Rhythm of Love is a musical departure from Minogue's earlier bubblegum pop records, and has a more sexually liberated image and dance-influenced sound.

Promotion for Rhythm of Love included controversial music videos and continued to associate Minogue with an increasingly provocative image.

[3] She believed the role of a rebellious, passionate country girl that suffers through an abortion during her teenage years and has several love scenes in the film would establish her as a serious actor.

[5] Released in late 1989, both the film and the album were commercially successful though received mixed reviews from critics, many of whom considered them as failed attempts to differentiate Minogue's girl-next-door image.

[6] Minogue first met Michael Hutchence, lead singer of Australian rock band INXS, at the Countdown Awards ceremony in July 1987.

[8] That December, Minogue broke up with her partner of three years and Neighbours co-star, Jason Donovan, over the telephone, and later attended the Australian premiere of The Delinquents with Hutchence; the couple's public announcement of their relationship attracted intense attention.

[11] Dissatisfied with her limited creative input on her first two albums, Minogue strategised with her manager Terry Blamey and her Australian label Mushroom Records to force a change in her relationship with SAW.

[13] With Kylie deciding to collaborate with US producers on the new record, this move pressured SAW into conceding the singer creative input, and they gave her veto on mixes, which she used.

[26] Sessions with Keith Cohen, Michael Jay, and Madonna's longtime collaborator Stephen Bray produced the tracks "The World Still Turns", "One Boy Girl", "Count the Days", and "Rhythm of Love"—all of which credited Minogue as co-writer for the first time.

[28] Jay decided on an R&B-tinged ballad after being given a brief by MCA records to "give [Kylie] a hit in the United States", although he says he had to restrain himself from his personal wish to produce SAW-inspired pop.

[13] Jay says he felt he'd failed the mission to produce a US hit when he heard the final album, after realising the extreme quality of the SAW-produced singles, but acknowledges he was working to a very different brief than the UK production team.

[32] Rhythm of Love is primarily a dance-pop album, marking a departure from the bubblegum pop music of Minogue's earlier work.

[35] Marc Andrews from Smash Hits stated Rhythm of Love "is not as 'different' as it could have been", with the majority of the tracks being "familiar boompy-tee-boomp backbeat, swirling strings and relentless thumping drums".

[47] She sings about falling in love on "Always Find The Time", a SAW-produced upbeat track with incidental cymbal crashes,[48] and samples from Mary Jane Girls' 1983 single "Candy Man", written and composed by Rick James.

[49] Jeremy Mark of Number One noted that "The World Still Turns", the first song on Rhythm of Love co-written by Minogue, is "the only real attempt at a ballad on the album", although its pace is "not especially slow and smoochy".

[48] "One Boy Girl" blends rhythmic new jack swing with house elements, and includes strong dance beats and a rap conversation between Minogue and the Poetess.

[56] The photograph session for Rhythm of Love took place within Los Angeles in October 1990; Minogue wore a small, cropped leotard with chains and a white, feather costume while standing in a desert.

[54] Minogue donated the bikini costume with boots worn in the photoshoot, which was designed by Azzedine Alaïa, to the Cultural Gifts Program of the Arts Centre Melbourne in 2004.

[57] A month before the album's UK release, photographs from the session were featured in a six-page spread for Smash Hits, in which Minogue said of her "dramatic" new image, "I've grown up.

2, an eleven-track compilation of remixed songs from Rhythm of Love and Let's Get to It (1991), Minogue's fourth studio album, was released across Japan in July 1992.

[66] In October 2014, it was announced Rhythm of Love, along with Enjoy Yourself, Let's Get to It, and Minogue's debut studio album Kylie (1988), was to be re-released by Cherry Red Records and PWL.

[73] Her provocative dance moves and choice of costumes—PVC mini-dresses and skin-tight body suits—drew strong reactions from critics, many of whom compared them to costumes worn by Madonna.

[89] In the video, Minogue appears in a variety of film star looks, irons clothes while wearing a French maid costume, and shows a tattoo of a black panther on her back.

[93] The remix includes a rap during the bridge that was written and performed by Jazzi P. The song's music video, which was also directed by Hogan, was filmed at the Pinewood Studios, Iver Health, on 24 and 25 April 1991.

[99] Chris True of AllMusic considered it to be a more accomplished album than either of Minogue's previous two releases, benefitting from the songwriting, production, and her confident vocals.

[47] Mark was impressed by the album's catchy and memorable material, praising "Step Back in Time" and "Better the Devil You Know" as two of the singer's finest singles.

[41] By contrast, Harrison criticised her collaborations with other producers as useless but noted there were steps to "reposition [Minogue] in the teen pop queen market".

[35] It was one of three of Minogue's studio albums to receive a four-star rating from British writer Colin Larkin in the Encyclopedia of Popular Music (2011) beside Light Years (2000) and Fever (2001), with him classifying it as "high standard".

[102] Ernest Macias from Entertainment Weekly said in 2018 that the album showcases Minogue, for the first time, as a "pop icon, propelled by her angelic vocals, sensual music videos, chic fashion, and distinct dance sound".

[111] Later that year, Rhythm of Love was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for selling 70,000 copies in Australia.