:: Shine Like It Does (the anthology 1979-1997)

INXS

It’s a rare thing for a band to maintain a high quality of sound and presence throughout eighteen years. The coverage of this special 2-CD, 42-track anthology not only indicates the togetherness of INXS (the six members stayed intact during this long period), being a wonderful achievement in itself, but the depth of music and the status achieved around the world. I was privileged to witness much of this existence and like other notable Australians in various fields, felt disappointed at the way that people started to take INXS for granted in the 90s, and proceeded to try to cut their leading status. As it stands, INXS was big here and overseas and should be forever remembered that way. They have just been inducted into the Australian music Hall of Hame. This anthology is a North American release only and a great effort has been made to cover the great history with the right cross-section of material. In fact, it wasn’t hard to fill these forty-two tracks just with the hit singles. Throw in a few rare early gems and it’s there for all to appreciate. Having seen them perform at pubs in the early days, it’s a marvellous thing to relive their Deluxe label songs, “Simple Simon”, “We Are The Vegetables”, “Just Keep Walking”, and one of my INXS best “Stay Young”. It’s good to see songs like “Good Times” (with Jimmy Barnes) on this anthology, and “Different World”, a song that Michael Hutchence and Andrew Farriss wrote for the smash-hit film “Crocodile Dundee”. The huge album “Kick” is well represented, while their 90s albums considered less successful and out-of-touch by some scribes, deserve and get representation for some under-rated music. Such songs include “Beautiful Girl”, “The Gift”, “Heaven Sent” and “Disappear”. Then, when mounting their new challenge through the release of “Elegantly Wasted”, and on a world tour where they were due to play in Australia, Michael Hutchence died on November 22, 1997. This is where the anthology stops. I urge all INXS fans to have this 2-CD set in your collections. It’s a priceless compilation that demonstrates how good these guys were with Michael out front. It comes packed with a terrific 60-page booklet of pictures and notes, plus details on the selected tracks as told by Andrew Farriss. As it isn’t available in Australia, you can buy it through the Internet at http://www.cdnow.com, and search for INXS releases, or at the INXS site http://www.inxs.com where you can check out all the INXS news and releases.