Live Baby Live

By 1991 Inxs was long overdue for a live album. The band had been riding a steady wave of growth in the 1980s on their first six albums (The self-titled "Inxs" through 1987's "Kick"). Although their seventh album "X" didn't do as well as its predecessor ("Kick"), Inxs was still one of the top acts in the world. Thus, it would make sense for Inxs to release a live album. This 1991 effort was called "Live Baby Live". Although it isn't necessarily the perfect live album, this collection does show you what an incredible live band Inxs was. The bottom line is that this album will entertain you.

One fact that I find amazing about Inxs is that this six member band stuck together from their formation in the late 1970s through Michael Hutchence's untimely death in 1997. During this period, the band would release 10 studio albums, 1 Greatest Hits album, and 1 Live album. This has allowed the band to meld together and grow professionally. Much of this is due to the fact that three band members are brothers: Andrew Farriss (Keyboards), Jon Farriss (Drums), and Tim Farriss (Guitar). The other three members also stuck tightly with the band the whole way. These members include: Michael Hutchence (Lead Vocals), Garry Gary Beers (Bass), and Kirk Pengilly (Guitar and Sax). Hutchence - known for his long hair and theatrical performances in concert often gets the most publicity. But the remaining five members all make major contributions from a musicianship standpoint. Hutchence proves is not just eye candy, he plays a key role in the songwriting. On "Live Baby Live" you will hear outstanding performances by all - but ultimately I do think it is Kirk's saxophone and Jon Farriss' drums that are going to stand out.

On "Live Baby Live", there are 15 live numbers and one studio song. The live songs are divided among five Inxs albums with an emphasis on the latter works: "Shabooh Shoobah" (1 song), "The Swing" (1 song), "Listen Like Thieves" (3 songs), "Kick" (6 songs), and "X" (4 songs). There is also one very good studio song - "Shining Star". "Live Baby Live" is produced by Mark Opitz. Opitz produced their 1982 effort "Shabooh Shoobah" that began to launch momentum for the band early in their career. Chris Thomas had been the producer for the last three albums - that were the most commercially successful (that included some of their best critical acclaim), yet Inxs chose to reach "back to the past" by bringing Opitz back.

From a musical standpoint, this album is excellent. There are no complaints about how good the performances are on this collection. However, "Live Baby Live" makes a cardinal mistake that many live collections make. Instead of including the performances from a single night, they take a compilation of live performances from various tours. By having a compilation of live songs as opposed to a live concert, the flow is disrupted. While I can understand the rationale for taking the best live performances, there are some problems. These problems are that you don't an opportunity to hear the CD as if it were concert preventing you from getting the full Inxs experience. There is something magical about hearing a great performance on a single night. For "Live Baby Live", the live performances were taken from 15 places (Paris, New York, Chicago, London, Dublin, Glasgow, Rio de Janiero, Montreal, Spain, Switzerland, Melbourne, Sydney, Philadelphia, and Las Vegas). Usually I have found live compilations don't work. Albums like this (such as Bon Jovi's "One Wild Night") are usually not that good. However, this collection does seem to overcome this. Some people have knocked "Live Baby Live" because they felt it was too choppy in terms of how it was assembled. I disagree - other albums have done this a lot worse (again I'll point out Bon Jovi's "One Wild Night"). For the most part, the production effort does seem able to overcome this. The exception to the rule is the inclusion of the studio track "Shining Star" as the fifth track. This should have been saved for the first or last track because it does disrupt the flow of the performances. A final note on this - Inxs did release a video version of "Live Baby Live" that takes place all in London. I would have basically liked to have seen this performance in its entirety and in order on this collection.

Another note is that I usually prefer my live albums to be in the order in which the concert was delivered. I do believe the order was slightly changed. for this. A final note on this - Inxs did release a video version of "Live Baby Live" that takes place all in London. I would have basically liked to have seen this performance in its entirety and in order on this collection.

Not all is bad news. This is one incredible album. There are some great highlights. Inxs getting the crowd to sing along with "Mystify" is amazing. I'm very happy they included live versions of some underrated songs like "The Stairs", "Mediate" (they do this as a follow-up to "Need You Tonight"), "Hear that Sound", "One x One", and "Burn For You". The strongest performances are "The Stairs" (Hutchence goes to the crowd - "How ya doing"), "Hear That Sound", and "Need You Tonight". I always thought "Need You Tonight" was an average song, but the live version blows you away.

The lyrics are not included (typically aren't for live albums, but it would have been nice for the new song). They also don't tell you what songs came from what location. If they had put this performance from a single night in sequence order, this collection would have a most magical effort. However, Inxs is still a first rate live band and this collection reflects that. Despite these quirks, I do think this is a terrific album and it is highly recommended.

As I read the tragic story of Michael Hutchence written by his sister and mother ("Just A Man"), I am reviewing my INXS library, which normally I would probably never do.
"Live Baby Live" is the best cross section you can ever purchase for this band. Here @ Wembley, they are at their absolute peak of popularity, and the band (as always) is at their tightest.
The studio versions of these songs will seem lame from this point on. You might as well throw them away, as I never listen to them anymore. Also, the corresponding video of this piece really drives home the point here. Great concert. I just wish the video had EXACTLY the same songs as the record. Some great nuggets are not there. Hutchence never was the same after that.
Here's a question: Is it "Live Baby Live" (pr. L-EYE-VE -- a play on a lyric) or "Live Baby Live", like the lyric from "New Sensation"? "Love AND Peace" Goodnight, Michael.

If you like live material and you like INXS, this CD is great. However, I don't think this CD offers much beyond recorded INXS. The content is heavily from Kick and X with a few older classics, and the sound is not much different from what was recorded in the studio.

This isn't to say this is a terrible recording. If anything this album shows how great INXS really is. All too often, musical groups put out a great studio album only to be disappointing in concert. In fact, I think live performances are what define a group as great. Anyone could record an album in the studio with editting and multiple takes, but how many can play song after song flawlessly. This is what INXS does here and with enthusiasm.

The biggest negative about this album, the inclusion of the track Shining Star, which is a studio track, and in the middle of the album no less.