INXS – Album By Album

Fronted by the hugely charismatic Michael Hutchence, Australian six-piece INXS rose to world domination with a punchy blend of new wave, funk and dance-rock that was tailor-made for stadiums. Here we present our INXS – Album By Album Guide:

INXS (1980)
Label: Deluxe – Chart Positions: AUS No.27 US No.164

Initially known as The Farriss Brothers, followed by The Vegetables, INXS thankfully settled on their more familiar guise in time for their eponymous 1980 debut album. They also wisely swerved first manager Gary Morris’ suggestion to pursue the Christian market that was beginning to take shape in their native Australia, a direction which would have inevitably robbed the country of its most lascivious rock god.

Instead, drummer Jon Farriss, his multi-instrumentalist siblings Tim and Andrew, guitarist Kirk Pengilly, bassist Garry Gary Beers and frontman Michael Hutchence opted for a less holy blend of post-punk, New Wave and ska which sounded positively soaked in Castlemaine XXXX. That’s little surprise when you learn its 10 tracks were recorded in the midnight hours, allowing the sextet to continue building a presence on the Sydney live circuit (and stick within the slim $10,000 budget handed out by fledgling label Deluxe Records).

Raw & Raucous

Indeed, there’s little of the gloss that by the end of the same decade would help INXS sell out stadiums far beyond Antipodean waters. Co-produced with Duncan McGuire of 70s jazz fusion outfit Ayers Rock, this LP is raw, raucous and ramshackle stuff which recalls the likes of Men At Work, Midnight Oil and every other band that rose through the no-holds-barred Aussie pub scene. In a fair summary, Hutchence himself later described it as “naïve, kinda cute” and the sign of “young guys struggling for a sound.”

You could argue that the group were struggling for words, too. INXS contains some of their dodgiest lyrics from “I’ve got a place with a view, you can see all the cars, hello cars!” on the propulsive closer Wishy Washy or the clumsy come-on in Roller Skating (“City lights turning green to red/ I know I can’t see her/ All I want to do is take her to bed”). Hutchence, who spends most of the record yelping and hollering, comes across less of a smooth lothario and more of an excitable dork.

The allbum does boast at least a couple of tunes that would merit a place on an INXS Best Of. The Joe Jacksonesque opener On A Bus, for example, and Just Keep Walking, the angry young man anthem which became their first Top 40 back home. But it’s one of those records which was no doubt more fun to make than it is to listen to.

UNDERNEATH THE COLOURS (1981)
Label: Deluxe – Chart Positions: AUS No.15

INXS have never been particularly rapturous about their second album either. Indeed, although Hutchence believed that Underneath The Colours was a step up from their “cheapie” debut album, Pengilly argued that it suffered from a lack of preparation having been recorded immediately after their first major national tour.

Both parties have a point. Produced by Richard Clapton, something of a cult hero on the Aussie singer-songwriter scene, its 10 tracks display a maturity that had previously been lacking. There’s nothing that could be mistaken for The Wiggles this time round. And while INXS had seemed like a conscious attempt to replicate their live energy on record, Underneath The Colours was the sound of a band recognising that the studio itself can be a force for creative good.

But while Clapton’s unfussy, spacious production gives the six-piece more time to breathe (see the ominous slow-burner Horizons) there’s a sketchiness which proves INXS were still light years away from the honed, hit-making machine they’d later become. How the record could have benefited from The Loved One, the edgy cover of The Loved Ones’ rock’n’roll classic which earlier in the year had sent INXS into Australia’s Top 20.

Rockabilly Toe-Tapper

It’s perhaps telling that none of its three singles followed suit. That’s not to say Underneath The Colours is entirely devoid of hooks. The title track finds Hutchence channelling not Mick Jagger but David Bowie on a prime slice of 70s art rock which could have escaped from the latter’s Berlin trilogy.

Vibrant opener Stay Young is the band’s most convincing attempt to ape the ska movement dominating the music scene on the other side of the world. And it’s practically impossible to hear the rockabilly of Night Of Rebellion without tapping your toes. Furthermore, the three tracks penned solely by Hutchence and Andrew Farriss (Stay Young, Horizons, Underneath The Colours) would lay the foundations for what would become one of the late 80s most potent songwriting partnerships. However, as with its predecessor, it’s not difficult to see why Underneath The Colours has been paid dust.

SHABOOH SHOOBAH (1982)
Label: Warner – Chart Positions: AUS No.5 US No.46

Shabooh Shoobah may boast the worst album title in INXS’s back catalogue – apparently named in honour of the onomatopoeic percussive sound in Spy Of Love – but it’s the first time the group showed glimpses of their world-conquering future. Not only did it spend 94 weeks on the ARIA album chart, but it also spawned a couple of Hot 100 hits in the States and by the end of the campaign, the one-time local stars were sharing the US Festival bill with The Clash.

Best-known for his work with harder-rocking Aussies AC/DC and Cold Chisel, Mark Opitz appeared to be the catalyst for this global breakthrough. Channelling the playlists of early 80s MTV, from The Police (Aboriginal tale Jan’s Song) to Devo (buoyant drinking anthem Golden Playpen) to tourmates Adam And The Ants (the percussive Black And White), the producer skilfully applied some much-needed spit and polish without sacrificing the band’s barroom roots.

But Hutchence can also take much of the credit, co-writing all but one of its 10 tracks, and on New Wave stomper The One Thing and sweeping disco-punk of closer Don’t Change – an instant classic that’s been covered by acts including Bruce Springsteen and Limp Bizkit – displaying the natural self-assurance that would eventually become his trademark.

THE SWING (1984)
Label: Warner – Chart Positions: AUS No.1 US No.52

With the band finally making waves outside of Australia and New Zealand, INXS didn’t take any chances with their fourth LP, recruiting the one and only Nile Rodgers in the same year that the disco legend produced No.1s for superstars Duran Duran (The Reflex) and Madonna (Like A Virgin). The Swing didn’t exactly propel INXS into the same big league – although it reached the top spot back home, it could only peak at No.52 on the Billboard 200 in the US – but it continued to steady the ship until monster hit-making gold was struck.

Recorded in various Sydney studios, New York’s famous Power Station and Oxfordshire’s The Manor, the latter with Nick Launay (Midnight Oil, The Birthday Party), the globe-trotting LP did at least provide the band with another bona fide smash. And although the world peace messaging of the Daryl Hall-assisted Original Sin – remarkably their first and still only Australian No.1 single – is about as nuanced as your average Miss World speech, it deservedly remained a setlist staple.

Mr Rodgers’ Neighbourhood

The sorry state of the universe in 1984 appeared to be a prevalent topic of conversation for the band, with Dancing On The Jetty also displaying something of a hippy mentality (“Watch the world argue/ Argue with itself/ Who’s going to teach me/ Peace and happiness”). But you don’t look to an INXS album for profound statements on diplomatic issues. You do, however, expect plenty of taut guitar riffs, danceable beats and buckets of swagger. And The Swing certainly delivers on that front, with Melting In The Sun, Face The Change and Burn For You all serving as Kick-era prototypes. Meanwhile, Johnson’s Aeroplane, a celebratory, if sonically creepy, ode to the nation’s farmers, also proved that the Aussies could be just as magnetic when they weren’t soundtracking the party.

Interestingly, the UK still didn’t bite, with The Swing’s four singles and the album itself all failing to make any significant headway there whatsoever. But this would be the last time that the land of Paula Yates, The Tube and The Big Breakfast, remained completely immune to Michael Hutchence’s rock star charms.

LISTEN LIKE THIEVES (1985)
Label: Warner – Chart Positions: UK No.48 US No.11

“I hadn’t seen a gig that exciting or a band having that kind of effect on people in years,” said Chris Thomas after checking out INXS at the Hollywood Bowl in 1984, as quoted in their 2005 autobiography. And having co-produced Sex Pistols’ Never Mind The Bollocks, who better to try replicating this raw magnetism on record?

Using then-career highpoint Don’t Change as the blueprint, Listen Like Thieves abandons any political ideals and aims straight for the party jugular, harnessing Hutchence’s Jim Morrison-meets-Mick Jagger presence more effectively than ever. Even Princess Diana seemed enamoured when the six-piece interrupted their accompanying tour to headline a Melbourne royal appointment.

From the Prince-esque funk of opener What You Need – the first of seven US Top 10s – to hard-rocking closer Red Red Sun, INXS ooze confidence and devil-may-care attitude. They even throw in a quirky Amazonian-themed instrumental, Three Sisters, just for the hell of it.

The ever-hostile domain that was the 80s NME may not have been convinced – ‘INX-cusable’ was the scathing verdict – but with the debonair Kiss The Dirt (Falling Down The Mountain), break-up anthem This Time and bluesy title track all around the lower reaches of the charts, the Aussies were on the verge of winning over the Poms.

KICK (1987)
Label: Warner – Chart Positions: UK No.9 US No.3

In a sign of just how ambitious INXS had become, the Chris Thomas-produced Kick was designed specifically as an album in which every track could be released as a single. In the end, it spawned an official five, although thanks to an accompanying Bob Dylan parody video for Mediate and a re-recorded version of 1981 cover The Loved One, the general familiarity level was much higher.

Remarkably, four made the US Top 10, with the sultry Devil Inside and live-for-the-moment anthem New Sensation bookended by their two defining hits. Written, like much of the blockbuster record, during an inspiration-seeking trip to Hong Kong, Need You Tonight may have been the biggest: the combination of Farriss’ deliciously slinky guitar riffs and Hutchence’s walking libido vocals topping the US Hot 100 and coming within a whisker of repeating the feat this side of the Atlantic.

But it’s Never Tear Us Apart, initially composed as a Fats Domino-style blues number, which remains INXS’ crowning glory. Boasting Pengilly’s most heartbreaking sax solo and Hutchence’s most wounded delivery, the orchestral waltz entered the Great Australian Songbook immediately, with its inherent sombreness also later becoming a fitting soundtrack for the band’s darkest day, their frontman’s funeral.

Live-For-The-Moment Anthem

Yet Kick has more to offer than its impeccable run of hits. Opener Guns In The Sky, an anti-nuclear war anthem taking aim at Ronald Reagan’s ‘Star Wars’ initiative, proved that Hutchence could pen a funk rock stomper entirely on his own, while the motivational title track and eerily prescient closer Tiny Daggers (“Do you ever stop to think/ Where it went wrong for you”) both fulfilled the brief, too.

Crystallising everything great about the group’s previous five albums, Kick dominated the MTV Awards, spawned a 16-month world tour and, having shifted more than 10 million globally, is one of the all-time biggest Aussie sellers. And its legacy is still growing: the record recently soundtracked a key storyline in Gen Z’s parentscaring drama Euphoria.

Incredibly, despite its blockbuster potential, Kick was dismissed on first hearing by US label Atlantic. In fact, only manager Chris Murphy’s last-ditch suggestion to target college radio saved the LP from a $1 million re-recording, which would have robbed us of an all-time stadium rock great.

X (1990)
Label: Warner – Chart Positions: UK No.2 US No.5

Having explored various musical avenues outside the band – Hutchence with duo Max Q, Beers with the similarly short-lived Absent Friends and Andrew Farriss producing singer-songwriter Jenny Morris – INXS reconvened with Chris Thomas for a third time on an LP which some accused of being as unimaginative as its title.

Named in honour of their 10th anniversary as a fully-fledged recording act, X showed little evidence of their extracurricular activities. ‘The same but bigger’ appeared to be the dominant mantra, no doubt inspired by the super-sized Rhinoceros 2 Sydney studio which essentially compelled everything to be turned up to 11.

Admittedly, several of its 11 tracks instil a sense of déjà vu. Written about the loneliness of touring, the stately By My Side is a blatant retread of Never Tear Us Apart, while the harmonica-driven Suicide Blonde, a term coined by Hutchence’s then-girlfriend Kylie Minogue to describe her wig in The Delinquents, mines the same funk-rock territory of Kick’s other hits.

Bigger And Better?

“And it’s all been felt before,” Hutchence sings on Who Pays The Price, inadvertently paraphrasing their unimpressed critics. But X isn’t always as tried and tested as the music press, no doubt determined to bring the superstardating, tabloid-friendly Hutchence down a peg or two, made out. The housey piano keys on people-power anthem Hear That Sound and Bitter Tears suggests that the Second Summer of Love hadn’t entirely passed the Aussies by. On My Way, one of three tracks to feature the harmonica talents of legendary Chicagoan Charlie Musselwhite, is a barnstorming number proving that Depeche Mode didn’t have the 1990 monopoly on lustful blues.

And although The Stairs isn’t quite the game-changer the band promised, its saddening portrait of inner-city life is INXS at their most poetic. X didn’t do anywhere near the same numbers as its phenomenal predecessor. It was never going to. But capped off with a sold-out Wembley show and two BRITs (one strangely for Hutchence as Best International Male), it still deserves to be categorised under their imperial phase.

LIVE BABY LIVE (1991)
Label: East West – Chart Positions: UK No.8 US No.72

Named after the most inspirational line from New Sensation, Live Baby Live essentially brings down the curtain on the worldconquering chapter of INXS’s career. The original version, which added to the band’s tally of UK Top 10 albums, was recorded across the Aussies’ Summer XS Tour of 1991, a period when Hutchence was just about clinging onto his premier rock god status.

The frontman certainly justifies such a tag during a setlist which, inevitably, is dominated by the one-two punch of Kick and X – The One Thing and Burn For You are the only nods to their days as a local concern. Indeed, judging by the screams emitted after each song, all of which sound precision-tooled for stadium venues, Hutchence still possessed the kind of charisma which left every single audience member in the palm of his hand.

A second edition, recorded entirely at Wembley Stadium in front of 74,000 fans, added five other INXS favourites, most notably singles Original Sin and Devil Inside. While the accompanying concert film, released first on VHS, then DVD and then in 2019, cinemas, gave others the chance to witness the six-piece’s no-frills (“No ego ramps, no back-up singers, no props, no grand pianos,” Tim Farriss once proudly declared) but full-powered performance style in all its glory.

WELCOME TO WHEREVER YOU ARE (1992)
Label: East West – Chart Positions: UK No.1 US No.16

A 60-piece orchestra, some Middle Eastern instrumentation, layers of distortion and backing vocals from Pengilly’s future wife Deni Hines. Even with the return of Shabooh Shoobah producer Mark Opitz, INXS’s eighth studio effort could never be accused of simply retreading over old ground.

Indeed, Welcome To Wherever You Are is undoubtedly the sextet’s most experimental affair, veering from the baggy-adjacent pop of Taste It to the Velvet Underground-inspired melancholy of Beautiful Girl with a maturity befitting of a band now all well into their mid-thirties.

Exemplifying the fact the Aussies were no longer the new kids in town, Welcome… was essentially a two-man job, with most members forced to take a backseat due to very grown-up issues: brothers Jon and Tim were busy dealing with an impending wedding and bone condition exostosis, respectively, Pengilly had just split up with his girlfriend of 10 years, while Beers was gearing up to become a father once again.

UK No.1 Album

Perhaps this lack of interference emboldened Michael Hutchence and the only Farriss sibling not in the midst of a life-changing development to cast the musical net a little wider. Recruiting the Australian Concert Orchestra for two tracks was certainly an inspired move, their symphonic arrangements further enhancing the anthemic nature of second single Baby Don’t Cry and giving the brooding, beatless closer Men And Women a touch of John Barry classiness.

But even when the band aren’t pushing their boundaries, as on the Iggy Pop-esque garage rock of Heaven Sent and the stadiumfriendly tech satire Communication (“Spinning metal blue satellite/ Your dish responds/ Communication disinformation/ So entertaining”), they sound highly re-energised. Welcome To Wherever You Are might be where America checked out – it charted no higher than No.16 on the Billboard 200. But fans across the other side of the pond rewarded the group’s new-found dynamism with their sole UK No.1 album: even the typically sniffy music press got on board, with Q magazine declaring it as “a far more engaging and heartfelt collection than anything the group has put out in recent memory.” More than 30 years on, it’s stood the test of time, too.

FULL MOON, DIRTY HEARTS (1993)
Label: East West – Chart Positions: UK No.3 US No.53

INXS’s ninth LP arrived following the devastating Copenhagen attack which left their frontman with a fractured skull, impacted his ability to taste and smell and, according to those closest to him, changed his entire personality for the darker. Indeed, although its Capri island surroundings were idyllic, the recording of Full Moon, Dirty Hearts was anything but, with a clearly troubled Hutchence increasingly prone to violent outbursts.

Little wonder, therefore, that their third collaboration with Opitz isn’t exactly a laugh-aminute affair. Kill The Pain, which at times threatens to break out into Annie Lennox’s Why, is a haunting piano ballad where Hutchence sounds at his lowest ebb.

There’s a similar sense of despondency running through the early ambience of Freedom Deep before it bursts into the kind of widescreen desert rock U2 perfected on The Joshua Tree. And the barroom blues of the title track duet with Chrissie Hynde is more whisky-soaked requiem than celebratory singalong.

Industrial Fuzz Rock

Even when the Aussies up the tempo, they can’t shake off the air of quiet menace. The industrial rock of The Gift suggests they were listening to Nine Inch Nails in between all the band squabbles. And the tendency to channel Jim Morrison with the spoken word segments on I’m Only Looking and fuzzy psychedelic closer Viking Juice serves as further proof that Hutchence was suffering an identity crisis.

Full Moon, Dirty Hearts isn’t all doom and gloom, to be fair.  After bumping into each other at a Parisian studio, INXS somehow managed to convince Ray Charles to lend his gritty voice to the no-nonsense blues rocker Please (You Got That…). And there are still signs of the Hutchence swagger on opener Days Of Rust and the Rolling Stones-ish stomper Time. But despite an exhaustive video campaign in which all 12 tracks were treated to promos directed by young filmmakers (was a young Beyoncé taking notes by any chance ?), the record adhered to the law of diminishing commercial returns.

ELEGANTLY WASTED (1997)
Label Mercury – Chart Positions: UK No.16 US No.41

In the three years since 1994’s The Greatest Hits, Hutchence had been arrested for both assaulting a paparazzi photographer and drug possession, entered into a tabloid-friendly relationship with Paula Yates after one of the most flirtatious interviews ever captured on TV and started work on an eponymous solo record inspired by Black Grape. Throw in the loss of the Farriss brothers’ mother Jill and Pengilly’s divorce, and it’s a wonder that Elegantly Wasted ever got made at all.

Sadly, due to the tragic events that unfolded seven months later, the album proved to be less of a triumphant return and more of an epitaph. The band’s world was torn apart when Hutchence was found dead in his Sydney hotel room on 22 November 1997 at the age of just 37.

There is an inevitable temptation, therefore, to rake through every lyric looking for clues of his deeply troubled state. And yet Elegantly Wasted is a largely optimistic, vibrant affair steeped in the decadence of INXS’s imperial phase. The Britpop-esque title track was reportedly inspired by a wild evening with long-time pal Bono.

The Unplanned Swansong

Don’t Lose Your Head is a defiant riposte to Liam Gallagher (“Shot your mouth off like a kid/ Who’s scared to have a heart/ You’re losing grip of what really matters”) which added further fuel to the INXS/Oasis rivalry: a year earlier, Noel had wounded Hutchence by declaring him a has-been live on the BRIT Awards stage. And even opener Show Me (Cherry Baby), a tribute to a late singer once mentored by the Aussie rock god, boasts a Kick-like essence.

Co-producer Bruce Fairbairn, the mastermind behind Aerosmith’s Get A Grip and Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet, also revealed that Hutchence was in good spirits throughout its recording. But the band’s new-found vigour sadly didn’t restore their former commercial glories: Elegantly Wasted only just scraped the UK Top 20 and missed the US Top 40 altogether. Noel’s very public assertion had undoubtedly been cruel, but it was ultimately grounded in truth.

Of course, the record didn’t turn out to be the group’s unplanned swansong purported at the time of Hutchence’s untimely passing.

The surviving five-piece would valiantly, and some would say foolishly, soldier on for another two albums. However, with several tracks worthy of joining their previous compilation, it remains a solid, if unspectacular, farewell from the only incarnation of INXS that truly matters.

SWITCH (2005)
Label: Epic – Chart Positions: AUS No.18 US No.17

Following a short stint with Jon Stevens of fellow Aussie rockers Noiseworks, INXS continued to dismay the purists by selecting their Hutchence replacement through the least rock’n’roll way possible: a prime-time TV talent show.

After 11 weeks of showboating, J.D. Fortune, a Canadian former Elvis impersonator chosen for his “slightly dangerous edge”, was given the poisoned chalice. Alas, victory was always going to be a no-win situation. Try to stamp your identity on the band and risk alienating what’s left of their fanbase. Try to replicate Hutchence’s distinctive tones and risk being dismissed as a tribute act. From the opening notes of the LP that no one really asked for, it’s clear he had chosen option B. In fact, if you weren’t aware of Switch’s tawdry origins, you may assume that its 11 tracks were long-lost outtakes from the vaults. And ones, for the most part, you wished had stayed there.

Sunset Strip throwback Hot Girls, for example, may be the nadir of the group’s discography. Hutchence skilfully treaded that line between pure horn dog and sleaze. Fortune, however, is about as unsubtle as a copy of Nuts magazine. The fact that, like the rest of the LP, it was produced by Guy Chambers perhaps explains why his once-winning set-up with Robbie Williams had dissolved so fast. Pretty Vegas, a surprise US Top 40 hit, and Like It Or Not are similarly overcooked.

Switch isn’t entirely without merit. Afterglow and God’s Top Ten are tributes to the band’s fallen idol, the latter touchingly addressed to his daughter Tiger Lily, while Perfect Strangers, boasts the kind of sky-scraping chorus that once put the group on rock’s

A-list. But, like Queen’s Paul Rodgers-fronted The Cosmos Rocks, Switch proves that some frontmen are simply irreplaceable.

ORIGINAL SIN (2010)
Label: Petrol Electric – Chart Position AUS No.49

The final chapter of INXS’s turbulent story began wrapping up in 2010 with a compilation that saw artists as diverse as Train’s Pat Monahan and French chanteuse Mylène Farmer fill in for their late frontman. It’s an intriguing, but not always particularly successful, experiment.

Trip-hop legend Tricky’s whispered mutterings complement the distorted guitars and warped basslines on Mediate to heighten the original’s sense of peril. Argentinian singer-songwriter Deborah De Corral transforms New Sensation into a melancholic slice of acoustic blues, while John Mayer and Parisian songstress Loane give Mystify a sensual space-rock makeover.

In contrast, the title track is subjected to a hideous Gallic house treatment made more painful by Rob Thomas’ overwrought tones. A choral version of Don’t Change performed by Pengilly and Andrew Farriss explains why Hutchence always took lead vocals. And the whole thing bizarrely opens with a brand-new instrumental that sounds like a number from the musical STOMP. A brief spell with Northern Irish vocalist Ciaran Gribbin followed. But in 2012, INXS decided to start reflecting on, rather than trying to extend, their legacy, with various projects – notably 2019’s Mystify – welcome reminders that at their peak, few did the stadium rock shtick better.

For more on INXS click here

Read More: The wizards of Oz – How Australian music conquered the world