The Pop Zeal Project (Track 77): Kylie Minogue: Bittersweet Goodbye

It’s no wonder the word, lullaby appears in Kylie Minogue’s “Bittersweet Goodbye” from her 2000 album, Light Years. The song itself sounds as if it is one, with its tender piano and sweet, comforting vocals. However, it’s not the traditional kind of tale from parent to child, but this time from one lover to another, during the night into the dawn, before the couple parts. The song is written ambiguously to allow for interpretation; the story doesn’t automatically deduce that a breakup per se is about to happen. Yet this still doesn’t lessen the curiosity as to what makes the goodbye bittersweet, eluding, in part, that there is some benefit or joy that comes as a result. Perhaps it’s the future reunion that can only happen after one leaves in the morning light.

Hold this Note: Kylie hardly performs this track live in concert, but did so during her 2012 Anti-Tour, a scaled-down outing, which stopped only in select cities in Australia (Melbourne; Sydney) and England (Manchester; London), where b-sides, demos and rarities were performed in smaller venues.