortion. The lack of a score can also be seen as contributing to a sense of pending danger.

The fact that the characters live in poverty is reflected in a scene where Mr. Bebe accosts his mother for wanting to buy sugar. When Otilia is searching for Mr. Bebe, there is also a line of people visible in the background queuing for food, reflecting the lack of food security in the 1980s. Additionally, the characters are often impolite towards each other. Mungiu explained that this was related to the poverty, saying "You need people in a society to have reached a certain standard of living before they can be polite". The bartering scenes reflect how corporate goods common west of the Iron Curtain were prohibited in Romania and were viewed as luxuries.

The dinner scene is reminiscent of the Last Supper. Author Doru Pop acknowledged the differing number of characters and no male Jesus, but asserted that it is relevant to have a dinner while a tragedy is unfolding. Mungiu conceded that such similarities were accidental, and that once he appreciated the potential analogy during production, the filmmakers added a more focused view of Otilia to reveal her stress.

## Style

Scholar Dominique Nasta saw the style as a "minimalist, 'less is more' line". British Film Institute writer Ben Walters judged it "simple and rigorous, with scenes composed of only one or two shots". Walters remarked on "handheld, mobile, almost literally breathtaking" shots, and on the impact of still scenes. Despite the handheld camera, Mungiu said the crew developed a style where shots were taken so the action is followed but the camera's movements would not be overly obvious to the audience. Journalist Brian Gibson assessed the photography as "patient, alert, dogged in its observation of Otilia's endeavours". Surveying the photography, academic Ileana Jitaru found "simple, austere and realistic compositions in which the black humour is a stylistic means of anchoring the theme(s)". Jitaru also commented on the colour scheme, observing "cold desaturated colours", particularly greys, blues and greens in the beginning. Additionally, the story, set during a single day, is related by real time narrative in its scenes, although minutes or hours may separate the events in separate scenes. According to Mungiu, the real time was meant to achieve a sense of continuity true to life.

The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw interpreted the style as "a nightmare of social-realist suspense". The Independent critic Jonathan Romney characterized it as "claustrophobic" in parts and an "intense realist exercise". Despite this, he also believed that the hotel scenes communicate "a sense of almost supernatural horror", and asks of the noise heard after Mr. Bebe chastises his mother: "A backfire? A gunshot? Who can tell? But it lends the scene its bizarre, oppressive air of ill omen". Critic Peter Debruge declared the style "the antithesis of your well-lit, elegantly shot Hollywood movies – or the locally made films of Mungiu's childhood".

Journalist Steven Boone said that while the film was well reviewed for "its bracing drabness, its ugliness, its lack of style", he believed it was "beautiful and stylized", because "it is alive and piercingly present-tense". He compared it with the films of the Dardenne brothers. Mungiu said he aimed to begin scenes, including the first, without giving the audience background information and letting viewers discern what was happening. Journalist Lauren Wissot judged the story "a suspense thriller", comparable to the work of Alfred Hitchcock. She felt "heat" in each frame, writing "we're waiting for the bomb— the constant threat of imprisonment or death that defined life under Nicolae Ceaucescu". Aside from reflecting the length of the fictional pregnancy, the 4-3-2 form of the title creates the impression of rushed countdown reinforcing the thriller genre aspects, Gradea wrote.

Responding to analogies to the Dardennes' style, Mungiu said in 2008 that he had only seen their La Promesse (1996) but was now interested in seeing more, and that he had asked the brothers to attend a showing of his film. Mungiu compared his style more to those of Miloš Forman and Jiří Menzel, though he said he was influenced more by certain films than by a director's general filmography.

## Release

The film debuted on the first day of the Cannes Film Festival in May 2007. At Cannes, IFC Films purchased distribution rights for the United States. After the festival, distribution rights for 60 countries had been sold. In September 2007, it competed at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. That month, it also screened at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival.

In its own country, it debuted at the Transilvania International Film Festival in June 2007, where it attracted long queues. With only 50 theatres in Romania, and the lowest rates of theatre attendance in the European Union, a crew on a caravan toured 15 towns without theatres over 30 days for screenings that year. At Transylvania, Mungiu was happy to see that Romanian viewers could comprehend the dark comedy. Filmmaker Sorin Avram documented the caravan tour through Focșani, Petroșani, Călărași and other communities, and interviewed some of the audience of 17,584 people, who described it as shocking and disturbing.

Although the film won the Cinema Prize of the French National Education System at Cannes, protests by the anti-abortion movement led French Education Minister Xavier Darcos to consider banning it from French high schools. This raised concerns among French film industry workers about censorship. Consequently, the proposed ban was dropped in July 2007, and an educational DVD using the film was made available for ages 15 and up. Television stations and an airline also wished to censor the fetus shot.

In June 2008, the film was released on DVD in Region 1 by Genius Products in the U.S. and by Mongrel Media in Canada, featuring interviews with the filmmakers and Sorin Avram's documentary 1 Month with 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days. In Region 2, Artificial Eye published a 2008 DVD with the interviews and Avram's documentary. In Region A, The Criterion Collection released a Blu-ray in 2019.

## Reception

### Box office

In 2007 in Romania, there were 89,000 admissions for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, making it the seventh most attended film in the country that year, and the most attended Romanian film. By 11 November 2007, it had over 300,000 admissions in France. By 8 September 2008, IFC Films reported a solid financial performance for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days in the U.S., with a gross of \$1.2 million.

The film completed its run in May 2008. It made \$1,198,208 in the United States and Canada, and \$8,642,130 in other countries, for a worldwide total of \$9,840,338.

### Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 96% approval rating based on 139 reviews and an average rating of 8.35/10. The site's critical consensus reads "Featuring gut-wrenching performances from Anamaria Marinca and Laura Vasiliu, 4 Months is a gripping portrayal of life in Communist Romania". The film also holds a 97% rating on Metacritic based on 37 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim"; while numerous critics placed it in their top 10 films of 2007 or 2008. Roger Ebert awarded it four stars, commenting on the stupidity of the character Găbița and contrasting her to the title character of that year's Juno, but hailing the film as "a powerful film and a stark visual accomplishment". Time magazine's Richard and Mary Corliss described it as a "gripping, satisfying film" and particularly noted the use of minimalism and "formal rigor" as defining aesthetic characteristics. Jay Weissberg from Variety magazine said that the film was "pitch perfect and brilliantly acted... a stunning achievement". He added that the film shares a number of characteristics with other productions of the New Romanian Cinema, namely: "long takes, controlled camera and an astonishing ear for natural dialogue". For The New York Times, Manohla Dargis championed the direction, cinematography and lengthy takes.

Peter Bradshaw remarked on the sharpness of Otilia and the apparent naiveté of Găbița, but considered this is how their crisis could have affected them, and praised the film as "a masterpiece of intimate desperation". In Empire, Damon Wise gave it five stars, positively reviewing the cinematography, colour scheme, and the depiction of the black-market terror created when something is outlawed. The Independent's Jonathan Romney named it a "masterpiece", acknowledging the description "Romanian abortion drama" would be off-putting for some viewers but defending it as "harrowing". Writing for Le Monde, Thomas Sotinel called the film excellent and cited Marinca for an intense performance. Jean-Baptiste Morain of Les Inrockuptibles remarked on the film's powerful emotions, and credited Mungiu with managing to do much with little.

Some sources view the film as indicative of a broader renaissance in Romanian cinema in the 2000s, particularly in light of other successful Romanian films. These include Cristi Puiu's The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, which won the Prix un certain regard at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival; Corneliu Porumboiu's 12:08 East of Bucharest, which won the Camera d'Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival; and Cristian Nemescu's California Dreamin''', which won the Prix un certain regard at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

In 2009, The Guardian ranked it seventh in its "Best films of the noughties" list, surveying the past decade. The New York Times critic A.O. Scott also put the film seventh on his best of the decade list. In 2015, The Guardian's Benjamin Lee identified it as his favourite film to win the Palme d'Or, praising it as a success as a modern thriller. Writing in his 2015 Movie Guide, Leonard Maltin rated it three and a half stars, and called it "forceful" with a "matter-of-fact tone". In a 2016 worldwide critics' poll conducted by BBC, it was ranked 15th in the 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century.

### Abortion debate

On its international release, the film became partially viewed through the lens of the abortion debate, with Emma Wilson writing in Film Quarterly that IMDb user reviews were highlighting this and comparing it to Juno. Wilson observed 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days displayed the aborted fetus, comparable to the U.S. anti-abortion movement's use of such images, but argued the film was closer to pro-choice ideology in its focus on the law's harm to women. Wilson further argued that the true point was the loyalty of the two characters. Mungiu said the fetus shot was not linked to the anti-abortion movement, as Romanians did not commonly use these depictions and the abortion debate was no longer prominent there. Anti-abortion protests comparable to those in the U.S. or Ireland did not occur in Romania until 2005, when the Orthodox Church commented on the matter. Mungiu also declined to state his position on abortion, and said he attempted to keep his film and his personal position separate. Scholars Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy and Oana Popescu-Sandu argued the film was simply about communism, and the minimalism allowed for foreign audiences to see what they wanted, including a statement on the abortion debate.

In the Canadian feminist magazine Herizons, reviewer Maureen Medved judged 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days to approximate a horror film in depicting the abuses that women suffer when abortion is illegal. In anticipation of the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Time critics Mary and Richard Corliss also cited the film to discourage electing a candidate opposed to Roe v. Wade, saying the film revealed potential negative consequences.

In The Australian Feminist Law Journal, Fiona Jenkins interpreted the story as a morally ambiguous argument that safe abortion services should be allowed, but that Otilia telling Găbița they will never talk about the matter reflects her "trauma not only of what she has undergone but what she has done". Peter T. Chattaway, writing for Christianity Today, opined that "The abortion itself is handled in a way that could be seen to support both sides of the abortion debate", given the abuse to women, but also the portrayal of "the procedure's bloody aftermath". Writer Waltraud Maierhofer also interpreted it as "not simply for or against abortion". Maierhofer commented a woman will consider many things in making a choice, including health, finances and what the potential child would face. In a discussion with Adi, Otilia indicates she would not be ready to enter a marriage and raise a family. Găbița's reasons are never said; it can be presumed she made the decision herself, though Maierhofer wrote at times she appears "irresponsible".

### Accolades

At the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, Cristian Mungiu became the first Romanian filmmaker to win the Palme d'Or, the festival's highest honour. Later, it became the first Romanian work to receive the European Film Award for Best Film. In its home country, it was nominated for 15 Gopo Awards and won nine, including Best Film.

Despite competing for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days was not shortlisted, creating controversy among critics and online film fans, as it had won the Palme d'Or. The controversy caused an Academy member to pledge nomination reform, though the category had often sparked criticism. Mungiu later said the omission and subsequent furor brought the picture substantial publicity, and that the experience taught him that critics and festival juries have differing tastes from the Academy.

## Legacy

Following the Academy Award controversy, the Academy reformed its methodology of choosing Best Foreign Language Film nominees, allowing a committee of approximately 20 members to name three favourite candidates, balancing out a shortlist composed by a second committee made up of hundreds of voters. Steven Zeitchik of the Los Angeles Times remarked the nominees of 2011 reflected the change, displaying unorthodox and challenging subject matter such as youth violence (In a Better World), incest by rape (Incendies) and particularly torture (Dogtooth). In 2013, The Wrap named Mungiu "The Man Who Changed Oscar’s Rules".

Mungiu reportedly planned 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days to be the first in a loose series of films titled "Tales from a Golden Age". Mungiu explained that "the golden age of Romania" is a term used nationally for Ceaușescu's final nine years in power, though he said people then suffered "shortages and hardship". He intended to make six short films under the banner "Tales from the Golden Age", and then allow younger directors to take over the series. In 2009, he released a single film called Tales from the Golden Age, following 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days in depicting the Ceaușescu era and starring Vlad Ivanov. His next film, Beyond the Hills (2012), similarly depicted Romanian extremism, and Mungiu was inspired to make the cinematic adaptation after seeing the stage version in New York while promoting 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. The 2020 film Never Rarely Sometimes Always was partly inspired by 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days''.

## See also

- List of Romanian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
- List of submissions to the 80th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film

2007 film by Cristian Mungiu


Impossible Princess

Impossible Princess (briefly retitled Kylie Minogue in Europe) is the sixth studio album by Australian singer Kylie Minogue, released on 22 October 1997, by Deconstruction, BMG and Mushroom Records. The singer asserted greater creative control over the project — as a co-producer and composer of the material — compared to her previous work, assisted by Brothers in Rhythm, Manic Street Preachers, David Ball and Rob Dougan.

Influenced by the techno and Britpop revolution in the mid-to-late 1990s, sonically, Impossible Princess is a departure from Minogue's previous work. Conceived as an experimental record, the material encompasses a variety of darker styles from dance music, including trip hop, electronica, and rock. Lyrically, the album focuses on Minogue's self-discovery after a series of trips worldwide and delves into freedom of expression, relationships, and emotions.

Upon its release, critical and public reception of Impossible Princess was divided over its new musical direction and Minogue's intimate lyrics. Commercially, the album reached the top 10 in Australia, Scotland, and the United Kingdom; the British media, however, mocked its lack of success in Europe. Four singles were released from the album, including two UK top-20 entries "Did It Again" and "Breathe". Minogue embarked on the Intimate and Live tour in 1998 to support the album.

In retrospect, various commentators have cited Impossible Princess as Minogue's most personal and misunderstood work. Despite this, Minogue has said she would never create another studio album of personal songs like Impossible Princess. To celebrate 25 years since the album's original release, it was released on vinyl for the first time in October 2022, leading to its resurgence and reaching new peaks on record charts.

## Background

Minogue left her label PWL in 1992 because of creative differences and signed a three-album deal with Deconstruction Records the following year. She worked with a diverse group of collaborators to experiment with different sounds, including the British duo Brothers in Rhythm. Their first offering was Minogue's self-titled album in late 1994, which peaked at number three in Australia and number four in the United Kingdom. Besides promotional commitments for the album, Minogue expanded her acting career by taking part in several projects. Among them were big-budget films Street Fighter (1994) and Bio-Dome (1996), which were received poorly by critics. Minogue worked with Australian musician Nick Cave and his band, the Bad Seeds on their 1995 single "Where the Wild Roses Grow", which peaked at number two in Australia and number eleven in the UK. The song earned three ARIA Awards for Best Pop Release, Single, and Song of the Year in 1996.

Minogue's friendship with Cave continued over the years; on Cave's advice, Minogue recited the lyrics to her 1987 song "I Should Be So Lucky" as poetry at London's Royal Albert Hall in July 1996. In December, she made a surprise appearance at a Manic Street Preachers concert at the Shepherd's Bush Empire, singing "Little Baby Nothing" with them. The track was planned initially as a duet with Minogue but did not materialise during her years under contract with PWL. Both 1996 live performances were viewed as the starting point of her new alter ego, "IndieKylie", a pseudonym that dealt with Minogue's move to rock music. Minogue began a romantic relationship with French photographer Stéphane Sednaoui and embarked on a series of trips with him throughout North America, Asia, and Australasia to gain inspiration for her upcoming record. By the end of the trip, Minogue was enamoured by the experience and felt "truly anonymous and free to be [herself]".

## Recording and development

Plans for Impossible Princess began in mid-1995 after meetings with Brothers in Rhythm had taken place and recording the album began. By June 1997, the album had been in production for twenty-one months, and Deconstruction were adding the final touches to it. The album took nearly two years to record—the longest period Minogue had worked on a project since her time acting on the Australian soap opera Neighbours (from 1986 to 1988). Many changes of direction, remixes and cowriters lengthened the process which at times upset and infuriated Minogue. Brothers in Rhythm member Steve Anderson explained this was "due to the pure perfectionism" of everyone involved; Minogue felt the album was worth the wait.

Minogue's trips with Sednaoui, her Deconstruction label mates, and clients of Sednaoui's work including Björk, Garbage, and Tricky inspired the album. Sednaoui and Cave were key factors during the production. In the biography Kylie (2014), Sean Smith notes Sednaoui had a huge effect on Minogue's belief in herself and contributed to her vision of the future, while Cave helped her to embrace the past. Minogue began writing lyrics after Sednaoui and Cave convinced her to take creative control over her next musical project. She wrote every track on the album—in contrast, she co-wrote only one song on her 1994 studio album. She did not have any specific method for writing: she wrote constantly in her notebook and composed many songs during the holidays. "Cowboy Style" and "Dreams" were among the earliest songs Minogue wrote for the album; the lyrics and melodies came easily to her. Minogue imagined performing "Too Far" while working on its lyrics, which she did at a local cafe. She found the track easy to write and did not sound like anything she had written before. She wanted to put herself into the album as much as possible, and felt the songs were more personal: "I've written lyrics before, but they've been safe–just neatly rhymed words and that's that. Now I have songs in which, from beginning to end, I don't want another word, I don't want a word removed," Minogue said.

### Sessions with Brothers in Rhythm

Brothers in Rhythm put together a few songs initially planned for Impossible Princess but scrapped them because Minogue had started writing and they saw she had development as an artist. In order to work closely with Brothers in Rhythm, Minogue shared a house with them across the road from the Real World Studios in Box, Wiltshire, where each morning she would present a set of lyrics from the night before to Brothers in Rhythm producer Dave Seaman. Minogue then sang her ideas for the melody to the duo who tried to compose the backing tracks, find a suitable style, record rough demos, and add subtle lyric and melody ideas to each of them. Production took place mainly at Real World, where the rough demos were rearranged. Strings were added at Sarm West Studios in London, and the tracks were then sent back to Real World for the final mixes, handled by engineer Alan Bremner.

From those sessions, Brothers in Rhythm developed five more songs that ended up on the final tracklist: "Did It Again", "Limbo", "Dreams", "Say Hey", and "Cowboy Style". "Too Far" was written at Sarm West, where Anderson came up with the piano line on the final version. According to Anderson, the production grew as the song was created, and many ideas on the demos made it onto the finished tracks. "Limbo", "Too Far", "Did It Again" and "Cowboy Style", were released in their original demo form because Minogue felt the rawness of the tracks worked better than being polished. Anderson considered "Too Far" and "Drunk" to be the examples of Minogue's artistic progression, and her poetry lyrics were different from standard pop song structure. Pete Hadfield, the label's director, was ill, leaving Minogue to take partial creative control over the project. To help produce the album, she attended each session with Anderson and Seaman to learn about composing, arranging instruments, and distorting sections of the album's tracks. As a result, she is credited as a co-producer with Brothers in Rhythm on the songs "Too Far", "Breathe", and "Say Hey"; she played the synthesizer and provided backing vocals.

### Other collaborations

Deconstruction encouraged Minogue to work with other artists, besides her sessions with Brothers in Rhythm, to produce enough potential tracks to release as singles. Like she had done on her 1994 album, Minogue was open to the idea of experimenting her sounds with different producers. She wrote "Through The Years", "Breathe", and "Limbo" during her sessions with the electronic producers Dave Ball and Ingo Vauk at their home studios; Minogue wrote the lyrics to "Through the Years" within 10 minutes of hearing Ball and Vauk's track. Minogue had heard of Rob Dougan's work and thought that it would be interesting to work with him; they wrote and produced "Jump". She worked on two songs with English band Olive, but they were scrapped. Cave wrote a track for the album based on Minogue's lyrics, entitled "Soon", but she was disappointed with her recording and dropped it.

Minogue said that James Dean Bradfield of Manic Street Preachers had a clear idea of how he wanted her to sound during their first session at his home. Minogue found it difficult to re-write Bradfield's demo of "I Don't Need Anyone", so he had taken pieces of the original demo lyrics and mixed them with other lyrics she had written, with help from Nicky Wire, to create the finished version of "I Don't Need Anyone". She found this method of writing interesting and did it again with Bradfield and Sean Moore on "Some Kind of Bliss". She felt the lyrics worked together, and was pleased with the final result. Bradfield and frequent collaborator Dave Eringa produced both tracks.

## Musical styles

Musically, Impossible Princess experiments and blends different musical styles, as Minogue wanted the album to reflect her many sides. It is a departure from her previous sound, encompassing various elements from dance music. Music critics commented on the album's musical diversity. Marcel Anders of Orkus, and Nick Levine at Digital Spy labeled it a dance record, while a writer from Who magazine wrote the album ranges from trip hop, torch songs to scratchy guitar pop, and disco tracks. Sputnikmusic writers pointed out trance, rock, and alternative influences, and described the album as "something you would expect Björk to make". Michael Dwyer of The West Australian found the club-oriented production made the album standout. Chris True of AllMusic and Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine identified the record as part of the electronica and Britpop movements that spanned the mid-to-late 1990s.

Impossible Princess incorporates live instrumental tracks, such as a trumpet solo by English trumpeter Guy Barker on "Through the Years". Minogue found this unusual because she was familiar only with the use of synthesizers on her tracks, and considered the album a mixture between synthetics and real instruments. The album contains several guitar-driven songs, such as "Did It Again" and "I Don't Need Anyone". "Did It Again" blends drums and electric guitar, which Smith found similar to the sound of The Beatles' Revolver (1966). "I Don't Need Anyone" is a rock song heavily influenced by Middle Eastern beats. Moore played drums and Bradfield played guitars on the joyful Britpop-style tracks "I Don't Need Anyone" and "Some Kind of Bliss". Critics compared the latter track to Motown music and the work of Manic Street Preachers.

"Cowboy Style" is a country number that was influenced by Celtic music and tribal percussion. Ian Phillips of Sputnikmusic wrote that the orchestral pop ballad "Dreams" uses a mixture of eerie-sounding strings, booming bass, and drums. Cinquemani described the chaotic drum and bass "Too Far" as a blend of crisp breakbeats, a Moby-style piano progression and lush strings; "Drunk" as a trance song; and "Limbo" as a hybrid between rock and techno in the style of The Chemical Brothers. "Jump" is a dark trip hop track, while "Say Hey" and "Breathe" are subtle electronic-infused songs. "Through the Years" contains muted horns, experimental vocal tracks and mournful lyrics; Cinquemani compared it to Björk's 1993 single "Venus as a Boy".

The record's vocals feature segments of spoken word and rapping, alongside whispering and singing. John Mangan of Australia's The Age newspaper felt the songs were tailored-made for her voice. A writer from Who noted Minogue was developing her own voice on the album, saying she is "whispering breathlessly one moment, shrieking like a young Sinéad O'Connor the next". Another writer from the same publication felt that Minogue "never sounded more human", with many songs showcase her unique phrasing. In the biography Kylie: Naked (2012), Nigel Goodall and Jenny Stanley-Clarke likened Minogue's vocals to those of Tori Amos, Björk, Sinéad O'Connor, Kate Bush and Madonna. Cinquemani and Dwyer also compared Minogue's seductive delivery to Madonna, and described her vocals as a "sexy [and] reliable secret weapon". Larry Flick of Billboard commented that Minogue had dropped the pitch-perfect vocals and let her "odd noises flow freely" on the album.

## Themes

Impossible Princess deals with the theme of romantic relationships, self-discovery, emotional pain and freedom of expression. Critics and Dave Seaman noted that Minogue's personal input was more significant on this album. Most of the album is autobiographical, based upon Minogue's life during the two years preceding the album. Sean Smith believed the songs reveal her life more than any interview, as they were more "complex, serious, introspective and challenging" than the songs on her previous albums. Minogue discuss her paranoia, pain and anger in "Too Far", in which she sings in a quick, rambling way about suffering from claustrophobia. Negative stories that the British press had published about Minogue inspired "Did It Again". The track sees Minogue struggling to find the right identity. She uses an aggressive vocal style and whines about how she is messed up despite having it all. "Jump" advises the public to accept her and her personal choices throughout the course of her career.

"I Don't Need Anyone" does not have a linear storyline; the set of lyrics was taken from four songs, each interpreting a different mood and story. Cinquemani noted the energetic track sees Minogue wildly declare her independence while admitting her inborn vulnerability. "Some Kind of Bliss" talks about Minogue's experiences while away from people and being happy. Written in Japan, the fifth track, "Breathe", expresses her ability to contemplate and feel peaceful while in an intense environment. "Dreams" discussing the persistence of pushing boundaries and experimentation throughout her career. Phillips wrote that "Dreams", the closing cinematic track, tells a thought-provoking fairytale.

The record's remaining tracks discuss her relationship with Sednaoui. "Cowboy Style" details Minogue meeting Sednaoui for the first time. Minogue wrote "Limbo" in Spain, in which discusses her inability to leave a certain country to meet someone, because of problems with its bureaucracy. Inspired by her relationship with Sednaoui, "Say Hey" highlights the need for communication, though not delving into conversation. Flick highlighted the self-examining lyrics of "Limbo" and "Say Hey", commenting that Minogue had liberated darker thoughts from her subconscious on the album. The theme of frustration lingers in "Drunk", which has Minogue feeling unsatisfied with the relationship, despite having so much feeling for someone. Minogue mentions meeting an ex-boyfriend on "Through the Years", feeling insecure and doubtful about the entire situation.

## Artwork and title

Stéphane Sednaoui shot the images and designed the cover sleeve. Inspired by French and Japanese pop culture, Sednaoui took inspiration from Nobuyoshi Araki's erotic work and tried to convey a similar aesthetic to the photos. Initially, the cover art was based on a string of experimental images of Minogue in geisha costume; the concept was later revisited for the music video of "GBI (German Bold Italic)" (1997), Minogue's collaboration with Towa Tei. The final cover depicts Minogue sitting and surrounded by swirling multi-coloured lights, dressed in a blue sleeveless Véronique Leroy minidress, with no title or name imprinted. Because Deconstruction wanted to distribute a limited-edition version of the album with a hologram sleeve, Sednaoui had to photograph separate artwork for those editions. The three dimensional lenticular sleeve required multiple static cameras to shoot Minogue in the dark. To create the long-exposure effect of the lights circulating around the singer, Sednaoui fully dressed in a black bodysuit so he could not be seen in the final shot. The shoot took a week to complete, and Minogue had to pose for hours. She remarked "the shoot was so very difficult but we knew that once we got it right it would be amazing". In 2004, Minogue donated the dress worn for the cover shot to the Cultural Gifts Program of the Arts Centre Melbourne.

The record's title is a reference to the 1994 novel, Poems to Break the Harts of Impossible Princesses, written by Billy Childish. A copy of the book had been dedicated to Minogue but was accidentally passed on to Nick Cave, who eventually gave it to Minogue not long after, when she started working on the album. She recalled only looking at the title of the book and saying, "It had me written all over it." Additionally, she believed the book's poems summarised where she was at that point in her life under the spotlight. Minogue considered the title to be ironic, imaginary and that it conjured up a lot of truths from her life, saying, "Sometimes my life feels so good that it's almost too much–it's like a joke–and sometimes it should be so good... but it doesn't feel that way." The title is referenced in the chorus of the album track "Dreams".

## Release

Deconstruction planned to have the album out in January 1997, but postponed its release to May. Even with copies of the album already printed in mid-1997, it was delayed again to September. On 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed in a car accident. Because of the impact of her death, Minogue and Deconstruction felt the album's title was inappropriate and delayed its release for three months. The album also missed the planned January 1998 release. Frustrated with the constant delays, Minogue came to an agreement with her label to re-title it Kylie Minogue in Europe and the United Kingdom. It is her third self-titled studio album, following her debut in 1988 and her 1994 album. Released on 28 March 1998, the album had the original cover design; the 1997 copyright year; and Minogue's tribute to Sednaoui in the credits, despite having ended their relationship in late 1997.

On 22 October 1997, Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) released the album in the Japanese market, which included the bonus track "Tears". The following month, Impossible Princess was produced in both CD and cassette formats in Russia and Poland. The standard edition of Impossible Princess was finally made available in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan in early January 1998, and was issued in Europe and the United Kingdom in March that year. The following month, BMG distributed it as a cassette tape in Malaysia, whilst the standard edition with new artwork was released in Taiwan. Deconstruction cancelled plans to release Impossible Princess in North America following the sudden closure of her US distributor Imago Records in late 1994.

In May 2003, Impossible Princess was remastered by Festival Mushroom in Australia and New Zealand, and BMG for European and UK regions, as a double CD album; the release contained a bonus disc featured remixes and three unreleased recordings: "Love Takes Over Me", "Tears", and "This Girl". The album re-instated the Impossible Princess title in Europe and the United Kingdom upon its re-release. In October 2022, 25 years after its original release, BMG released the album for the first time on vinyl. Using its original title Impossible Princess, the 25th Anniversary edition was reissued with three different coloured wax pressings and a limited edition Picture Disc variant.

Because of constant delays in 1997, Mushroom Records premiered six of the album tracks—"Some Kind of Bliss", "Too Far", "Say Hey", "Limbo", "I Don't Need Anyone", and "Did It Again"—on a special sample compact disc in both Australia. Deconstruction conducted a similar promotional campaign in Europe and distributed six different songs on a sample cassette tape. Live and Other Sides was released accompanied by Australian releases of the album at HMV in 1998, with two unreleased Impossible Princess tracks, one unreleased Kylie Minogue track, and three live tracks. Another EP, Other Sides, featured the two B-sides, "Love Takes Over Me" and "Tears" and an unreleased Impossible Princess track, "Take Me with You". Minogue's fourth remix album, Mixes, includes singles from the album; it was released in the UK in August 1998. In Australia, the remix album was replaced by Impossible Remixes, featuring the previously unreleased "Breathe (TNT Club Mix)". Several album tracks and three unreleased tracks from Impossible Princess appear on Hits+ (2000) released in Europe.

## Promotion

Minogue's press campaign for the album began in mid-1995, including interviews with magazines and a performance at the Radio 1 Roadshow in Newquay on 21 August 1997. The promotional campaign was aimed at album buyers, rather than the singles market. The label stressed Minogue's wide-reaching appeal by setting up press cover interviews for her in various markets: broadsheets, dance specialists, tabloids, gay magazines, and style monthlies. During the release week in March 1998, Deconstruction and Minogue held a release party at Tower Records in London. She conducted a small-concert tour travelling to Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong through October 1997; it was her first time in both New Zealand and Hong Kong. Minogue expanded the tour by adding venues in Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands. She appeared on several television shows to promote the album's singles. She promoted the album at the 1998 Mardi Gras ceremony in Sydney, Australia.

In May 1998, Minogue confirmed the Intimate and Live concert tour, which began on 2 June at the Palais Theatre in Melbourne, Australia, that same year. Initially, she wanted to finish the tour in Melbourne on 4 July, but because of high demand in England, Minogue hosted three additional concert performances there. The tour attracted positive reviews from spectators and publications, praising the idea of a smaller venue show. She received compliments for her vocal performance and her stage presence. Each concert had drawn in approximately 2,000 audience members in Australia, and the media there deemed it a commercial success. To complete the tour's promotion, an accompanying live album and DVD, shot at the Capitol Theatre, Sydney, were released on 30 November (album) and 23 July 2003 (DVD).

### Singles

Minogue wanted to introduce the album in a way that would intrigue and surprise the public. "Some Kind of Bliss" was chosen as the lead single in September 1997. David Mould directed the music video shot in the Desert of Tabernas in Spain; it features Dexter Fletcher as Minogue's lover. Released a week after Diana's death, "Some Kind of Bliss" was a commercial disappointment: it peaked at number 22 in the UK, Minogue's first single to not reach the top 20 there. It reached number 27 in Australia, and number 46 on the New Zealand Singles Chart, her last charting release there in the 1990s.

The second single was "Did It Again", released on 24 November 1997 with the B-side "Tears". Minogue promoted the single heavily on television in the UK, which led to it peaking at number 14 on the UK Singles Chart in December where it remained for another six weeks. In Australia, it peaked at number 15 and lasted 17 weeks in the top 50, one of her longest spanning singles on the chart. Petro Romanhi directed the accompanying music video shot in London, in which Minogue portrays four different versions of herself: SexKylie, CuteKylie, IndieKylie, and DanceKylie. "Breathe", Minogue's final single under Deconstruction, was released on 9 March 1998 featuring mixes from Sash! and Todd Terry. Welsh film director Kieran Evans directed the accompanying music video in which Minogue floats in an airspace of spiral effects. The single reached number 23 in Australia and inside the top 20 in the UK.

Because of popular demand, "Too Far" was released on 12" vinyl in May 1998 as a promotional single. Two remixes were made for the single: a Brothers in Rhythm remix that contains new vocals and adlibs from Minogue, and an europop remix by Junior Vasquez. "Too Far" was planned to be the final single and was to be released commercially as a vinyl triple pack, but these plans were scrapped. Instead, "Cowboy Style" was released as the album's final single, with "Love Takes Over Me" on the B-side, on 5 October 1998 and distributed only in Australia. It was not released in the UK because of Minogue's departure from Deconstruction in November. Owing to a limited number of issued formats, the track only charted for a single week at number 39 on the Australian regional top 50.

## Critical reception

Upon its release, critical reception of Impossible Princess was sharply divided. UK magazine Q lambasted the record's repetitious nature, while Music Week acknowledged the improvement in Minogue's vocal range and abilities. Ben Willmott of NME criticised the production of collaborator James Dean Bradfield, and labelled Minogue a "total fraud" for introducing new musical genres that were disparate from her previous work.

Some reviewers, mostly from outside of the UK, gave overwhelming praise to its production and Minogue's contribution. An editor at Who magazine and Cameron Adams of Herald Sun called it Minogue's best and most complete work, praising her vocal delivery. Mangan commended her songwriting skills and the diverse set of styles, writing that the album "sounds right and constitutes another step in the right direction." Adams opined that Minogue had produced "the classy, personal pop album she has always threatened." Dwyer highlighted the club-dance tracks as the better cuts, adding that the album shows Minogue's progress musically despite its wide range of styles and collaborators. Flick commented that Minogue "has finally found her voice—both literally and spiritually".

Retrospective reviews of Impossible Princess have been much more positive. In the Encyclopedia of Popular Music (2011), British writer Colin Larkin gave it three out of five stars, classifying it as "recommended" and "highly listenable". True found the album stronger and more natural than her previous efforts, and it flows together as an album. Cinquemani was impressed with the album's personal and unified cord, saying it is "the work of an artist willing to take risks". Levine noticed its lack of commercial appeal, while praising the diverse set genres and Minogue's input. He called the album a "brave, revealing and rarely less than surprising" piece of work. While reviewing her tenth album X (2007), Evan Sawdey of PopMatters commented that Impossible Princess is "one of the most crazed, damn-near perfect dance-pop albums ever created."

## Public reaction

During its commercial release, Impossible Princess was criticised by the British public, who did not appreciate her move into indie music and electronica. The audience failed to identify with her new intimate image, dubbed as "IndieKylie", and was unimpressed with her new musical direction, viewing it as a trend-chasing attempt. The backlash resulted in Impossible Princess making little impact on British record charts, which led British publications to label Impossible Princess Minogue's worst-selling studio album at the time in those regions. A year after its release, UK Virgin Radio mocked the album's sales, stating: "We've done something to improve Kylie's records: we've banned them."

Several factors were named as reasons for the poor public perception: the lack of promotional activity, the three-year gap since her last album, the constant delays and title changes, and the change of musical direction. Minogue cited the incohesive material, her "IndieKylie" image portrayed by the media, as well as the long gap between albums, as the main reasons for the album's commercial failure; while Baker felt it was the lack of proper promotion and management on Deconstruction's end. Anderson felt the release of "Some Kind of Bliss" as the lead single overshadowed Minogue's involvement on the track, and the album as a whole. Minogue said that after the single release, she had to "keep telling people that this isn't an indie-guitar album. I'm not about to pick up a guitar and rock." James Dean Bradfield admitted he felt guilty that the single release had "landed [Minogue] with a whole new set of problems".

### Commercial performance

Under the title Kylie Minogue, the album debuted and peaked at number 10 on the UK Albums Chart, making it the third-highest debuting album of that week and Minogue's sixth top-10 entry. It fell to number 22 the following week and again to number 41, its final charting position was at number 70. The album sold 20,000 copies in the first two weeks of release, just ten percent of the expected sales figures. The album entered its fifth and final week, during the start of May 1998, at number 91. In a similar run, the album charted at number 10 on the Scottish Albums Chart. The album had sold 64,483 copies in the UK as of October 2020.

The album debuted and peaked at number four on the Australian Albums Chart on 25 January 1998. It stalled at number eight during its second and third weeks, but fell outside the top ten in its fourth. By 26 April, the album had spent 14 weeks on the chart and was placed at number 48 before leaving the chart. Whilst embarking on her Intimate and Live tour in June, it entered the top ten for three non-consecutive weeks between June and July. The album appeared in the top 50 for 35 weeks, making it Minogue's longest-charting album at the time. The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) certified the Platinum by for physical shipments of 70,000 units.

The 2022 vinyl reissue reached number five on the UK Albums Chart on 28 October 2022, eclipsing its original number-ten peak in 1998. The album opened with 6,384 album-equivalent unit, all but 44 of which were vinyl LPs; it was the third best-selling vinyl album of the week. It was the first time the album charted under the title Impossible Princess, giving Minogue her fifteenth top-five entry. The album also reached new chart peaks in Scotland and Australia, peaking at numbers four and three, respectively.

## Accolades and impact

Impossible Princess gained four nominations at the 1998 ARIA Music Awards show, which was held in October. The album was nominated for Best Pop Release, Best Female Musician, and Album of the Year—her first nomination in this category. She lost Album of the Year to Unit (1997) by Regurgitator, while losing Pop Release and Female Musician to Australian singer Natalie Imbruglia. The following year, Minogue was nominated for Best Female Artist for "Cowboy Style", which lost to Imbruglia's "Wishing I Was There" (1998). The music video for "Did It Again" won the 1998 International Viewer's Choice Award – MTV Australia.

Because of pressure from the British press and public, Minogue contemplated retiring from the music industry for good. She decided instead to part with Deconstruction and BMG in November 1998. In 1999, Minogue signed to Parlophone and released her studio album Light Years in 2000 to a positive reception. The Guardian's Tim Jonze believes that Light Years saved her career, while Louise Bruton of The Irish Times, said that Impossible Princess is the low point "she needed to reach the great heights of 2000's Light Years". Minogue has considered Impossible Princess the most disappointing moment in her career, and commented that if she wrote another album of personal songs, "it would be seen as Impossible Princess 2 and be equally critiqued".

Retrospectively, the album has been regarded by music critics as Minogue's most personal and misunderstood work. True and Cinquemani applauded her writing contribution, calling it her "great leap forward" in terms of musical composition. On the 20th anniversary of the album, Ben Neutze of Daily Review opined that it stands as "the most intriguing chapter of her career, and the only significant glimpse at who this pop icon might be when stripped of other glorious facades." Caz Tran of ABC Online called it "the creative detour [Minogue] needed to take" regarding her evolution and self-discovery. Levine and Larrisa Dubecki of The Age viewed the album as one of the key re-inventions of her recording career. Several critics noticed the sonic and lyrical similarities between the album and Ray of Light (1998) by Madonna. Cinquemani observed that despite the success of Ray of Light, Impossible Princess brought a harsh reaction from the public. Owen Myers of Pitchfork described both albums, alongside Janet Jackson's The Velvet Rope (1997), as "a trilogy of A-list experimental pop records in 1997-8 that addressed their artists’ fears, anxieties, and dreams." Media publications Flavorwire, Slant Magazine, and Faster Louder listed the album as one of the most underrated pop albums.

## Track listing

Notes

- signifies a producer, but unaccredited towards the album.
- signifies a co-producer.
- signifies a remix producer.

## Personnel

Adapted from the album's liner notes.

- Kylie Minogue – lead vocals, backing vocals, synthesizer, production, composition
- Steve Anderson – drum programming, grand piano, guitar, Hammond B3, keyboards, string arrangements
- Dave Ball – production
- Gini Ball – string arrangements
- Guy Barker – trumpet
- Geoff Bird – guitar
- Greg Bone – guitar
- James Dean Bradfield – bass, guitar, production
- Alan Bremmer – engineer, mixing, programming
- Brothers in Rhythm – production
- Livingstone Brown – bass
- Jay Burnett – co-production
- Simon Clarke – flute, saxophone
- Rob Dougan – production
- Andy Duncan – percussion
- Dave Eringa – production, string arrangements
- Farrow Design – art direction
- Johnnie Hardy – fiddle
- Sally Herbert – strings, string arrangements
- Bogislaw Kostecki – fiddle

- Peter Lale – viola
- Sunny Lizic – engineering
- Roddie Lorimer – trumpet
- Martin Loveday – cello
- Richard Lowe – mix engineering, engineering
- Wil Malone – string arrangements
- Sean Moore – drums
- Nick Nasmyth – keyboards, string arrangements
- Claire Orsler – string arrangements
- Jocelyn Pook – string arrangements
- Tim Sanders – saxophone
- Stéphane Sednaoui – photography
- Steve Sidelnyk – drums, percussion
- Neil Sidwell – trombone
- Anne Stephenson – string arrangements
- Ingo Vauk – production
- Steve Walters – bass
- Gavyn Wright – orchestra lead, violin
- Paul Wright – engineering
- Ben Findlay – sound engineer (Real World)
- Emma Jones – studio assistant (Real World)

## Charts

### Weekly charts

### Year-end charts

## Certification

## Release history

## See also

- List of top 25 albums for 1998 in Australia
- List of UK top-ten albums in 1998
- List of works with different titles in the United Kingdom and United States
- List of musical works released in a stem format