statcat

Any INXS fans out there? I've been listening to them a lot recently. My favorites are their first 3 albums. Shabooh Shoobah is the most consistent album they did in my opinion. It seems to not even be near the popularity of Kick, but it's way better I think. Maybe those tracks on Kick are kind of boring now because it seems to be all anyone knows INXS for. The later '80s albums have their moments. I haven't listened to the '90s ones in full yet. I'm surprised they haven't put together a b-sides collection as a few of those tracks are pretty strong. It's strange they decided to continue without Michael. I think that was a big mistake that kind of tarnished their legacy, but I guess they were bored.

Chrisedge

Love INXS, but I think the JD album (Switch) gets slammed a bit unfairly. If you compare JD to Michael, sure it's no where near the quality but if an unknown band came out with that album it would have been received much better...

Rocketdog2000

When you say the first three albums, which ones are you reffering to, as it sounds like you are unaware of the band's true first two albums INXS (1980) and Underneath The Colours (1981). An easy enough mistake to make, as most folks outside the US were unaware of them, and think of Shabooh Shoobah was the band's debut. They are ok efforts, but really show a band more in progress with a few decent singles than any great work.

I'm pretty much a fan of all their music, though, and would say they got consistently better with every release, except maybe their fourth album, The Swing, but even that has plenty of great moments, and still showed musical growth.

I consider their 90's albums some of their best work, especially 1992's Welcome To Wherever You Are. A shame they made one of their best records at a time when people seemed to care the least about them. Their last album with Hutchence, Elegantly Wasted, was very strong, also.

As for a b-sides collection, most of those have been collected here and there on the reissued versions of their albums, and the various compilations they've put out over the years. At this point, I don't think a b-sides only comp would be of much interest to anyone, though, and any big fan, as stated would already own them in some form or other.

I can't fault them for wanting to continue without Hutchence, though. He was only one part of the band, and one which was initially formed without him, as The Farris Brothers back in 1977. Granted, he may have been the most recognizable part, but most of the songs in the band were written by keyboardist Andrew Farris. If bands like AC/DC, Van Halen, Journey and Foreigner (among many others) get to continue without their famous lead singers, than why shouldn't INXS be afforded the same opportunity? They waited a reasonable and respectable amount of time after his passing to do so, too, but yes, I do think the way they went about finding a replacement was what ultimately, as you say, "tarnished their legacy".


As a big fan of INXS and Michael Hutchence, I have to agree. Sadly, as stated above, the stigma of doing a reality TV show hurt them more than it ultimately helped them. Some people just can't get past that aspect of it, either.

Switch was a decent album, and light years better than the last record the band issued, The One Thing, which was a travesty of needlessly, and badly done re-recorded versions of the band's hits with guest lead vocalists. I will cry foul with that album way more the than I ever will Switch or Rockstar:INXS

statcat

I'm referring to their first 3 albums: INXS, Underneath the Colours, and Shabooh Shoobah. I like them because they're much more in a new wave style than the later work. I like this era better too because with the live stuff I've heard they're a lot more raw and unpolished.

A couple of their b-sides like Long in Tooth, I'm Over You, etc. are really good songs that aren't on cd at all. There's some really crap ones too like Any Day but Sunday, but I'm surprised they never assembled them together. Quite a lot of them aren't on cd actually.

The Farriss Brothers when they started were pretty much a cover band. Michael was there from the very beginning, he didn't join later. There's one live recording that I heard from 1979 and it's almost strictly cover songs with a few originals like We Are the Vegetables and Telephone. It wasn't until 1980 when they really started putting something together. Hutchence wrote quite a lot of the songs too, often with Andrew Farriss. I just thought continuing the band without Michael proved to be a train wreck. Going about it the way they did with a reality show made it even worse.

The Original Sin album you mentioned was indeed terrible. Projects like that usually are.

hbilly

Didn't care much for INXS until my mother became a huge fan in the early to mid 90s. Over the years she bought all CDs that were available from INXS, and would listen to them quite often. That's when I started to enjoy their music much more as well, with Kick being my favorite album followed by Listen Like Thieves and X.
I was addicted to their songs Disappear and Baby Don't Cry and would play them to death.
Least favorite album was Full Moon, Dirty Hearts.

Lastdaysofrain

I never got that into them, but that being said "Don't Change" is one of my favorite songs of the 80s.

inri222

Love early INXS since I first listened to them in the 80's

One of my favorites :

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/PTULqzrhBWA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Rocketdog2000

Cool, then, although I must admit you are one of the few people who have ever told me they prefer the band's very early work. As previously stated, most folks either didn't know it existed, or don't really care for it as much as what followed.

If you've never encountered it, there is a CD called Inxsive (1982), put out on the Australian label Deluxe, which collects all the very early singles. Both the A and B sides, that they had released, six of which that were not on the band's first two albums.

There is also another 2 disc compilation released in 2002 on the Australian label Raven Records, called Stay Young 1979 - 1982:The Complete 'Deluxe Years'), which collects both the INXS and Underneath The Colours albums, plus all the b-sides, and some other unreleased studio and live tracks. It also features the 1992 Capri recordings - which were re-done versions of "Underneath The Colours", "Barbarian", "Just Keep Walking", "In Vain" and "Stay Young" - that the band did as sort of a warm session to making the album Full Moon, Dirty Hearts. Personally, I prefer these to some of these early versions, but you may disagree with me.

Neither of these have "Long In The a Tooth" or "I'm Over You" on them, but you are right that there are many B-sides from Shabooh Shoobah through Listen Like Thieves era that never got a CD release. As I recall, the original plan was for Atlantic Records here in the US to keep doing expanded re-issues of their albums - like they did with Kick, X and Welcome To Wherever You Are - but when those didn't meet sales expectations, those plans were then scrapped.

hdnmickey

Listen LIke Theives is my favorite. Lost interest in them when they did the TV show looking for a MH clone. But still love, own and listen the MH classics.

statcat

Yes I have Inxsive and Stay Young the Early Years. I've heard the 1992 re-recordings and I think they're pretty good, just the drum sound I wasn't crazy about. I do prefer the original versions. It's interesting to me that they re-recorded those songs that much later. They seemed to stop playing their early stuff around 1984.

This pretty pricey boxset came out recently. I think finding the original pressings is more appealing to me:

http://store.universalmusic.com/udis...et/3DGY03QU000

Rocketdog2000

I'd love to have that set, but already have original pressings of everything from INXS up to Kick - (as well as 12" singles and 45's from those years, too. I'd primarily need it for the stuff released after, which can usually only be found via import copies, as they never got vinyl releases in the States. I also wouldn't mind having it for the 180 gam vinyl aspect of it, plus just for the sake of having it.

Supermallet

I have to say, even though it's their biggest and most popular album, which is rarely a band's best, I think Kick actually is INXS' best album. Every single track on that disc is a standout, a really fantastic collection of songs.

As for replacing Hutchence, if they were going to do that they needed to jump into it with a new singer and come out swinging with a show stopping set of tunes. By the time they did their reality show, which in and of itself was a bad idea, they were long since irrelevant.

E Unit

Oddly enough, recently I caught that miniseries on I think Starz or The Movie Channel, called Never Tear Us Apart. It's an Australian production, and was pretty good, and chronicled their rise and problems when Hutchence started living the total rock star life, drugs and all. I enjoyed it a lot more than I anticipated. So if you're an INXS fan, try to check it out.

Ky-Fi

"Shabooh Shoobah" is probably in my top ten favorite albums ever---love every song on that album. It was New Wave, but had some more depth and eclectic influences than many releases of that era. I thought it just had a nice, subtle, timeless sounding production, too.

I have not heard any of their work before that, and I while I liked some subsequent singles, they never really grabbed me with any of their later albums.

Hiro11

My story with that song:
In the very early eighties, I saw the music video for "Don't Change" on some predecessor to MTV at a friend's house. I absolutely loved that song, it made a huge impression on me. I was about 8 at the time.

For years, I looked for the song. I knew it was an INXS song, but I couldn't remember the title or the album it was on. I knew it had that very simple seven note synth hook at the start. I knew it was uptempo. I bought their greatest hits in the mid-90s just for that song. The song (inexplicably, in my mind) isn't on it. The music video seemed to have completely disappeared for years (it's on YouTube now). Over the years I forgot about this song.

Then, I saw "Adventureland" about 4 years ago with my wife. "Don't Change" started blasting out of the speakers over the final credits. I literally hadn't heard "Don't Change" in almost 30 years and I instantly recognized it just from the opening riff. I shouted out "IT'S THE SONG!!! HOLY SHIT!!!". My wife couldn't figure out why I was so excited. It was like long-forgotten but beloved piece of my childhood had suddenly flapped in through a window and smacked me in the face. What a gift!

So yeah, I love that song.

Actually, most of the new wave stuff I liked when I was 8 (Human League, The Cars, Depeche Mode) I still like.

statcat

I agree that every song on it is great. The production is really good too. To me some of their later 80s stuff sounds kind of overly commercial and dated. I can't think of too many albums where I enjoy every single track. If you like that album I suggest listening to the track Here Comes II (an alternate version that only appeared as a b-side) I think it's better than the more uptempo version on the album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWBhD5OMLZM

As for the first two albums, these are the standout tracks to me. "Stay Young" I think is the best of all of them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGuE8UrXDNw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yPnO2PiMFU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr16dqMXHqo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYmx9fRC2ko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwd8YL73J4w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3DWJT2qIrU

Rocketdog2000

Since you started this thread, I've actually gone back and revisited the first three albums, as it's been quite awhile since I've listened to them.

The debut album, especially as a "New Wave-y" type of record holds up much better than I remember it. Really like "On A Bus" and "Learn To Smile", while "Just Keep Walking" and "In Vain" have always been favorites.

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Underneath The Colours, aside from "Stay Young", I'm still not crazy about. It's ok, but nothing really grabs me on it, and it remains my least listened to album in their catalog.


Shabooh Shoobah is as great as it ever was. "Don't Change" is my all time favorite INXS song. I've also always loved "To Look At You", "Black And White" and "Soul Mistake".

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I also still really like some of their non LP singles, too, like their cover of The Loved Ones, "The Loved One". I prefer the original version to the one they re-did on Kick. This one just has more style and groove to it. Although, many years back I did once make a pretty sweet mix of the two.

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dan30oly

This.

My second favorite album of all time(next to appetite for destruction), is Kick.

However, I have all their albums. Kick is what gets listened to most regularly.

This show was surprisingly good. If you didn't hate Bob Geldof before, you certainly will after watching.


I was absolutely disgusted with that. What the hell were they thinking?

Ky-Fi

Cool! Some good stuff there. I'll have to track down those early ones.

JCWBobC

I remember when they played The One Thing on American Bandstand and the fans gave it a thumbs down, or whatever they did to vote that they didn't like something back then. The song went to number one after that so Dick Clark came on & said sometimes the fans get it wrong so they played it again and everyone loved it.

Numanoid

Shabooh Shoobah is by far my favorite, it's a quintessential New Wave album. I appreciate and enjoy their later work as well, they made a lot of great pop classics, but my tastes always run to that minor-key, darker New Wave style music that Shabooh Shoobah is steeped in.

bluetoast

Just Keep Walking is a fun song with some of the stupidest lyrics.

"Money can buy almost anything, but anything's nothing, when you're dead."

Rocketdog2000

As were many new wave and punk songs at the time. They may not be the most clever lyrics, but I'll say this for them, they stick in your head.

bluetoast

Oh definitely. Though the worst is still the infamous line from Why Can't This Be Love?

EddieMoney

Only time will tell if we stand the test of time?