I was reluctant to write about Kylie Minogue’s new single All The Lovers from her forthcoming album Aphrodite when it premiered yesterday as the song didn’t grab me as fast as a lead single should. After a lot of listening, the song has started to grow on me and I’ve made up my mind about it.

All The Lovers is a mid-tempo, electro-pop ballad and very coherent to Kylie’s sound. While the melody and production are both very good, All The Lovers just doesn’t sound like a lead single. Nice is the only way to describe the song. It sounds more like a third or fourth single from an album campaign because it’s not all the things a lead single should be. It’s not instantly grabbing, it’s not pushing any boundaries and it doesn’t get stuck in your head. Having listened to the song multiple times, if I was asked how the song goes, I would have no idea how to sing it.

The song sounds like it could have been released anywhere between 2005 and now. It’s not a fresh sound but it’s more powerful than most mid-tempo ballads. I wouldn’t describe All The Lovers as anthemic, but it does sound very strong and melancholic. The production, by Kish Mauve, is very polished but it’s almost more crucial to the song than the melody or the vocal.

Lyrically, All The Lovers is nothing new. The most interesting piece of writing is probably in the chorus where Kylie metaphorically talks about her ex-lovers as if they’ve passed away. Elsewhere in the song, she generically talks about dancing and being with the person she loves.

For the middle-eight, the track gets completely stripped back to just Kylie’s vocal and a piano before launching back into quite a hypnotic instrumental, the only experimental and refreshing part of the song, before reaching the final chorus.

All The Lovers is a nice song but that’s about all there is to it. It would make a very strong album track but as a lead single, it doesn’t make much sense. It should have been left to become one of those songs like Speakerphone, a standout album track which the fans can appreciate but nothing more.

Kylie releases All The Lovers on June 28th followed by her eleventh studio album Aphrodite on July 2nd.