Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 10/15/2002
"What You Need" had taken
INXS from college radio into the American Top Five, but there was little indication that the group would follow it with a multi-platinum blockbuster like
Kick. Where the follow-ups to
"What You Need" made barely a ripple on the
pop charts,
Kick spun off four Top Ten singles, including the band's only American Number One,
"Need You Tonight." Kick crystallized all of the band's influences --
Stones-y rock & roll,
pop, funk, contemporary
dance-pop -- into a cool, stylish
dance/
rock hybrid. It was perfectly suited to lead singer
Michael Hutchence's feline sexuality, which certainly didn't hurt the band's already inventive videos. But it wasn't just image that provided their breakthrough. For the first (and really only) time,
INXS made a consistently solid album that had no weak moments from top to bottom. More than that, really,
Kick is an impeccably crafted
pop tour de force with the band succeeding at everything they try on it. Every track has at least a subtly different feel from what came before it;
INXS freely incorporates tense guitar riffs,
rock & roll anthems,
swing-tinged
pop/
rock, string-laden
balladry, danceable
pop-funk, horn-driven '60s
soul, '80s
R&B, and even a bit of the
new wave-ish sound they'd started out with. More to the point, every song is catchy and memorable, branded with indelible hooks. Even without the band's sense of style, the flawless songcraft is intoxicating, and it's what makes
Kick one of the best mainstream
pop albums of the '80s. [The 2002 reissue features four previously unreleased versions of
"Move On," "Jesus Was a Man," "Mystify," and
"The Trap."]
~Steve Huey, All Music Guide
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