Between her late 1980s reign as the I Should Be So Lucky Aussie soap star turned pop princess and her iconic re-emergence, Kylie Minogue had an altogether different kind of pop career. In the mid-1990s, she released two exquisitely sophisticated albums, both simply titled Kylie Minogue, for the dance label Deconstruction. The best tracks from that period, plus a handful of previously unreleased songs and remixes, fill Hits +. Although the title is somewhat misleading given that the albums from which the tracks come were commercial flops, it's not overstating the case to say that with the likes of Breathe, Did It Again, and Automatic Love leading the way, this collection contains some wonderfully stylish pop. But it's the haunting singles Confide in Me, Put Yourself in My Place, and the Nick Cave duet Where the Wild Roses Grow, graced by the sumptuously breathy vocals that transformed bubblegum-pop Kylie into a seductress and institution, that are the jewels of this retrospective and her career. --Dan Gennoe