CD Odyssey Disc 770: INXS

For the second straight review we have an album that was so popular in the mid-eighties it was unavoidable.

Disc 770 is….Kick

Artist: INXS

Year of Release: 1987

What’s up with the Cover? Half of Michael Hutchence’s head, who nevertheless still looks handsome and smartly dressed, plus a bunch of other unattractive band members dressed like dorks. Also a skateboard. You can almost hear some out of touch record exec saying “And ah, yeah, put a skateboard on the cover, boys. The kids, they love their skateboards” as he waved a cigarette absently with one hand and dropped ashes on his mahogany desk that some receptionist would later have to clean up.

How I Came To Know It: I was a teenager in 1987, so like every other teenager in the western world, I knew this album. However, I never owned it until about three years ago when our friends Gord and Dawn were getting rid of their music collection, and I bought it off him for a good price.

How It Stacks Up: I had originally saved the #1 spot for this album, but frankly listening to it today just enraged me. I’m moving all the other albums up one spot and putting it dead last instead. Here’s the full list:

1. Listen Like Thieves: 3 stars (reviewed back at Disc 292)
2. X: 3 stars (reviewed back at Disc 460)
3. The Swing: 3 stars (reviewed back at Disc 362)
4. Kick: 2 stars (reviewed right here)

Ratings: 2 stars

When I rolled this album I was excited to giving it a listen with fresh ears, after refusing to give it a chance as a teenager. Instead it became a flashback to why the record annoyed me so much the first time.

“Kick” has a pretty simple formula – write a simple lick or guitar riff, play that lick to death, never letting it develop melodically, then add in some stupid lyrics that are borderline nonsense and then trust lead singer Michael Hutchence to bail you out and make them sound good.

Against all odds, Hutchence manages to pull this off on multiple occasions. He was a handsome guy built for the video age, but he also has a great rock voice and charisma that pours out of his vocals like liquid gold.

“New Sensation” and “Devil Inside” follow the formula to a tee. Both songs have instantly recognizable licks. “New Sensation” is about drug use and “Devil Inside” is attempting to speak to the battle of the sexes. At least I think what they’re about, since the lyrics are awful. Here’s the beginning of “Devil Inside”:

“Here come the woman with the look in her eye

Raised on leather with flesh on her mind

Words as weapons, sharper than knives

Makes you wonder how the other half die.

“Here come the man with the look in his eye

Fed on nothing but full of pride

Look at them go look at them kick

Makes you wonder how the other half live.”

Let’s put aside these incredibly bad attempts at rhyming for a second and just try to figure out what is going on. Are women killing men with their words, or is she raised on leather and using her body as a weapon? Is the guy hungry or angry? Is he kicking women? Just what the hell is going on here? Answer – who gives a damn.

When Hutchence sings this crap he just makes you think “dance party!” so it doesn’t matter what is going on, I guess. They might as well be filling the air with “oh oh oh” or “sha na na” like later Shania Twain songs do. Despite Hutchence’s heroics “New Sensation” can’t resist inserting an atrocious combo solo between a strangled saxophone and a drunk electric guitar. Fortunately it only lasts for about a bar and a half.

The best songs on the record are the sexy, sweaty “Need You Tonight” and “Never Tear Us Apart” the latter of which is a pretty sweet combination of classical violins backing a pretty rock n’ roll love song. Hutchence squeezes every drop out of “Never Tear Us Apart”, which is both sexy and cool and a key reason this record scores 2 stars. For all that, I think “By My Side” off of their next record (1990’s “X”) is a better version of the same thing.

So far I’ve only been talking about the album’s hits (it had a bunch) and if you’re hoping that the deep cuts redeem the overall experience, you are hoping in vain. Mostly, the other tracks have all the faults of the hits, minus the good riffs.

The album’s absolute nadir is “Mediate” a song that is basically eighties drum percussion and Hutchence rattling off a list of words that rhyme with the song title and don’t have much point beyond that. One line even implores listeners “not to hate” but I hated it anyway.

Given that “Kick” isn’t demonstrably different from my other three INXS albums, you might ask why I had such a strong reaction. Simply put, the other albums do what they do better. “The Swing” does the crazy eighties percussion sounds better. “X” is more polished and has markedly better songwriting overall and “Listen Like Thieves” is better on both these counts.

By contrast, “Kick” makes me hear the faults of other INXS albums feel magnified, which is probably the biggest reason it made me so grumpy.

Ten years ago, I watched the TV show “Rock Star: INXS” where the Farriss brothers sought a new lead singer to replace the tragically deceased Hutchence. After many weeks of weeding folks out, they ended up with finalists Marty Casey and J.D. Fortune. Casey was a real artist, and even brought an original song that was borderline thoughtful to the finale. Fortune was a Canadian doofus who looked and sounded like a bad version of Hutchence, and had very little going for him beyond that.

Regrettably, Fortune won, and they launched a tour that no doubt was packed with twenty-year anniversary celebrations of “Kick.” I kept well away; it takes all the talent of Michael Hutchence to kick even a bit of life into this album.

Best tracks: Need You Tonight, Never Tear Us Apart

CD Odyssey Disc 460: INXS

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.

Best tracks:  Suicide Blonde, Disappear, By My Side, Know the Difference

CD Odyssey Disc 362: INXS

When left to my own devices, I will sometimes get into a genre of music and explore it to the utmost. Over the years, I've had deep and meaningful relationships with metal, folk, swing, punk and seventies rock, and dalliances with a host of others.

Because of its random nature, the CD Odyssey prevents me from doing that, which I sometimes regret. However, by mixing all of my past loves together it keeps me engaged with all my musical interests at once, which I think I prefer.

Case in point the last couple of albums, a neo-disco record and this next one - classic eighties pop. Neither one that I would feel like seeking out right now on my own, but both of which I enjoyed once I gave them a bit of my time.

Disc 362 is...The Swing

Artist: INXS

Year of Release: 1984

What’s Up With The Cover?: A low budget? Seriously, this cover looks like a high school art project from a/v class. I do like the use of slides, which are so anachronistic in the modern digital age. Kind of like the haircuts on the INXS guys pictured - yikes. Also, do you think they could've put a little effort into looking in the same direction? This must be what passes for cool detachment in the day.

How I Came To Know It: I have known INXS since high school, but I didn't know "The Swing" until I met Sheila and she introduced me to it. This is her album, and one that she has sworn by over the years.

How It Stacks Up: We have three INXS albums. Of the three, I'd put "The Swing" as my least favourite, behind both "X" and "Listen Like Thieves" (the latter reviewed back at Disc 292).

Rating: 3 stars.

When I rolled this album for my next review I kept up a brave face, but I secretly dreaded it. Sheila loves this album, but I've never found it in my wheelhouse. It is very New Wave and heavily eighties. The only time it usually gets into the mix in our house is when Sheila picks it.

When I first started listening to it, I found it actively annoying, but in retrospect this wasn't because of the music, it was because of the context. I heard the first four songs driving to see the doctor for some tests, and then racing traffic to get back to work after the trip to the doctor took longer than expected. I hate going to the doctor. (FYI, I'm going to be fine - just checking on some minor stomach pains, so no get-well cards necessary).

However, once I gave the album my full attention on my walk to work, I found I had judged it too harshly. "The Swing" is one of those records that is not well known, but is all the more interesting for its lack of commercial success. (It was number 1 in Australia, but only got to #52 in North America with one minor chart success in Canada: the single, "Original Sin.")

It is a very dance-heavy album, and if you were of an age to party in Sydney back in 1984, songs off of "The Swing" likely got heavy airplay. The Farriss brothers can write a catchy lick, and while eighties dancing seems silly to us now, in the day this record would make you want to move. In fact, it still made me want to move, but that was just my age showing.

The accompanying eighties production distanced my emotional connection to it, however. I'm not a fan of the drum machine, and the very bad synth hook on "Burn For You" wrecks what is otherwise a promising song. I found myself thinking of the interesting expirements Tom Waits was doing with percussion around the same time ("Swordfishtrombone", "Rain Dogs") and wishing INXS had tried something along those lines. Still, not everyone has Tom Waits' brilliance. The fact that I even thought of INXS in the same sentence demonstrates they were showing something.

"The Swing" has a pop brilliance to it. Sparse and edgy, it has some rough edges that would be smoothed away by their next record, "Listen Like Thieves," but it is these rough edges that give it its charm and unique sound. On "All The Voices" the music sounds almost tribal and "Johnson's Aeroplane" captures some of the same catchy-yet-distant quality of some Cure songs like "A Forest" or "The Hanging Garden."

Also "Johnson's Aeroplane" scores bonus points for spelling airplane in that cool old-fashioned way. I'd like to see that spelling return as the default. People could eruditely ask one another questions like, "how are you traveling on your holiday - motorcar or aeroplane?" Such convesations should ideally be held among middle-aged dowager ladies with mid-Atlantic accents and broad-brimmed hats tied down with a broad scarf. But I digress...

Back to the album, which benefits greatly not only from the ability of INXS to write a memorable pop lick, but also the deep, back-of-the-throat eighties voice of Michael Hutchence. Hutchence doesn't always get the credit he deserves as a vocalist, likely because INXS doesn't do a lot of songs that force him to belt it out over multiple octaves, but the band isn't the same without him. Like Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath, Hutchence knows his role, singing along with the beat, and never leaving the rest of the song behind.

Lyrically, "The Swing" features a lot of themes around tolerance and acceptance, notably "Original Sin" and "Face The Change" and the anti-war song, "Dancing On The Jetty." None of their lyrics are particularly deep, but there are a lot of worse things to sing about.

This album crept up on me over the last couple of days, and I got a new appreciation for it. It didn't change my life or anything, but the music was interesting, innovative in places and on more than one occasion it made me tap my feet. I'm actually looking forward to the next time it goes into rotation on our CD player.

Best tracks: Original Sin, Dancing On The Jetty, Johnson's Aeroplane, Love Is (What I Say)

CD Odyssey Disc 292: INXS

This next album is one that both Sheila and I owned when we moved in together. It is always fun to see which albums you and your partner both had before you met.

I remember mine was on tape at the time - I'm not sure if Sheila's was on CD or tape, but we have it on CD now - hence its place on the CD Odyssey.

Disc 292 is...Listen Like Thieves

Artist: INXS

Year of Release: 1985

What’s Up With The Cover?: I don't know how long I've owned this album, but in preparing to write this part of the review, I realized there is a guy faintly visible inside the giant block letters spelling the band's name. Dude has a very bad haircut, but I believe it was the style at the time, so I'll give it a pass.

How I Came To Know It: I can't remember. I've known INXS since high school, but as for "Listen Like Thieves", I think it might've been my old room mate Greg who had this record (again, on tape). At least that makes sense.

How It Stacks Up: We have three INXS albums, none of which is "Kick", surprisingly. Of the three, I'd say this one is as good as 1990s "X" and better than 1984's "The Swing", so I'll say it is tied for first.

Rating: 3 stars.

INXS is one of those bands that I find easy to like, but hard to love. The Powers of the Internet inform me that they have twelve studio albums, yet I only have three, and no desire to get a fourth (not even their mega-popular and aforementioned 1987 release, "Kick").

I think that they are a band of their time - the eighties. The drum machine sounds, and saxophone solos and all that stuff from the mid-eighties that usually annoy me, fit like a glove on "Listen Like Thieves".

The vocal stylings of Michael Hutchence are similarly a perfect fit for their time, he has a powerful voice that sounds like he's always singing in the back of his throat. It also has a detached quality that fits in with the synthetic sounds that were big in pop music at that time.

Hutchence died in 1997, due to strangulation with a belt - either for purposes of suicide or autoerotic asphyxiation (it is still a matter of debate). The brains behind the operation were and are the Farriss brothers, who have a real penchant for writing catchy pop licks. I rarely feel emotionally pulled into their writing, but I admit they are good at what they do.

"Listen Like Thieves" is the tale of two records, unfortunately. Side One is excellent, and has their breakthrough hit "What You Need" and a battery of other radio friendly, catchy pop songs, my favourites of which are the title track, "Listen Like Thieves" and "Shine Like It Does". "Shine Like It Does" manages to cross out of the emotional detachment of the time, and gives me a genuine sense of elation when I hear it.

It isn't the lyrics, either, which are largely forgettable. It is just the way the song is constructed to make you feel like things have always been OK, they're OK right now, and they're going to be OK in the future. Sometimes, that's all I need from my pop music, I suppose.

Side Two is a major drop off, with the best song being "This Time", and the remainder being largely forgettable. The obligatory 'we are respectable artists!' eighties instrumental "Three Sisters" is nearly unlistenable. Having one side not as good as the other is a bad combination when I owned this on tape - there was a lot of FF, then PLAY, then FF again, then RW, as I clumsily tried to guess where the next good song started.

In later years, INXS tarnished their legacy with the abominable, "Rock Star: INXS" - a reality TV show where the middle aged survivors of the band hold auditions to replace Hutchence as lead singer. They make long, impassioned speeches to the contestants about how they want a new front man - not just a replacement for Hutchence who 'could never be replaced.'

One by one, they eliminate the interesting contestants, until they settle on J.D. Fortune, a complete nob chosen principally because he sings and looks like Michael Hutchence.

Yes, I watched the show, and I admit I'm still bitter at having wasted the time, but it doesn't affect the joy I still get from "Listen Like Thieves" - an album of INXS' from a better time and a more honest place. It may not bowl me over, but it is still a good listen - especially on CD where it is way easier to skip the lesser tracks.

Best tracks: What You Need, Listen Like Thieves, Shine Like It Does, This Time