Like Kylie Minogue’s Tension Generating its, well, tension from the swings between propulsive electro-pop and breezy synth-pop, the album’s sequel, Tension IIis fully committed to the former. ‘Padam Padam’ is a direct influence here, with the slinky, undulating synths and robotic vocal hooks of songs like ‘Kiss Bang Bang’ and ‘Hello’, an outtake from the original sessions, clearly indebted to that sleeper hit from Tension.

The new album, which could easily have been named More tensionis Minogue’s most unashamedly endearing collection of dance-pop songs since 2010 Aphrodite– maybe even from 2001 Fever. The Australian pop singer has, admirably, never before attempted to replicate that album’s global hit, ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’, but the frothy ‘Diamonds’, with its relentless bassline and earworm vocals, does a brave effort. Elsewhere, the sweeping bass and string sample of ‘Taboo’ nods to another catchy club anthem from the turn of the century: Madonna’s ‘Hung Up’.

Lyrically, Tension II largely sticks to themes of fun, flirting and fashion (try every time Minogue mentions a high-end label like YSL or Birkin). She pines for a friend’s lover on the standout “Someone for Me” and unashamedly makes a splash on “Hello”: “Hello, I’m at your door/I know you’re awake/Yes, it’s almost four o’clock/ Let me in.”

But lest you think the album is all empty calorie dance-pop, ‘Good as Gone’ finds Minogue delivering her most exhausting kiss-off yet: ‘I love the way I look, torn from your arms / Who would think that? would you be so nice? Combined with a wonderfully wobbly bassline and live disco strings, the song is a more than worthy addition to the lineage of the mother of all break-up songs: Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’.

Minogue originally planned to repackage it Tension with a handful of bonus tracks, including previously released duets with Sia (the repetitive “Dance Alone”) and Orville Peck (the country-infused “Midnight Ride”). Unfortunately, these songs feel tacked on to an otherwise cohesive set. The exception is the positively electric ‘Edge of Saturday Night’, a collaboration with the blessed Madonna, with a huge piano hook and a breathless bridge that any pop girl half Minogue’s age would kill for. Swap it with, say, “Dance to the Music,” which is about as generic as the title suggests, and Tension II would be an even stronger album than its predecessor.