", Minogue signed a new record contract and began working on her first album in six years with the likes of Ian Masterson, Korpi & Blackcell, Neïmo and Terry Ronald.

Neon Nights became the most successful album campaign of Minogue's career, peaking at number eight in the United Kingdom and spawning four top-ten singles in the territory, including "Put the Needle on It" and "I Begin to Wonder".

Despite producing a top-five hit with 1997's "All I Wanna Do", Minogue was dropped by record label Warner Brothers after her third studio album Girl became a commercial disappointment, and she saw herself as effectively retired from the music industry.

[10] Minogue worked on the album in London, Paris, and Stockholm, and was majorly involved with the songwriting process, having writing credits on 12 of the 15 tracks on the standard edition.

[11][21][18] "Mystified" was one of the first tracks to be finished for Neon Nights which helped to mold the album's electropop template, while the band Neïmo influenced its sonic palette with a pared-down "tough electro-punk sound".

[11][13][12] "Put the Needle on It", the opener, and "A Piece of Time" are both electroclash songs that convey this underground element; the former has been compared to Donna Summer, while the latter to Daft Punk and Miss Kittin.

[25] As mashups gained traction in the early 2000s, "I Begin to Wonder" and "Don't Wanna Lose This Feeling" were augmented for promotional use, blended with "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" (1984) by Dead or Alive and "Into the Groove" (1985) by Madonna, respectively.

"Put the Needle on It" is innuendo-laden, and "Vibe On" is about vibrators, reportedly an inside joke from the 1997 film Private Parts where a woman straddles a speaker between her legs.

[26][27] Critics have noted that Minogue infuses the record with a "sultry" and "sleazy" persona, with John Lucas of AllMusic writing that she is "sexually charged but smart and slightly aloof".

Rob Copesy of Official Charts called the artwork "strangely brilliant", while Ron Slomowicz of About.com compared it to Calvin Klein—"slice of life, like a bedroom photographer".

In March 2018, as part of the celebration of Neon Nights' 15th anniversary, Minogue announced a special reissue of the album on streaming, CD and, for the first time, on a limited edition 180g pink and blue double vinyl.

[35] While the digital and CD versions followed the same tracklisting of the Deluxe Edition released on 2007, the double colored vinyl featured a slightly revised selection of bonus tracks, most notably omitting the B-side "Nervous".

Neon Nights became Minogue's most successful album release, reaching number eight in the United Kingdom, selling 23,500 copies first week, And was certified Gold.

[39] The album was highlighted by Billboard with Keith Caulfield writing, "Neon Nights is full of unabashedly fun, well-crafted, pure dance songs.

"[40] Ron Slomowicz of About.com, who was a fan of Minogue's prior output, felt that the album "starts out amazingly" with "massive club hits", but criticized its middle section as "[wandering] into a murky area of 80's throwback-inspired retreads".

[38] Writing for RTÉ, Cristín Leach gave high praises to "I Begin to Wonder" and "Push", which the album's more "bland" material helped to elevate, and felt that Minogue was still "on her way" in carving an identity distinct from her sister's.

Karen Bliss from Tribute wrote that the album is "full of average booty-shaking dance tracks, good for the moment, but nothing memorable," though "It Won't Work Out" was highlighted as a "beautiful, earnest ballad".

[42] Kristina Feliciano of Entertainment Weekly echoed this sentiment and felt that Minogue "[needed] some of her big sister's cheekiness" on a set of "dance-floor trifles that's passable (especially "Put the Needle on It") but not very memorable.

Writing for The Arts Desk, Thomas H. Green found it to be "a sassy and bouncy surprise" full of "chewy, invigorated club-pop, imaginatively constructed".

[45] Quentin Harrison of Albumism outlined Minogue's "club siren transformation" and commented that "Neon Nights remains a distinct dance-pop marker".