Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	68/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
The A.V. Club	B
BBC Music	positive
The Boston Globe	positive
The Guardian
Herald Sun	positive
The Independent
The Irish Independent	mixed
musicOMH
The New Zealand Herald
NME	3/10
Slant Magazine

The Abbey Road Sessions is an orchestral compilation album by Australian recording artist Kylie Minogue, released on 24 October 2012 by Parlophone. The album was primarily produced by Steve Anderson and Colin Elliot. The album features sixteen tracks, all radically reworked, spanning Minogue's 25 years in the music industry. The album was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London with Minogue's band and a full orchestra during November 2011. Musically, the album is primarily orchestral music, which features several instrumentation of guitars, pianos, strings and drums.

The album's lead single "Flower", which was originally written in 2007, was a new titled song to the album. The album received generally positive reviews from music critics, with many finding the recordings her best vocal delivery to date, while some dismissed her transition to orchestral music. Upon its release, the album received generally modest success worldwide, entering the top forty in countries including Minogue's native Australia, Ireland, Switzerland, France and New Zealand. The album peaked at #2 in the United Kingdom, where it received a certification. Minogue then went on to promote the album with live performances.

Minogue made her live comeback at Abbey Road Studios in England on 11 November 2011, as part of a special showcase for EMI. She was accompanied by a 22-piece orchestra to perform two of her hits, "All the Lovers" and "On a Night Like This". That same night, Minogue announced that her forthcoming studio album would celebrate 25 years since the release of her debut single "Locomotion" and would contain reworkings of some of her best known songs. She revealed: "I've been at Abbey Road for about two weeks in total. Not just for this, I've been working on a project for next year. Next year's my 25th anniversary so we’ve been recording acoustic and orchestral versions of a number of my hits".

On 21 October 2012, Minogue was interviewed on the production of the sessions saying, "It's exploring other avenues – but I don't think it takes me completely away from the dancefloor, because I'm still a sucker for that [...] But I think it just rounds things up, makes things more whole and satisfies a different place in me." Before recording at Abbey Road, she had started rehearsals "somewhere cheaper". She said that the Abbey Road studio was "a bit intimidating. I thought the place would have attitude but the whole experience was really gorgeous and you know, you know you are on hallowed ground."

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Wikipedia