Discography Deep Dive: INXS

Back in January I decided to listen to the entire INXS discography and take notes on each album. I had no intentions to do anything with the notes and just saw it as something fun to do. Now that I’m finally done with grad school, I’ve wanted to do more writing and decided to revisit this project.

My first exposure to INXS was their 1985 crossover hit “What You Need” whose music video was all over MTV.

I mostly followed the band through their singles and music videos until 1990 when I got their then latest album X on cassette. As the 90s went on, they fell off my radar but I still loved those older songs and records.

Below are the notes that I took while listening to INXS’ discography. Most of them are stream-of-consciousness type thoughts.

Discography Notes

• INXS (10/13/1980)

  • This is…not great. It’s like mashing up The Police and Talking Heads, and not in a good way.

  • The opening track, “On a Bus” isn’t bad.

• Underneath the Colours (10/19/1981)

  • The title track is good.

  • This album reminds me a lot of Sing Street. See “Drive It Like You Stole It”.

  • This album showed growth but I still wouldn’t call it good.

• Shabooh Shoobah (10/13/1982)

  • From the opening 30 seconds of the opening track, “The One Thing,” you can tell that this is going to be a much better album.

  • Hmmm…this second song (“To Look at You”) is a down step.

  • This was the band’s first album to be released internationally and it did well for a new wave-y post punk record in 1982. (Wikipedia)

  • This is the kind of record that shows a band’s potential and growth with one brilliant song. It’s not a great album but you can tell that the band has a great album in them.

  • “Old World New World” is a really good song.

  • “Don’t Change” is exceptional. Not only is it the best song on this album, it is the best thing the band did up to this point, and it is one of their best songs of all time. This is their Big Music anthem.

• The Swing (03/21/1984)

  • “Melting in the Sun” is one of the most 80s songs I have ever heard. In a lot of ways, INXS was the quintessential 80s band.

  • This is a good album that keeps up the improvements but still isn’t quite there yet.

• Listen Like Thieves (10/14/1985)

  • This is the album that broke them in the United States. The opening track “What You Need” was an instant classic and hit # 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. (Wikipedia)

  • The second song, the title track, is nearly as good. This is the first INXS album to open with two excellent songs in a row.

  • In fact, the first four songs are all great.

  • This is what I want out of my INXS. Big, epic, soaring anthems that give Michael Hutchence a chance to show what his voice could do.

  • WTH is going on with “Three Sisters”? That was a waste.

  • So far in the band’s career, this is their most rockin’ album.

• Pretty in Pink: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (02/28/1986) and The Lost Boys: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (07/31/1987)

  • “Do Wot You Do” is a hidden gem in this band’s discography. Granted, I do have a huge affinity for the movie Pretty in Pink and its outstanding soundtrack but I think my opinion on the song stands.

    • This song is the perfect segue between Listen Like Thieves and Kick.

  • The band contributed two songs to The Lost Boys, both with fellow Australian musician Jimmy Barns (of Cold Chisel). The first was a cover of The Easybeats' “Good Times” and the second was “Laying Down the Law.” (Wikipedia)

• Kick (10/19/1987)

  • This was the band’s biggest commercial success.

  • “Need You Tonight” and “Mediate” should always be played together like “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions.”

  • This entire record is excellent and really where the band peaked.

  • Even though Kick was released in 1987, I associate it more with 1988. “Devil Inside” and “Never Tear Us Apart” were released as singles in 1988. (Wikipedia)

• X (09/25/1990)

  • I owned this on cassette in real-time and loved it.

  • I remember seeing INXS perform “Suicide Blonde” on an MTV awards show. I’m pretty sure it was the premiere of the song.

  • Like Kick, X opens extremely strong with three of the album’s best songs.

  • “The Stairs” is my favorite and, I would argue, INXS’ best song.

• Live Baby Live (11/11/1991)

  • I also had this in real-time and loved it.

  • Why wasn’t “Don’t Change” included on this album?

  • I can’t remember where in the track listing, you switched sides. I think that is where the new track “Shining Star” was put, if not that was a weird choice. It’s a pretty good song that dips back into the dance music of the band’s earlier releases. It sounds a bit like what was happening in the UK with Madchester, baggy, grebo, etc.

  • Most of this record comprises songs from Listen Like Thieves, Kick, and X. “Burn for You” is the only song from an earlier release (The Swing).

• Welcome to Wherever You Are (08/03/1992)

  • This record was the beginning of the band’s commercial downturn. In a lot of ways, I think INXS struggled in the 90s because they were so heavily identified as an 80s band.

  • The dance elements are strong in the first few songs. By the time this came out in 1992, the masses had moved on to Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Irony was in and dance-infused rock music was out.

    • The irony is that Welcome to Wherever You Are is not all that dissimilar to Achtung Baby. Both are dance-infused rock from bands that started in the post punk world. The difference is that U2 went into irony hard. They made such a pivot that they seemed like a different band. INXS just kept being INXS.

  • This is a sneaky good album, though the first half is better than the second.

  • That said, I am not a fan of this closing track.

• Full Moon, Dirty Hearts (11/02/1993)

  • Prior to this exercise, I’d never listened to this album or the one that followed it.

  • Like the previous record, this album continues with a lot of the same type of production on Achtung Baby.

  • “Make Your Peace” is a very bluesy song.

  • “Time” is a very dirty, southern rock number.

  • It’s interesting to think about this record in conversation with what was going on in music at the time. This is such a…weird…direction to take things.

  • Reading about this album’s production makes me wonder if this was the band’s midlife crisis? That’s probably not fair considering Michael Hutchence suffered head trauma prior to recording the record.

  • Wow, this record is bluesy. I typed this while listening to the title track.

  • What is going on with “Cut Your Roses Down”?

  • I’m not sure if I like this album or not. I’m leaning towards not.

  • The drum sound on this album really reminds me of The Cult’s 1994 self-titled album. See “Coming Down (Drug Tongue)” or “Star”.

• Elegantly Wasted (04/15/1997)

  • This was the last album recorded with Michael Hutchence.

  • Maybe I’ve been distracted while listening, but the first two songs were just there. The third one is pretty good though. Actually, scratch that last part.

  • Hutchence’s vocals sound really off.

  • The song “Searching” reminds me of New Edition. Think “Cool It Now”.

  • “We Are Thrown Together” could have been good but it just falls apart.

  • This is sad.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• This is a band that started and ended rough but in the middle put out four excellent albums. Listen Like Thieves, Kick, X, and Welcome to Wherever You Are all show what this band was capable of when firing on all cylinders. Yes, those all happen to be the band’s most commercially successful records, but they are also their best.