Celebrating classic INXS album Kick on its 35th anniversary

Virgin Radio

12 Oct 2022, 10:04

Here’s a landmark anniversary which might make you feel old: hit INXS record Kick was released 35 years ago today!

Yep, three-and-a-half decades ago, on 12th October 1987, the sixth studio album by the legendary Australian rockers landed, following on from 1985’s international breakthrough LP, Listen Like Thieves.

Recorded in Sydney, the album features five absolutely banging singles: New Sensation, Never Tear Us Apart, Devil Inside, Need You Tonight and Mystify. With that seriously impressive handful of singles, it’s little wonder that Kick would be the most commercially successful record of the band’s career. 

The album would see INXS combine the funk and soul of fourth record The Swing with the rockier Listen Like Thieves to create a winning formula. Along with frontman Michael Hutchence, keyboardist and backing vocalist Andrew Farriss was the primary songwriter, and he told MusicRadar in 2012: “The melding of funk and rock was always in our heads. We were very excited about the idea of overlaying two types of songs and genres together.”

In the interview. Farriss explained: “I think what makes the Kick album so dynamic is that we weren't so much interested in what everybody else was doing.” In a later interview with Billboard, he said: “Anyone can write a song that sounds contemporary. We wanted our songs to sound like the future.”

The band’s US label, Atlantic Records, were unsure about the record at first, concerned that the INXS fanbase wouldn’t take to the funkier, dancier aspects of it. However, despite the band being offered a bunch of money by the label to redo it, they stuck firm, and it proved to be a good decision.

Whether it sounded like the future or just like a darn good record, Kick took INXS to the next level, and it sold in its millions. As well as hitting the top of the charts Down Under, it landed at number three in the US, and number nine in the UK.

Need You Tonight reached number two in the UK singles chart. The song apparently came to Farriss while he was waiting for a cab to pick him up at an airport; after which he and Hutchence finished the lyrics.

Kick was critically well-received, both on its release and retrospectively. In their 1988 issue of Best Albums of the Year, Rolling Stone readers allocated Kick at number three. AllMusic's Steve Huey said: “Kick crystallised all of the band's influences – Stones-y rock & roll, pop, funk, contemporary dance-pop – into a cool, stylish dance/rock hybrid.” 

Elsewhere, Classic Rock Review said: “Kick did just about everything you can expect from a high-end pop/rock album of the 1980s. It forged incredibly catchy and modern sounding songs, while not giving way to the mind-numbing, formulaic trends on many contemporary artists of the time.” 

In 2021, the album ranked number two in Rolling Stone Australia’s 200 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Kick has been re-released in various incarnations over the years, including a 25th anniversary special in 2012 which came as a deluxe edition, a super deluxe edition, two digital editions available for download and a limited-edition red-vinyl release.

Five years later, the record was again re-issued for its 30th anniversary as a 3CD+Blu-ray, 2LP Vinyl Edition and digital version.

Pitchfork said that the 30th anniversary release: "affirms its status as a jewel of ’80s pop-rock. It’s a showcase of the band’s opulent production, slithery grooves, and the allure of Michael Hutchence’s simplicity."

In August of this year, INXS celebrated the 45th anniversary of the date that they played their first gig as The Farriss Brothers. The group - featuring founding members Tim, Andrew and Jon Farriss, Garry Beers, Kirk Pengilly, and Michael Hutchence - played a house party in Sydney.