INXS - SHABOOH SHOOBAH Vinyl

INXS: Kirk Pengilly (vocals, guitar, saxophone); Garry Gary Beers (vocals, bass); Jon Farriss (vocals, drums); Michael Hutchence (vocals); Tim Farriss (guitar); Andrew Farriss (keyboards).
Engineers: Mark Opitz, David Nicholas, Andrew Scott.
Recorded at Rhinoceros Recordings and Paradise Studios, Sydney, Australia.
INXS's first US album--the Sydney-based sextet had previously released two Australian-only albums, INXS and UNDERNEATH THE COLOURS--didn't have quite the commercial success they achieved five years later with KICK, but 1982's SHABOOH SHOOBAH is arguably the group's best and most consistent album. Certainly it leads off with their most ingenious single; "The One Thing" melds new wave angularity with good old-fashioned rock and roll swagger in a fashion both intriguingly new and comfortingly familiar. The closing "Don't Change" is nearly its equal, an anthemic rocker as memorable as anything by, say, Foreigner, only way cooler. Between them, the group explores slightly more mysterious and artsy climes, with the shuffling "Spy of Love" and the clattering "Black and White" particular highlights. INXS were never exactly hipsters--long before anyone knew who he was, Michael Hutchence was plainly an old-fashioned Jagger-style rock star--but SHABOOH SHOOBAH is their hippest album.

• Format: Vinyl