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Frequently Bought Together
Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. Just Keep Walking |
| 2. In Vain |
| 3. Learn To Smile |
| 4. Underneath The Colours |
| 5. Horizons |
| 6. Barbarian |
| 7. Don't Change |
| 8. Spy of Love |
| 9. Here Comes |
| 10. Original Sin |
| 11. Melting in the Sun |
| 12. Johnson's Aeroplane |
| 13. Listen Like Thieves |
| 14. Same Direction |
| 15. Biting Bullets |
| 16. Devil Inside |
| 17. Wild Life |
| 18. Calling All Nations |
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This CD is essentially a very simple concept - three tracks from INXS' first six albums, in chronological order. Interestingly, the focus is on album tracks, as only three UK singles are included. Considering how INXS didn't really make an impact in the UK until the "Listen Like Thieves" album in 1985/1986, perhaps their earlier work, from 1980 onwards, has been over-looked by the average punter ? This CD is for you.
In 1987/1988, when INXS went truly global with the "Kick" album, they were everything I loathed at that particular time - "rawk", hugely popular, choruses written to be sung in arenas, ubiquitous and bland. My defence, m'lud ? I was an indie kid - in love with The Smiths, The House of Love, Half Man Half Biscuit, The Wedding Present, Cocteau Twins etc. The two ideologies just COULD NOT co-exist in my confused 15 year old brain. So, I picked indie and was pleased with my choice for many years. In fact, I still love all those bands.
However, you get older, you (slightly) grow up and your tastes widen (widen, rather than change). Having a neighbour at University playing the "Welcome To Wherever You Are" album repeatedly, helped soften my stance and many years after that the opportunity to buy "Greatest Hits" for 99p woke me up to the fact that, actually, this was an extremely talented band, playing exhilarating music.
Recently, reading "INXS: Story to Story" astonished me, in that I never realised that here was a band who had literally played EVERY toilet in Australia for the first three or four years of the bands life. They paid their dues many times over. The book discusses their early albums, which actually makes this CD the perfect accompaniment. The first, eponymously titled album with its slight punk/new wave influence, the funk of 1984's "The Swing", the move back towards rock for "Listen Like Thieves", all logically building towards a pot-pourri of all their influences for 1987's "Kick". Listening to this CD gives you a sense of the band learning and their sound developing.
Not every track on this CD is great (hence the 4 stars), Hutchence's early vocals and lyrics are shaky, but there are certainly no duds. However, what slightly saddens me about it, is that it is also a document of a totally different time in the music industry, when a band was almost expected to take four or five albums to experiment and gradually find their sound, whilst touring non-stop to build up an audience. Oh, you don't believe me ? Look at U2, look at Simple Minds, look at R.E.M. etc. All those bands could have a similar "taster" CD to this one. In fact, R.E.M have - the I.R.S "The Best Of".
Nowadays, bands are expected to be the finished product by their eighth rehearsal and if the first album doesn't go Top Five, it looks like you'll be quietly dropped in the New Year shake-up at the record label. Perversely, if the first album DOES go Top Five....stick to the formula, son ! Make your second album sound like the first ! So very sad.
Ok, let's pull myself together and wrap up - this CD is a fantastic idea: eighteen tracks from six albums, each album with it's own distinct flavour, feel and sound. From track 1 ("Just Keep Walking" to track 18 ("Calling All Nations") there is a real sense of progression. I wish more bands, with the back catalogue to warrant it, would do a similar CD. Enjoy !
In 1987/1988, when INXS went truly global with the "Kick" album, they were everything I loathed at that particular time - "rawk", hugely popular, choruses written to be sung in arenas, ubiquitous and bland. My defence, m'lud ? I was an indie kid - in love with The Smiths, The House of Love, Half Man Half Biscuit, The Wedding Present, Cocteau Twins etc. The two ideologies just COULD NOT co-exist in my confused 15 year old brain. So, I picked indie and was pleased with my choice for many years. In fact, I still love all those bands.
However, you get older, you (slightly) grow up and your tastes widen (widen, rather than change). Having a neighbour at University playing the "Welcome To Wherever You Are" album repeatedly, helped soften my stance and many years after that the opportunity to buy "Greatest Hits" for 99p woke me up to the fact that, actually, this was an extremely talented band, playing exhilarating music.
Recently, reading "INXS: Story to Story" astonished me, in that I never realised that here was a band who had literally played EVERY toilet in Australia for the first three or four years of the bands life. They paid their dues many times over. The book discusses their early albums, which actually makes this CD the perfect accompaniment. The first, eponymously titled album with its slight punk/new wave influence, the funk of 1984's "The Swing", the move back towards rock for "Listen Like Thieves", all logically building towards a pot-pourri of all their influences for 1987's "Kick". Listening to this CD gives you a sense of the band learning and their sound developing.
Not every track on this CD is great (hence the 4 stars), Hutchence's early vocals and lyrics are shaky, but there are certainly no duds. However, what slightly saddens me about it, is that it is also a document of a totally different time in the music industry, when a band was almost expected to take four or five albums to experiment and gradually find their sound, whilst touring non-stop to build up an audience. Oh, you don't believe me ? Look at U2, look at Simple Minds, look at R.E.M. etc. All those bands could have a similar "taster" CD to this one. In fact, R.E.M have - the I.R.S "The Best Of".
Nowadays, bands are expected to be the finished product by their eighth rehearsal and if the first album doesn't go Top Five, it looks like you'll be quietly dropped in the New Year shake-up at the record label. Perversely, if the first album DOES go Top Five....stick to the formula, son ! Make your second album sound like the first ! So very sad.
Ok, let's pull myself together and wrap up - this CD is a fantastic idea: eighteen tracks from six albums, each album with it's own distinct flavour, feel and sound. From track 1 ("Just Keep Walking" to track 18 ("Calling All Nations") there is a real sense of progression. I wish more bands, with the back catalogue to warrant it, would do a similar CD. Enjoy !
Format:Audio CD
Essential album if you love INXS, got some early singles that are not on the definative album. A great listen.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Not Perfect - but a Different Compilation
10 Feb 2007
Format:Audio CD
The period between the untimely death of Inxs' Michael Hutchence (in late 1997) and the addition of J.D. Fortune as Inxs' new lead vocalist (in late 2005) put Inxs into a "holding pattern". While Inxs flirted with several vocalists to temporarily provide lead vocals (Jimmy Barnes, Terence Trent D'Arby, and Jon Stevens), for all practical purposes there was little in the way of new material being released from the band and there were certainly no albums. However Inxs did not disband, so as a result relied on compilation albums to keep the momentum going. There were three compilation albums that were released during this time, 2001's anthology-styled "Shine Like It Does", 2002's traditional greatest hits collection, "The Best of Inxs", and 2004's "Original Sin: The Collection". Of these three compilations, "Original Sin" doesn't follow the rulebook for compilation albums and results in something that is very different than most compilation albums by any band..
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. In addition, Hutchence is not just eye candy - he plays a key role in the songwriting.
I think Inxs' musical style can be considered an offshoot of the punk and new-wave movements of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Early in their careers, they definitely fit in with the synth-pop movement of the early 1980s. By the time 1987's "Kick" was released, the band began to incorporate some more traditional funk and rock sounds into their portfolio - particularly with the use of guitars. This corresponded very nicely to the 80s music landscape transitioning from synth-pop to more guitar laden sounds. However on all of its releases the band always stuck true to their roots throughout this 15-year period.
"Original Sin" is unique for one reason; it wasn't intended to be a greatest hits album. As the liner notes indicate, it is intended to be a "sampler" from Inxs' first six albums. This covers material from the hard-to-find self-titled debut album ("Inxs") through their peak album, 1987's "Kick". There are three songs included from each of the six albums, so each album is equally represented. The nice thing is the rulebook was thrown out. Many of the songs picked are not the first songs that come to mind, although there are some fan favorites like "Original Sin", "Devil Inside", "Listen Like Thieves", and "Don't Change". These songs may be known to the longtime fan, but represent something new to a newbie Inxs fan.
The six albums include:
"Inxs": "Just Keep Walking"; "In Vain"; "Learn to Smile"
"Underneath the Colours": "Underneath the Colours"; "Horizons"; "Barbarian"
"Shabooh Shoobah": "Don't Change"; "Spy of Love"; "Here Comes"
"The Swing": "Original Sin"; "Melting in the Sun"; "Johnson's Aeroplane"
"Listen Like Thieves": "Listen Like Thieves"; "Same Direction"; "Biting Bullets"
"Kick": "Devil Inside"; "Wild Life"; "Calling All Nations"
Do they get it right with the sampled songs? They don't - there are plenty of "hidden gems" that are not included - such as "Golden Playpen" (from Shabooh Shoobah)"; "Dancing on the Jetty" and "Love Is (What I Say)" from "The Swing"; and "Tiny Daggers" from "Kick". However this collection does include a plenty of other hidden gems that many fans may not realize. The nice thing is that there is material from the first two Inxs albums ("Inxs" and "Underneath the Colours"). While the "Shine Like It Does" anthology is the most comprehensive Inxs compilation out there, it also comes up extremely short from the material from these first two albums. This is the best place to find material pre-"Shabooh Shoobah" with the exception of getting the physical albums themselves. Fans who haven't heard songs like "Just Keep Walking", "In Vain", "Horizons", "Here Comes", "Melting in the Sun", and "Same Direction" are going to be pleasantly surprised of the depth of the body of work produced by Inxs.
The nice thing is that this collection does "sample" these tracks in chronological order from which they were released. This makes things nice because you can hear the transformation from Inxs' punk and new-wave to a more mainstream rock sound.
As mentioned this collection only covers material through Inxs' 1987 "Kick" album. In 2006 Inxs would release the sequel to "Original Sin" entitled "Taste It: The Collection". "Taste It" picks right up where "Original Sin" left off and also "samples" the remaining Hutchence-era material from "X" to "Elegantly Wasted" - including material from "The Greatest Hits" (an early 1994 compilation that also had some original songs) and "Live Baby Live". Together, these two will make interesting additions to any fans collection.
The liner notes contain a discography and a short-write-up on the music of Inxs and information about the "Original Sin" compilation. The only real issue is that this material may not appeal to longtime Inxs fans. The deep Inxs fan will have this material already and might second-guess some of the songs that were "sampled" for this collection. Still this isn't your ordinary collection and as an owner of many Inxs albums, I still felt compelled to have this in my collection. One can't argue with the quality of the end product. This collection is definitely worth checking out.
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. In addition, Hutchence is not just eye candy - he plays a key role in the songwriting.
I think Inxs' musical style can be considered an offshoot of the punk and new-wave movements of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Early in their careers, they definitely fit in with the synth-pop movement of the early 1980s. By the time 1987's "Kick" was released, the band began to incorporate some more traditional funk and rock sounds into their portfolio - particularly with the use of guitars. This corresponded very nicely to the 80s music landscape transitioning from synth-pop to more guitar laden sounds. However on all of its releases the band always stuck true to their roots throughout this 15-year period.
"Original Sin" is unique for one reason; it wasn't intended to be a greatest hits album. As the liner notes indicate, it is intended to be a "sampler" from Inxs' first six albums. This covers material from the hard-to-find self-titled debut album ("Inxs") through their peak album, 1987's "Kick". There are three songs included from each of the six albums, so each album is equally represented. The nice thing is the rulebook was thrown out. Many of the songs picked are not the first songs that come to mind, although there are some fan favorites like "Original Sin", "Devil Inside", "Listen Like Thieves", and "Don't Change". These songs may be known to the longtime fan, but represent something new to a newbie Inxs fan.
The six albums include:
"Inxs": "Just Keep Walking"; "In Vain"; "Learn to Smile"
"Underneath the Colours": "Underneath the Colours"; "Horizons"; "Barbarian"
"Shabooh Shoobah": "Don't Change"; "Spy of Love"; "Here Comes"
"The Swing": "Original Sin"; "Melting in the Sun"; "Johnson's Aeroplane"
"Listen Like Thieves": "Listen Like Thieves"; "Same Direction"; "Biting Bullets"
"Kick": "Devil Inside"; "Wild Life"; "Calling All Nations"
Do they get it right with the sampled songs? They don't - there are plenty of "hidden gems" that are not included - such as "Golden Playpen" (from Shabooh Shoobah)"; "Dancing on the Jetty" and "Love Is (What I Say)" from "The Swing"; and "Tiny Daggers" from "Kick". However this collection does include a plenty of other hidden gems that many fans may not realize. The nice thing is that there is material from the first two Inxs albums ("Inxs" and "Underneath the Colours"). While the "Shine Like It Does" anthology is the most comprehensive Inxs compilation out there, it also comes up extremely short from the material from these first two albums. This is the best place to find material pre-"Shabooh Shoobah" with the exception of getting the physical albums themselves. Fans who haven't heard songs like "Just Keep Walking", "In Vain", "Horizons", "Here Comes", "Melting in the Sun", and "Same Direction" are going to be pleasantly surprised of the depth of the body of work produced by Inxs.
The nice thing is that this collection does "sample" these tracks in chronological order from which they were released. This makes things nice because you can hear the transformation from Inxs' punk and new-wave to a more mainstream rock sound.
As mentioned this collection only covers material through Inxs' 1987 "Kick" album. In 2006 Inxs would release the sequel to "Original Sin" entitled "Taste It: The Collection". "Taste It" picks right up where "Original Sin" left off and also "samples" the remaining Hutchence-era material from "X" to "Elegantly Wasted" - including material from "The Greatest Hits" (an early 1994 compilation that also had some original songs) and "Live Baby Live". Together, these two will make interesting additions to any fans collection.
The liner notes contain a discography and a short-write-up on the music of Inxs and information about the "Original Sin" compilation. The only real issue is that this material may not appeal to longtime Inxs fans. The deep Inxs fan will have this material already and might second-guess some of the songs that were "sampled" for this collection. Still this isn't your ordinary collection and as an owner of many Inxs albums, I still felt compelled to have this in my collection. One can't argue with the quality of the end product. This collection is definitely worth checking out.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Great band, odd compilation
12 Dec 2004
Format:Audio CD
I'm not sure why they put this album together, as it doesn't contain all of their hits, and concentrates more on the first 4 albums than their later work. I'd expect alternate version, b-sides, or live versions for a collection such as this, but nothing out of the average. If you're a collector, you'll probably want one of everything the band creates. But if you're looking for a place to start, you'd be better off picking up 'Kick' or 'The Swing' for your first taste of INXS.
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