Let's Get to It

Background and development

In 1991, Matt Aitken left Stock Aitken Waterman, the long-time record producing trio for Minogue, because he felt he was "burnt out." "People say all our records sound the same, but it came to a point where they started sounding all the same to me," he said.

Over the course of the year, Minogue returned to the studio with her remaining producers Mike Stock and Pete Waterman, co-writing six tracks with them. She told Smash Hits a lot of her new songs are "pretty different." "Everything from big band swing stuff to a more soulful kind of thing," the magazine recalls her words. Minogue also suggested that she hoped to find time to do more recording that year. "I may do some more writing in America which may lead to another recording there," she told.

During this time, Minogue was fascinated by club music. Although her music was always played in commercial clubs, but the pop element of her earlier works made the "cooler clubs" tend to "frown upon." Minogue then created an alias for herself as "Angel K," set about releasing white label promotional vinyl's of tracks included "Do You Dare" and "Closer", both of the songs later appeared as B-sides on "Give Me Just a Little More Time" and "Finer Feelings", respectively.

At this stage, the album was a contractual obligation as the last of four studio albums on her contract, as Minogue remained unsure whether to continue with PWL until after the release of the album's final single "Finer Feelings". Following her release from PWL, she stated that she felt stifled by Stock, Aitken and Waterman, saying, "I was very much a puppet in the beginning. I was blinkered by my record company. I was unable to look left or right." When asked about whether he knew it would be her final studio album with PWL, Waterman said "Yes. I mean in hindsight, we should have actually sold that album before we made it. If I was as brilliant as I’d like to think I could have been I would have had the common sense to say that Kylie had become such a big star she was overshadowing us and killing our creativity and that if we had stepped out at that point, we’d have had to gone back to what we were good at and that was finding new artists and constantly finding new things to do and being completely creative instead of worrying about who was going to pay the rent and all the salaries at the end of the month."

Songs

Digital Spy's Nick Levine called the album her most "diverse set of songs yet." In Social Theory in Popular Culture, Lee Barron noted her significant musical differences from her "initial formula" of the early works in the album and the previous, Rhythm of Love, with the latter has "a sound even flirting with R&B influences."

The first track of the album, "Word Is Out", is a new jack swing and R&B track, with "swingbeat big band sound." "Too Much of a Good Thing" is a house track which contains interpolations from Janet Jackson's "Control" and "Let the Beat Hit 'Em" by Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam. "If You Were with Me Now" was compared by to "Disney duet balladry." The techno-pop "I Guess I Like It Like That" includes a stadium keyboard part that lays the foundation of the song—which Chris True from AllMusic called it one of album's "noticeable missteps", an interpolation of "I Like It Like That" by Salt-N-Pepa and a sample from "Get Ready for This" by 2 Unlimited.

Waterman stated: "I went to bed, and, and I literally was in bed thinking of all these records that I had in my life [...] I was going through the library mentally thinking, what song would she never have done that we could do that was just a great song. And one of my favorite songs was Chairman of the Board's 'Give Me Just a Little More Time.'" He was working in the middle of the night when he ran downstairs to his record label to find the track. The song was played to Minogue the next morning.

Artwork and release

The artwork was photographed by German fashion photographer Jürgen Teller. In the cover, she wore a dress which was designed by Nobuhiko Kitamura for Japanese fashion brand Hysteric Glamour, it was described as a mini dress with "stretch lycra, multi-coloured green, yellow pink vanity print, sleeveless, shoe string shoulder straps in same fabric." The dress was later donated to the Cultural Gifts Program of the Arts Centre Melbourne by Minogue herself in 2004. "The album cover will worry fans the most," said Minogue. "I like it, but it's black and white and there are three men with me. You don't realise they're men until you look at it carefully - you think they're just shapes around the edge. You wonder what I'm thinking because I've got this weird expression on my face which people haven't seen before. [...] It's going to be interesting to see what people make of the album cover." Chris True from AllMusic said the cover is "kind of creepy."

Singles

"Word Is Out" was serviced as the lead single for the album on 28 August 1991. It was her first lead single not to reach the top ten on the UK Singles Chart.

Critical reception

Chris True from AllMusic gave the album two and a half stars, called the album is "certainly as danceable" as her previous work Rhythm of Love but "not her most solid release, but fans of her early work will enjoy it." Joe Sweeney from PopMatters the album's musical styles make it "sound more dated by half than Rhythm of Love." Digital Spy claimed their readers not to let the Stock Aitken Waterman fool them. Nick Griffiths from Select called it "easily her best album", with the "teeny-beat" production has been "superseded by a glossier, more soulful production, rising to the impressive but blatant clubdom 'I Guess I Like It Like That.'" However, he still looked at the album as a "false tease", claimed her music "is still for virgins." Nathan Wood from Foxtel's MaxTV called the album "a musical exploration."

Minogue had also received a nomination for Best Female Artist category at the sixth ARIA Music Awards in 1992 for her work on the album.

Commercial performance

Let's Get to It is Minogue's least successful album to date. After the success of "Give Me Just a Little More Time", which was released in January 1992, the album returned to the UK chart at number 68 in January 1992, then dropped off. Three weeks later, the album re-entered the UK albums chart at number 50.

Track listing

All songs written by Kylie Minogue, Mike Stock and Pete Waterman and produced by Stock and Waterman, except where noted. Credits adapted from the liner notes of Let's Get to It.

Notes

Release formats

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Let's Get to It.

Let's Get To...The Videos

A video was released following the album titled Let's Get To...The Videos. It included four music videos from Minogue's previous album Rhythm of Love, two music videos from Let's Get to It, and exclusive behind the scenes footage. It was released in VHS and LD format. The behind the scenes footage was included in Kylie's DVD Greatest Hits 87–97.

Track listing

1. "Better the Devil You Know"
2. "Step Back in Time"
3. "What Do I Have to Do"
4. "Shocked"
5. "Word Is Out"
6. "If You Were with Me Now"
7. Behind the scenes

Release history

These are the formats of major video releases of Let's Get To...The Videos.