I'm gonna get this POLL on line: INXS' Welcome to Wherever You Are

My own vote might be Strange Desire

It's a really well sequenced album

"Not Enough Time" is a beauty: it builds so well. Hutchence sounds fabulous, so in control.

I don't remember this one much beyond the singles, but I thought Heaven Sent was a great iirc lead single. And Not Enough Time a great second single?

Nice find, I have never owned this one but pretty sure I have heard it before. Will give it a listen before voting

"Beautiful Girl" is a lot of people's favorite INXS song.

oh, missed that that was on this album as well. That's a pretty song.

Don't know this record but that has to be the most bland and "will this do" list of song titles ever.

not enough time iirc

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Not Enough Time gets my vote

I love this album now but it’s funny bc in high school at the time in 1992 I remember thinking “PEE-YEW THIS SUCKS” and spent the next 10-15 years hence ignorant to its charms

Listening for the first time ever now and... wow. I can only describe this as The Most 1992 Album That Ever 1992-ed. "Push the vocals through the 'telephone' effect!" "Discarded U2 guitar riff? Yes, please!" "Hey, let's do a 'psychedelic India' thing!" "No drums, only drum loops!"

it def felt, even at the time, like they were trying to sounds like Achtung Baby. sort of works here and there tbh - i dig Communication

I think they were pretty successful in aping that style, even if they didn't hit the same heights as Achtung Baby. Looking at the tracklist, I'm surprised how many songs I can remember without relistening

But I also voted "Not Enough Time", one of their very best songs, and suspect it will sweep

Which is the album with Eno on it? Remnants of a wannabe U2 shift/attempt?

Eno mixed one track on Full Moon, Dirty Hearts and you can't really tell he did. I don't think they've worked with him otherwise?

As I think was said in another thread, 'doing an Achtung Baby' feels like a micogenre in itself, though Deacon Blue is the only other concrete example I can think of rn (maybe Depeche Mode at a push). Ofc Achtung Baby itself is the most U2 had ever sounded like INXS anyway so it's a bit chicken/egg.

'The Most 1992 Album That Ever 1992-ed' probably nails why I love it, that description could only ever be high praise in my world. I also think (like AB) it's excellently sequenced and it keeps the ideas coming throughout. Not just on the consensus favourites like "Baby Don't Cry", "Beautiful Girl" and "Men and Women" (latter of which I'd love to hear sung by Dave Gahan), but also like "Back on Line" which has a sorta late 80s sophisti-pop synth running through it but because of the force of the rhythm it doesn't sound out of place at all, or - similar contrast between big hellyeah groove and serene topline - my own vote "Strange Desire" which is special enough, from a stock like Ride's Chrome Waves or maybe James' Born of Frustratin, but those cooing backing vocals (Deni Hines) elevate it.

I always felt like the Achtung Baby (and Welcome... etc) sound/shift in alt rock was an attempt to sounds more like Jesus Jones tbh

'The Most 1992 Album That Ever 1992-ed' probably nails why I love it, that description could only ever be high praise in my world.

Yeah, it wasn't really meant as a slam, just that it kinda left my mouth hanging open with how blatantly it was the sound of that era. It reminded me of the thread about 60s and 70s artists who all of a sudden went super 80s without warning.

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Listened to this album on a plane. I'll say this much, the snare sounds on this album are top-notch! The rest is pretty solid, too. I wonder if INXS belongs to that catalog of bands that keep churning out pretty good stuff after a breakthrough, well after a lot of people have moved on? Similarly, is "X" their "New Jersey"?

X wouldn't qualify as a New Jersey because it was smaller - less hits, undersold by a lot compared to Kick. though I am surprised "Disappear" went top 10 in the US, I've rarely heard it in public

The post-Kick albums do have some pretty good stuff, Full Moon, Dirty Hearts noticably weaker than the others

oh for sure X is a New Jersey; I may have said so in that huge thread. It went platinum in the U.S. on momentum alone, generated two top ten hits, and we all knew diminishing returns would follow.

Ah thought a New Jersey had to outperform the previous album, think I mixed it up