2. Better The Devil You Know - Kylie Minogue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgvhvaSQZeE Released: May 1990. UK Chart Peak: #2. Oz Chart Peak: #4.
Our love wasn't perfect I know, I think I know the score If you say you love me, oh boy! Well I can ask for more, I'll come if you should call I'll forgive and forget if you say you'll never go, coz it's true what they say, it's better the devil you know I'll be here everyday waiting for you love to show, yes it's true what they say, it's better the devil you know
In 1990, so the oft-told story goes, Kylie Minogue had had enough. She was over her girl-next-door image and the bubble-gum pop of the previous three years and wanted a to play a greater part in the direction her music took. With Better The Devil You Know, she got the chance to play that embiggened role in spades. She began having at least some say in song choice, she began recording her own backing vocals, she became creatively involved in her image and music videos and, later that year, she even started co-writing some of her songs. Better The Devil You Know really was something of a litmus test. It's said that her involvement in almost every aspect of the song's development was key to her revised 'sexy' image and the more 'grown up' tone of the song itself. Certainly as SAW productions go it was, aesthetically, a cut above virtually anything they'd done before. The video was classy and the song's arrangement was far more dance-orientated than the disposable pop of Kylie's earlier material. By itself, the backing track was a glittery, up-tempo serenade to early-90s dance-pop, with lots of stuttering synth, sweeping strings, relentless piano and a pumping back beat. But like so many SAW tracks, the lyric reveals a desperately sad tale of a woman in despair, who'll do anything, say anything and tolerate anything in order to stop her man from leaving, to get him back or to keep him - a perfect modern-day example of the lullaby effect. Even so, despite the enormity of Kylie's massive back-catalogue Better The Devil You Know has remained a firm fan favourite to this day.