[.ca] Kick

From Amazon.com:
Throughout the early 1980s, INXS kept threatening to go big league, and with 1987's Kick they broke wide open, sENDing a sharp quartet of singles--"New Sensation," "Devil Inside," "Need You Tonight," and the shimmering ballad "Never Tear Us Apart"--right to the charts. The rest of Kick, especially the strutting "Guns in the Sky" and the groovy "Wild Life," is of similar quality; all of it is marked by the band's Stones-y guitars and angular, funk-tinged rhythms. Vocalist Michael Hutchence's MTV good looks and Aretha-meets-Aerosmith swagger completed the musical equation for both the girls and the boys. One of the decade's great live bands, too. --Michael Ruby

There Best Album Ever:
This has to be the best album INXS has ever done.The greatest hits album album is no where as good as this. I consider this to be there greatest hits album.It has all the popular INXS songs you know and made you want more. A truly great group that will be remembered in music history for a long time to come.

Inxs Greatest Album:
I think even the group would tell you this was their greatest album. While many of their other albums are wonderful, this one is so upbeat and positive that it is hard to find a bad song. It even shows on their Greatest Hits and Anthology album where nearly half the songs show up, and I think a couple of more should of been included. Last of all, this album is what defines the INXS sound if any album does. Subsequent works slowly lost that classic sound, though it started to come back with the final album, Elegantly Wasted. So if you are looking for a great INXS album, and want some great INXS songs, this is the album for you. If you are looking for their hits, skip to the Anthology collection, though quite honestly, this album is still great.

INXS' Best:
There are those who are big INXS fans, yes they exist, who think that this was a "sell out" album. Well, all I can say is, I wish they would have sold out some more. This album has a good flow and is really easy to listen to.

Great if you havent heard it all a zillion times:
Kick...the album that made INXS very very rich and famous for a while. It was the album that made Hutchence a bonified sex symbol too, and not just to new wavers. This was the album that caught the attention of all the preppy girls in high school. At the time it made me mad that all the Tiffany fans were digging INXS, as I had already loved them since 1982's Shabooh Shoobah. (...) The album has a horrible cover...at the time it was unique, but so many bands ripped off their imagery and even their way of dress during this phase of their career that now it just looks bad to me. All the songs are pretty good. They seemed like the new Rolling Stones or something at the time! It's an eighties party classic! This album gave them like four or five hits. They made a video for most of the songs on this album too. So if there is anything to complain about, it's overexposure with this album. It's alot like U2's The Joshua Tree, which had quite a few singles off of it that were played to death. It's hard to hear Kick with a fresh ear, but it's THE album to get by them. They would not make another album like it again.

Another KICK - Soon to be re-released with Bonus Tracks:
Songs from this album ruled the airwaves in 1987-1988 - anyone who turned on the Top 40 radio or MTV will likely sing along to as they tap their toes. The four top ten singles include the danceable beats of "New Sensation" and "Devil Inside", the beautiful ballad "Never Tear Us Apart", and Michael Hutchence's sultry vocals on the number one single "Need You Tonight/Mediate". While those were the major hits, those singles don't stand out from the rest of the album, as each song on the disc is consistently good and "kicks" in its own way. From the opening grunts of "Guns in the Sky" (a song protesting Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative - aka "Star Wars"), to the closing notes of "Tiny Daggers", the listener is treated to some of the best pop music the Eighties ever produced. On this album, the band blends a number of styles and influences, everything from 60's R & B to 80's new wave synth pop, resulting in each track showing off a serious catchy hook. However, if you are considering purchasing this disc, I recommend waiting until the re-released disc, which is expected to come out on Rhino/Atlantic later in the late summer / early fall of 2002. The album should have at least one previously unreleased bonus track, so it may likely be worth the wait. (Although the release has been delayed once, so keep your fingers crossed.)

• Guns in the Sky
• New Sensation
• Devil Inside
• Need You Tonight
• Mediate
• Loved One
• Wild Life
• Never Tear Us Apart
• Mystify
• Kick
• Calling All Nations
• Tiny Daggers