A Gem of 80’s Pop-Rock

1987 was a great year for music. U2 released The Joshua Tree, Whitney Houston released her second album, and we got Appetite for Destruction from Guns N’ Roses. But it was the band from Australia that released an album that straddled the line between the hard rock bands of the 1980s and the electro-pop music that helped define the decade. On this day in 1987, INXS released their fantastic album Kick.

Chock full of hits, Kick was the commercial break-through album that fans and critics had been expecting after the outstanding Listen Like Thieves. There was a great blend of funk/soul from early work and the more mainstream rock sound from Thieves.

The first single released was “Need You Tonight”, a sleek, sensual song that oozed sexy out of Michael Hutchence’s voice, especially when he yearns out the words “I’m lonely” and “You’re one of my kind…” The song would segue into the coda “Mediate” where we hear Hutchence stream rhymes over a drum machine and synth before that saxophone comes in.

The next two singles, “Devil Inside” and “New Sensation” were pop-rock classics. The first being another sexy track due to Hutchence’s sultry delivery. There’s inspiration drawn from U2 and Simple Minds on this track. “New Sensation” takes obvious cues from Prince with horns and some funky, fresh guitar.

The best song (to me) on the album is the gorgeous “Never Tear Us Apart”, a show-stopping big-ballad. Hutchence’s crooning over the waltz-like song, its layers of synthesizers and dramatic pauses was pure 80s and pure gold. How this song didn’t chart higher in the US is amazing to me (it peaked at #7 on the Billboard Top 100 charts).

Sometimes, what makes a great album isn’t just the hits, it’s the deeper cuts and there are some gems on Kick.

“Mystify” was the fifth single, but didn’t chart well. It’s sway of finger snaps and piano at the beginning is cool and swings beautifully. The title track “Kick” has a real kick to it with it’s soulful rock, driving bass and fantastic horns.

Kick was exactly the kick we all needed in the late 80s - a band created a high-end pop/rock album full of delicious tracks without sacrificing to any formulaic genre the 80s produced. It was fresh, forceful and fun.