Had it not been for the photogenic presence of Michael Hutchence, INXS would’ve struggled to graduate from Australia’s pub-rock circuit. While they aspired to fuse funk rhythms with rock abandonment, more often than not?even on the million-selling Kick?they sounded like the kind of band who rolled their jacket sleeves up to expose their no-nonsense, unpretentious origins. At best they went proficiently where others had gone before, echoing Prince in hobnailed boots on the sprightly “New Sensation”, but elsewhere they epitomised the ponderous mid-’80s?a fact that no amount of comely packaging can disguise.
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