It’s been a wacky week so
far. On Sunday we lost our power and I
had to help rescue a neighbour from the elevator who was trapped as a result. After a couple fumbling efforts with a
screwdriver I did what any red-blooded man would do; I called the fire department. They had him out in about five minutes.
Then it was three days of frantic work, so I could take Thursday and Friday off and enjoy a long weekend with friends. I just finished the final redraft in my football pool, and now a torrent of social engagements now awaits, but first – more music
reviews!
My last review was of an album
from 1980 that was firmly grounded musically in the 1970s. Now I’ve rolled an album that is from 1990
but firmly grounded musically in the 1980s.
Disc 460 is… X
Artist: INXS
Year of Release: 1990
What’s up with the Cover? A giant INXS logo, with a tiny bit of Michael
Hutchence’s hair in one corner. If you
fold out this cover it is a very lame poster of the band which no doubt many a
teenage girl put up on the walls of her room.
Mine shall remain safely in its jewel case.
How I Came To Know It: I bought this album when it came out, at a time when
I owned very few CDs (I only started buying CDs in 1989). At that time I had limited money (i.e. I was
broke) and I had to like at least three songs before I would consider buying an
album. “X” qualified.
How It Stacks Up: In my last INXS review back at Disc 362 I only
had three INXS albums, but I have since purchased a fourth (thanks to our
friends Gord and Dawn, who were liquidating their collection). Of the four, “X” is probably third best, just
behind “Listen Like Thieves” which I reviewed back at Disc 292.
Rating: 3 stars
It isn’t
a good sign when after listening to an album for three straight days you find
you have less to say about it then when you started, but such is my plight
approaching the review of INXS’ “X”.
Coming
into the review of an album I’ve known for so long is strange. I don’t remember buying it; like a very old
chair it just seems to have always been in my house. I think I purchased this album at a difficult
time in my life and maybe I’ve blocked a lot of my early listening experience out
as a result. I definitely remember it
having more emotional resonance back then.
Now I
see it more clearly, which is as another solid entry into INXS’ unique style of
eighties pop; although as I noted in the teaser, just slightly removed from the
eighties.
The
sound is definitely of its time, with heavy drum machine sounds, and
proto-electronic bass licks. The guitar
is set back in the mix but that is just as well, since the star of INXS is and
always will be Michael Hutchence. He is
the perfect eighties pop voice and he sings every song with gusto, making some
pretty basic lyrics sound slightly more important just through force of will.
Case in
point is “Faith in Each Other” which
may have a groovy bass line, but is also a hot mess of saxophone, drum machine
and what I think might be an ill-placed triangle. Still, when Hutchence tells us to “have faith in each other”, he manages to
shine more than a little meaning into the song through the thick glaze of
unfortunate production.
Much
better is the ballad, “By My Side,”
one of my favourite INXS songs. This is a
song about longing, and how you can be surrounded by strangers and still just
be thinking of the one person that isn’t there.
When Michael Hutchence sings about the small hours in the dark of night,
he transports us there, even as he pines for someone else to join him. This song is a fitting bookend to the more
famous “Never Tear Us Apart” from the
preceding album, “Kick.” “Never Tear Us Apart” is a defiant song
about cleaving together despite pressures to the contrary. “By My
Side” is a song featuring a much more intimate closeness, shrouded in night’s
cloak, and held together by the tension of longing for connection, without ever
quite achieving it.
The two
big hits were the upbeat “Suicide Blonde”
and “Disappear,” both great pop songs
that were fun to dance to but without a lot to say about them beyond that. I slightly prefer “Disappear”, mostly for the “doo
du doo doo du doo doo” background vocals, matched with Hutchence in fine
form singing just south of falsetto. It’s
kind of like Fine Young Cannibals, except enjoyable.
The last
song worth mentioning is “Know the
Difference” which I do remember being an important song when I was
younger. The lyric:
“What you do and what you say?
Do you know the difference
anyway?”
Has always
appealed to me. Strangely, I always
thought this was a song about the importance of honesty, but closer examination of the lyrics
this time around shows it is really about pining for a girl that the singer
can’t have, and resorting to belittling her reputation around town. I guess I never really
listened that carefully before. Now it
rings more like sour grapes and jealousy than an insight into hypocrisy.
Because
of a busy work schedule I’ve listened to this album many times over in the past
three days, and I can definitively state it is good, but not great. The songs are easy to listen to, but it isn’t
challenging, and I was admittedly a little bored at times. I’m in the mood for more of an active
engagement to the music in my life, either through the music or the lyrics. “X” just doesn’t have a lot to say, even
though it says it very well.
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