Inxs
The Swing

THE REVIEW

1984.

An appreciable album, in which a nearly primordial funk is mixed with a refined pop that has recently familiarized with the latest electro-glam trends that emerged in Europe with the dawn of the '80s.

The listener breathes winds from across the ocean and rarefied atmospheres. The tracks on this album refrain from being too pretentious. Fresh, original tracks, sometimes danceable, oscillating between classic and raw rock'n'roll and the latest trends in new wave and funk. The tracks are rather short, with a not overly elaborate ending (and this is certainly not the only INXS album to feature such a characteristic).

The album makes room for strings and the characteristic brass played by multi-instrumentalist Kirk Pengilly (Original Sin, Johnson's Aeroplane, Face To Change), capable of embellishing the songs led by Michael Hutchence's voice, an unusual "prophet" of the fight against racial discrimination, when he casually intones the famous verses of Original Sin (a hit much earlier in the US than in Europe). No pretension therefore, as confirmed by The Swing and Love Is (What I Say), where Hutchence nevertheless offers a convincing demonstration of his vocal qualities. Burn For You is a track closer to European electropop, but revisited in a completely funk, or rather, completely INXS style.

Indeed, yes, because the Australian group - as it will demonstrate in later albums, first among them "Kick" (1987) - appears anything but trapped in the scheme of a common pop band of the decade, nor oriented toward a purely "rock" future. The band's intention will instead be to develop their own genre, which will indeed be a source of inspiration for other bands (especially in the Nineties).