Original release date: October 2nd 1995
UK chart peak: Number 11
Australian chart peak: Number 2
Stream Where The Wild Roses Grow here (Spotify)
Read my Kylie Minogue anniversary posts here
If her shimmering and inventive 1994 eponymous album, Kylie Minogue, had shown how the post-S/A/W pop star was willing to stretch her creative wings then her collaboration with fellow Australian artist Nick Cave demonstrated there were no limits to her explorations. Nick had long been interested in working with Ms Minogue and finally came up with the perfect song with the gothic, ominous Where The Wild Roses Grow. In hindsight it was a genius combination - so unexpected and beguiling that even before you heard it, it became a musical curio that you just had to have (whichever artist you were a fan of). The results were genuinely jaw-dropping - the rare pop record which resonates with the weight of the ages; a macabre fable that both singers managed to distil into an image as lasting as any crime scene photograph. The poetic musings of Ms Minogue juxtaposed with the dark confessions of Mr Cave, against that backdrop of simmering percussion and foreboding strings. It was both hypnotic and unforgettable.
Critics were falling over themselves to hail this a masterpiece; being particularly mindful of how revolutionary it was for Kylie to sing something so outside her normal repertoire. This rankled me for many reasons - namely because if you didn't think Kylie wasn't an eclectic pop star you hadn't been paying attention. It wasn't just the transformation she achieved via the aforementioned 1994 set (I mean, Put Yourself In My Place is the best Bond theme that never happened out there); she had already diversified her sound across 4 PWL helmed albums. Heaven and Earth was a torch ballad for the ages. The World Still Turns infused r&b beats in a way that preceded Bedtime Stories by a number of years. And her club dalliances such as Keep On Pumping It bought scores to the dance floor. This was no one trick pony - Where The Wild Roses Grow was just another string to her bow. Arguably, it was the natural step between Kylie Minogue and Impossible Princess which enabled her to develop her songwriting prowess and sonic experimentation.
While I came to appreciate and fall harder for Where The Wild Roses Go over time, I will confess that I didn't straight-out-the-cd-packaging love it. I had enough change in my life and needed pop music to be my constant. This duet felt like anti-Kylie (which, of course, was the point and part of the entrancing appeal of the song) and I personally would have preferred something like Time Will Pass You By or If I Was Your Lover as a further single from her most recent album. Time and a bit of perspective/hindsight has taught me that I was a (what kind of) fool! The single was a necessary artistic step taken at the type which has led to the Kylie Minogue we have today - one who is willing and able to infuse different influences into her sparkling pop music format. And clearly people far more intuitive than I realised it straight away. While it just missed the top ten in the UK, it pretty much went top ten all across Europe whilst narrowly missing out on the top spot in the artists' native Australia (gosh darn you Gangsta's Paradise).
UK chart run ~ 11-21-35-50
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