The Best of Kylie Minogue

Background

The Best of Kylie Minogue is the first major greatest hits album by Minogue since her 2004 Ultimate Kylie album. During 2012, Minogue had celebrated her twenty-fifth anniversary of her record career, which was dubbed "K25 Celebration". Each month, Minogue would present a special gift to her fans to thank them for their support during her 25-year recording career. She would ask fans every month to "tweet to unlock" the special gift, and she would regularly receive more than 25,000 tweets. To celebreate the first month of K25, Minogue released an orchestral version of her single "Finer Feelings" and embarked on the Anti Tour, which featured b-sides, demos and rarities from her music catalogue.

According to a press release, the songs selected for The Best of Kylie Minogue were chosen by "fans through extensive market research conducted by EMI late last year." The cover art of The Best of Kylie Minogue contains badges of the singles. It also has pictures from two music videos; "Spinning Around" and "Confide in Me". The back cover featured logos of the hits. In the booklet, the cover of the singles are included. An alternate cover was made for a deluxe edition for iTunes. The same picture with a pink border and text.

The Best of Kylie Minogue was one of four musical releases within her K25 celebration. The first being her CD Single release of "Timebomb", the second being this release, the third being her orchestral compilation album The Abbey Road Sessions and her final being her K25: Time Capsule box set.

Material and release

Unlike her previous compilation album Ultimate Kylie, this compilation does not feature a bonus disc of more songs to commemorate her back catalog. The album only consists of randomly ordered tracks from Minogues twenty-five years in the music industry. Two songs from her debut album was featured on the album; "I Should Be So Lucky" and "The Loco-Motion". Two songs from her second album were features, these being "Tears on My Pillow" and "Never Too Late". One song from her third studio album was "Better the Devil You Know", one song from her fourth album was "Give Me Just a Little More Time" and one from her fifth studio album was "Confide in Me".

In her 2000's era, three songs from her seventh album were featured, these being "Spinning Around", "On a Night Like This" and "Kids". Her eighth studio album featured all her singles except "Come into My World", her ninth album included all singles but "Chocolate", her tenth studio album included both "Wow" and "In My Arms" and two from her eleventh album were "All the Lovers" and "Get Outta My Way". It is worth noting that tracks from her sixth studio album Impossible Princess were not featured on the compilation album. It was intended that "Timebomb", a K25 surprise and released a few days apart from the album, was supposed to be released on the compilation. However, this idea was scrapped. It did, however featured on her K25: Time Capsule set released in October.

The album was released on June 4 in Europe and the United Kingdom, while it was released in the United States on June 19. To promote the album and single "Timebomb", Minogue traveled to the United States appearing on Good Morning America. After the promotion in North America, "Timebomb" debuted at number thirty-one on the US Hot Dance Club Songs. In its fourth week, it rose to number four, becoming Minogue's ninth top ten single on that chart. It was also labeled that week's "Greatest Gainer". The week of 4 August 2012, "Timebomb" became Minogue's ninth overall number one on the dance chart and her sixth consecutive number one.

On June 27, 2014, two years after its annual release, The Best of Kylie Minogue was released in Australia and New Zealand digitally and physically.

Critical response

The Best of Kylie Minogue received generally positive reviews from most contemporary music critics. The Best of Kylie Minogue received a score of 75/100 on Metacritic, indicating "Generally favorable reviews". Barry Walters of Rolling Stone gave the compilation four out of five stars, writing that it "plays like a crash course in the history of international club style—from the aerobic corn of her fluke 1988 hit 'The Loco-Motion' to 2010's feistier French house-inspired 'Get Outta My Way.'" AllMusic's Tim Sendra gave it four-and-a-half out of five stars and concluded, "This collection is proof that Kylie is arguably the best pop singer of her era and more importantly, is fun from beginning to end." OK! magazine called the compilation "[a]mazing" and stated that "Kylie collects together some of her finest moments."

However, Robbie Daw of Idolator commented that "while we were hoping for something more along the lines of a box set compiling her complete singles discography (sigh), we'll have to settle for the 21-track The Best Of Kylie Minogue". Q gave it a favorable review, but said "Part cipher, part siren, Minogue's odd power is underlined: it's not always clear quite what she does, but she does it brilliantly." PopMatters also gave it a favourable review. However, they said "If there were crimes committed against pop many moons ago, there is redemptive evidence on The Best of Kylie Minogue to warrant her a full reprieve 'n' pardon and perhaps even freedom of the city." They later concluded with a mixed reaction saying, "Misleading title, dopey sequencing and occasional 'Just crap'-ness aside, The Best of still offers much masterclass in perfect pop."

Commercial performance

The Best of Kylie Minogue debuted at number eleven on the UK Albums Chart, selling 9,703 copies in its first week. However, in its third week, the album descended out of the top forty to number forty-seven. It then descended to number ninety-seven for its last week, staying there for four weeks in total. The compilation managed to peak inside the top forty in countries including Scotland, Ireland, Czech Republic and Spain. In the U.S., the compilation debuted at number thirteen on the U.S. Dance/Electronic Albums. However, in its second week, the compilation descended to number twenty-three and fell out the next week.