INXS

A very well organized and artistically produced book about one of the most slighted bands of the 80s. INXS was a great band with an unusual amount of record sale hits but the critics never warmed up to them. Personally, that made me like them even more. Along with The Cars, INXS were almost completely ignored. The Cars had some inventive music videos so they were given a pass, somewhat. Michael Hutchence, the fantastic lead singer committed suicide, officially, but the book makes the claim that it could have just as easily been accidental. The book is an official band document about their history although it lacks Hutchence's voice since he had already died at its published composition.
The book is many things. It is a history of the Sydney, Australian roots of this band of musicians who had been together since their teens. It is also an attempt to describe the band's grieving process at Hutchence's death which also ended the band.
This book was a good read for me since it jogged my own memories of when they were hitmakers. Almost all of their songs are fast, upbeat music and hardly ever slower sad pieces. For that reason alone, INXS were unique. I'm sorry I never got to see them play live in concert. If you have never heard of INXS, you've probably heard New Sensation, What you Need, Bitter Tears, Don't Change, and Original Sin on the radio.
The book makes some associations about Hutchence with Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain who also took their own lives. The book accepts that Hutchence was a Mick Jagger-like presence on stage but he physically closer resembled Morrison to me. A slow meditative photo-filled book that wants the reader to linger over a musical career that had passed so quickly that it could easily be forgotten. INXS were quite a musical phenomenon.
The band's name came from combining a brand name of jam IXL and the name of the British band XTC. INXS was a name made up of individual letters to form one word.… (més)