Dose of Minogue: “Too Much”

This week’s dose honors Too Much, one of the best songs on Kylie’s 2010 CD, Aphrodite, and one of those “should’ve-been” tracks, as in “Too Much should’ve been a single.” It also doesn’t make it on the set list for her Aphrodite Les Folies 2011 tour, at least not on the Blu-ray release. Too Much was given a little love last year. Kylie added it to the set list for her Anti-Tour—a collection of B-sides, demos and rarities.

The track, co-written and produced by DJ Calvin Harris (Rihanna’s We Found Love), is a splendid mix of stops and starts. Synth-keyboard bits surround Kylie’s vocal in the first verse. The familiar Harris keyboard sound—quite pronounced in We Found Love—serves as a segue that build ups toward the chorus, introduced by a single handclap sound:

“It’s too much
This kind of love
For the first time (for the first time)
It’s way too much
This kind of love
Not the last time (not the last time)”

The song really opens up at the start of the second verse. A deeper synth-bass sound grinds through the verse. Its lyrics conveying Kylie’s disoriented sense due to “this kind of love,” so overwhelmed she intentionally inverts two common phrases. Note:

“Push me to the brim
And you fill to the brink
I can’t function
I can’t think
It’s too much!”

One would normally be “pushed to the brink” and “filled to the brim.” However, Kylie is euphorically in love, vocally evident as she hits what I call “the church note” at the end of this second verse, not unlike a super-high exaltation you’d hear in a joyful choir.

Too Much provides that sense of joy upon every listening session, leading me to say that, yes, Too Much is never enough. BSo



Double Dose. Listen to the similarities. DJ Calvin Harris mixing a snippet of Rihanna's We Found Love: