well, the days of getting albums on their day of release appear to be long over. so too, i suppose, has been me (or moi) rushing to write of them as soon as possible after that day here, look you see. in this instance, though, it will be somewhere just south of the 40th anniversary of the day of release for this album, although yes admittedly it is a version of it released this year (2025). so, as the title gives every indication of this being about, eventually i got around to picking up the Listen Like Thieves record off of INXS.
on learning that a 40th anniversary edition was coming out (i think via facebook ads, which seems to be the default way i get music news now, for better or worse) i was rather enthusiastically eager to get it. for a change this is not just for my pathological whim to purchase as many tapes (discs) as i can, but rather more likely out of if not nostalgia then straightforward sentimental hygiene. i knew that this album was home to one INXS song in particular, What You Need. which remains, to my knowledge, the biggest format music video i have ever seen.
memories cloud and get confused, of course, but i can distinctly recall being a bit baffled, or surprised perhaps, at seeing a promo video for What You Need before films at the cinema in 1985. can't even find the specific (not pacific) version they showed now either; all i can find on "you tube" is some garish very heavily mid-80s MTV video for it. anyway, 12 (or so) year old me was somewhat ultimately impressed that a band - and one i had not heard of - were having a video shown before a film, innocently thinking it was a kind of honour rather than something paid for. considering i went to the cinema a lot in 1985 - for a start i saw A View To A Kill 4 times - i saw this video a lot. but no, it didn't occur to me to purchase either the single or the subsequent album.
it isn't so that many other who(m) may have seen the same video did either, for on initial release, and how is it that 1985 is 40 years ago, the album (in the UK at least) only got to 48 in the charts. quite odd, then, and respectful of just how big INXS went on to be, that someone somewhere has decided to commemorate an arbitrary anniversary of this album. but, my word, it's a jolly good thing they did, for it really is a class record.
this album is a full tilt expression of exuberance. it's a record that the tape of should have been in many, many car stereos in summer, being played at the correct volume and spreading the spirit of sun, fun, life and loving it all. the expansive, atmospheric sonic landscape of the music is beautifully blessed on all but one of the tracks by the vocals of Michael Hutchence, a man who clearly knew he had a great rock and roll voice and was willing to be relatively patient for the world waking up to this.
and yet a fair review, both right now in retrospect and, on reading up on reaction at the time, of this particular album is "nearly". what one is hearing here is a band so, so close to kicking down the door and screaming "we know what you like and we've got it". certainly that moment did happen, about two or so years after this, when no one could ignore (nor deny) the genius of Kick.
reviews and such are there to be disagreed with, and there's one i saw of Listen Like Thieves which i would take to task. it suggests that all the lifting here is done by the opening three (3) tracks, being What You Need, Kiss The Dirt and the titular Listen Like Thieves (not necessarily in that order), with the remainder of the record not reaching the same level. not really true. as an album this has a wonderful, flowing structure and there really isn't a moment where you think "this was added to pad out the running length". maybe, ok, there's no specific moment, like on Kick with New Sensation or Devil Inside, where you go "how do i make this even louder", but then you should have it on at the correct volume anyway.
usually the "bonus material" with re-issues like this are kind of nice but not essential. here they are extremely nice and if not exactly essential then at least of a nature likely to get more than one cursory play. i wish more "classic albums" would follow this pattern, if for no reason other than for the sake of completeness. you get (appreciating it's difficult to see the text in the picture) the 12" mixes of the two main singles plus the b-sides. the latter is often left out of releases like this. rounding this out is a set it seems the BBC gone done recorded of them live and in concert. it's not a bad live recording, sounding every now and then like it has had a bit of a "cosmetic touch up" in the studio, but yeah, the remixes and the b-sides are the win.
right now i've got Kiss The Dirt on again. from what i recall i believe (or think) i first heard this one when it was included on the Need You Tonight 12", which i shall still have somewhere. oh i really do like the bass line on this one. and on all the other songs. and Michael's vocals.
going on what i can find online this re-release has not improved the highest chart position for the album. at least not unless there's some special "re-release" chart which i didn't find. oh well. with some luck, though, there's people out there who shall chance on the album, give it a play and, i trust, very much like what they hear.
be fair dinkum to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!