The singer asserted greater creative control over the project — writing every song on the album and producing material for the first time — compared to her previous work, assisted by Brothers in Rhythm, Manic Street Preachers, David Ball and Rob Dougan.

Conceived as an experimental record, the material encompasses a variety of darker styles from dance music, including trip hop, electronica, and rock.

Commercially, the album reached the top 10 in Australia, Scotland, and the United Kingdom; the British media, however, mocked its lack of success in Europe.

[11] Minogue began a romantic relationship with French photographer Stéphane Sednaoui and embarked on a series of trips with him throughout North America, Asia, and Australasia to gain inspiration for her upcoming record.

[17] Brothers in Rhythm member Steve Anderson explained this was "due to the pure perfectionism" of everyone involved; Minogue felt the album was worth the wait.

In the biography Kylie (2014), Sean Smith notes Sednaoui had a huge effect on Minogue's belief in herself and contributed to her vision of the future, while Cave helped her to embrace the past.

[27] Brothers in Rhythm put together a few songs initially planned for Impossible Princess but scrapped them because Minogue had started writing and they saw she had development as an artist.

[28] Strings were added at Sarm West Studios in London, and the tracks were then sent back to Real World for the final mixes, handled by engineer Alan Bremner.

[33] Anderson considered "Too Far" and "Drunk" to be the examples of Minogue's artistic progression, and her poetry lyrics were different from standard pop song structure.

[47] Marcel Anders of Orkus, and Nick Levine at Digital Spy labelled it a dance record, while a writer from Who magazine wrote the album ranges from trip hop, torch songs to scratchy guitar pop, and disco tracks.

[50] Chris True of AllMusic and Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine identified the record as part of the electronica and Britpop movements that spanned the mid-to-late 1990s.

[58] Ian Phillips of Sputnikmusic wrote that the orchestral pop ballad "Dreams" uses a mixture of eerie-sounding strings, booming bass, and drums.

[59] Cinquemani described the chaotic drum and bass "Too Far" as a blend of crisp breakbeats, a Moby-style piano progression and lush strings; "Drunk" as a trance song; and "Limbo" as a hybrid between rock and techno in the style of The Chemical Brothers.

[61] "Through the Years" contains muted horns, experimental vocal tracks and mournful lyrics; Cinquemani compared it to Björk's 1993 single "Venus as a Boy".

[65] In the biography Kylie: Naked (2012), Nigel Goodall and Jenny Stanley-Clarke likened Minogue's vocals to those of Tori Amos, Björk, Sinéad O'Connor, Kate Bush and Madonna.

[87] The final cover depicts Minogue sitting and surrounded by swirling multi-coloured lights, dressed in a blue sleeveless Véronique Leroy minidress, with no title or name imprinted.

[100] Released on 28 March 1998, the album had the original cover design; the 1997 copyright year; and Minogue's tribute to Sednaoui in the credits, despite having ended their relationship in late 1997.

[104] The standard edition of Impossible Princess was finally made available in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan in early January 1998, and was issued in Europe and the United Kingdom in March that year.

[106] Deconstruction cancelled plans to release Impossible Princess in North America following the sudden closure of her US distributor Imago Records in late 1994.

[107] In May 2003, Impossible Princess was remastered by Festival Mushroom in Australia and New Zealand, and BMG for European and UK regions, as a double CD album; the release contained a bonus disc featured remixes and three unreleased recordings: "Love Takes Over Me", "Tears", and "This Girl".

[110] Because of constant delays in 1997, Mushroom Records premiered six of the album tracks—"Some Kind of Bliss", "Too Far", "Say Hey", "Limbo", "I Don't Need Anyone", and "Did It Again"—on a special sample compact disc in Australia.

[118] The label stressed Minogue's wide-reaching appeal by setting up press cover interviews for her in various markets: broadsheets, dance specialists, tabloids, gay magazines, and style monthlies.

[122] Initially, she wanted to finish the tour in Melbourne on 4 July, but because of high demand in England, Minogue hosted three additional concert performances there.

[97] Released a week after Diana's death, "Some Kind of Bliss" was a commercial disappointment: it peaked at number 22 in the UK, Minogue's first single to not reach the top 20 there.

[131] Petro Romanhi directed the accompanying music video shot in London, in which Minogue portrays four different versions of herself: SexKylie, CuteKylie, IndieKylie, and DanceKylie.

[150] UK magazine Q lambasted the record's repetitious nature, while Music Week acknowledged the improvement in Minogue's vocal range and abilities.

[151] Ben Willmott of NME criticised the production of collaborator James Dean Bradfield, and labelled Minogue a "total fraud" for introducing new musical genres that were disparate from her previous work.

"[140] Dwyer highlighted the club-dance tracks as the better cuts, adding that the album shows Minogue's progress musically despite its wide range of styles and collaborators.

[181] On the 20th anniversary of the album, Ben Neutze of Daily Review opined that it stands as "the most intriguing chapter of her career, and the only significant glimpse at who this pop icon might be when stripped of other glorious facades.

[60] Owen Myers of Pitchfork described both albums, alongside Janet Jackson's The Velvet Rope (1997), as "a trilogy of A-list experimental pop records in 1997-8 that addressed their artists’ fears, anxieties, and dreams.