INXS’ fourth album, The Swing, doesn’t have the important or industrial cachet of their career-defining Kick, but it nonetheless stakes its declare as probably the most pivotal title within the band’s canon.
First launched early in April 1984, The Swing supplied the steadily rising Aussie outfit with their first home No.1, nevertheless it was the album’s creative advances that really set it other than what had come earlier than. Up thus far, INXS’ general sound had primarily drawn upon post-punk and new wave, however as The Swing’s producer, Nick Launay, so vividly put it within the e book 100 Finest Australian Albums, the group’s “post-punk affectations and New Romantic plumage were now fading away, revealing a rock band with funk leanings and pop instincts.”
Take heed to The Swing on Apple Music and Spotify.
“We wanted to stay true to our belief”
On reflection, all of the indicators pointed to INXS attaining a significant breakthrough by 1983. Lengthy since tipped for greatness again dwelling, they’d gigged solidly for six years and made their first foray into the US on the again of their critically acclaimed third album, 1982’s Shabooh Shoobah, which cracked the Billboard 200’s High 50 and yielded a gold disc within the course of.
The Swing’s genesis additionally traces again to the US, the place INXS hooked as much as document the album’s lead single, “Original Sin,” with Stylish legend Nile Rodgers in September 1983. Having not too long ago helmed David Bowie’s multi-platinum Let’s Dance album, Rodgers was one of many period’s hottest producers and was eager to work with INXS after an preliminary assembly in Canada.
“We’d asked Nile to come and see our show, as we had listened to his album The Land Of The Good Groove and he said he’d like to record with us,” keyboardist Andrew Farriss recalled for the 2017 reissue of Kick.
“Michael and I put together ‘Original Sin.’ Nile liked it and we went to [New York’s] Power Station to record. Back then, coming out of the 70s, the Chic funk era, you had Talking Heads and Blondie who were real trailblazers who stayed true to their belief – and we thought we wanted to do that, too.”
A inventive reinvention
INXS’ Nile Rodgers collaboration dramatically raised the band’s profile, as “Original Sin” rewarded the group with a breakout worldwide hit and their first Billboard Scorching 100 success.
Extra considerably, nevertheless, “Original Sin” was a glossy, angular funk-pop hybrid that signaled a brand new course for the group as they relocated to the UK to document the majority of The Swing with Midnight Oil/Nick Cave producer Nick Launay at Virgin Information’ Manor Studio in Oxfordshire.
Taken as a complete, the album proved that INXS have been nicely on the best way to alchemizing one thing distinctive from rock, funk, and the quickly altering traits on the dancefloor. The mammoth beats and monster grooves that supplied the inspiration for tracks resembling “Love Is (What I Say)” and “Melting In The Sun” confirmed that Jon Farriss and Garry Beers had grow to be a formidable rhythm part, whereas the infectious melodies and killer choruses driving “Burn For You,” “Dancing On The Jetty” and the electro-tinged “I Send A Message” proved past affordable doubt that Hutchence and Andrew Farriss have been quick creating into one in every of modern pop’s most completed songwriting groups.
Astutely described as a “reinvention” by Nick Launay, The Swing allowed INXS to get a well-deserved foot within the door of the mainstream. Constructing on the success of “Original Sin,” the album topped the Australian charts for 5 weeks and solely narrowly missed out on making the High 50 of the Billboard 200 within the US. Crucially, its High 40 success in territories starting from Canada to the Netherlands and France (the place “Original Sin” went High 5) additionally set the scene for INXS to depart a extra substantial world footprint with 1985’s assured Hear Like Thieves.
The Swing might be purchased right here.
