Impossible Princess - Writing and Composition

Writing and Composition

Minogue began writing lyrics for Impossible Princess in 1996 during her trips with Sednaoui to the US and China. When she returned, Minogue was constantly writing down words, exploring the form and meaning of sentences. She had written lyrics before, but called them "safe, just neatly rhymed words and that's that". For Impossible Princess, she took inspiration from Sednaoui and her own experiences as a celebrity. Minogue initially had a hard time embracing her past, looking back on it as a time of pain and confused embarrassment. Confronting her past helped her improve her confidence; she said "it was like I'd climbed Mount Everest, or jumped out of a plane. So many things that I had avoided for so long were right there. That was what Nick (Cave) was saying to me. 'It'll be brilliant. It'll confront all of your past, all in one fell swoop'. And he was right."

In 1996, Minogue collaborated with members of the alternative music band Manic Street Preachers. She first met with Manic Street Preachers' lead singer, James Dean Bradfield at his home. Bradfield later sent her a demo of "I Don't Need Anyone", which she loved, stating "it was so refreshing to hear something so different from what I had been working on. To have something so fresh come in that somebody else had been working on and taken control of, was a nice break for me." Minogue gave Bradfield another two sets of lyrics. He took parts from each set and blended them together to create the album's lead single "Some Kind of Bliss".

The album became the first release to contain songs solely written by Minogue. Minogue composed the song "Too Far" on a grand piano; additional instruments were added during production. Minogue wrote dozens of songs with various producers over a two-year period, many of which remain unreleased. After a set of lyrics were completed, she would record a vocal demo and evaluate the song's potential.

Minogue had greater freedom to make Impossible Princess sound as she wanted it to. Deconstruction's A&R department had not been present for much of the recording, due to the poor health of its head, Pete Hadfield. This left Minogue with creative control over the project. At first she believed that the album contained too many musical styles, but changed her mind, stating, "I thought, partly to justify it to myself, but mainly because it's the truth, that if I had a whole album that sounded like "Some Kind of Bliss", or a whole album that sounded like "Too Far", it would be a lie, because I'm all over the place as a person".