INXS Kick LP (Crystal Clear Vinyl)

Anchored by the sensual purr of vocalist Michael Hutchence and frisky drumming (recorded in analog) of Jon Farriss, INXS' 6x Platinum 1987 masterwork Kick taps into a hybrid style that freshly stays away from the era's plastic, manufactured sounds and narrow-minded, vacant aesthetic. A seamless fusion of dance beats, sleek rock riffs, soaring hooks, horn-fueled R&B, and string-laden accents, the 12-track set is an irresistibly catchy and liquidly fluid sonic miasma that contains every single element a classic contemporary pop work requires.

Above all, every song boasts a different feel and distinctive pace, characteristics that aren't forced but natural results of the collective's chemistry. The sexy, breathy pop-funk "Need You Tonight" clicks with interlocking arrangements and murmured vocals. The atmospheric, synth-drum-punctuated "Meditate" hallucinates with stream-of-conscious vocals and percolating grooves. Well-placed pauses, hypnotic flanged guitar passages, and so-funky-you'll-sweat saxophone breaks pepper the liberating rock smash "New Sensation."

INXS also kicks out upbeat dance-inflected jams on the brassy skirt-swaying title track, syncopated "Calling All Nations," and elsewhere, but doesn't forget the importance of a bleeding-heart ballad. Hence, the devastatingly moving "Never Tear Us Apart," the knifing strings and guitar twang proving dramatic, direct, and honest. The late 1980s produced a handful of more commercially successful pop records, but none is better than the timeless Kick.

This colored pressing is a part of Atlantic Records' 75th Anniversary vinyl collection.