Men And Women completes WTWYA with the most hauntingly quaint song in INXS' catalogue. Surprisingly, the tambourine & orchestration underscores just as much of the rhythmic focus as Gary's sluggishly throbbing bass line does. The single-strummed reverb-laden guitar chords that strike throughout most of the track, before the distorted power chord is hit right at the track's climax, aides in emphasizing the mysteriously brooding atmosphere that is stirring from the moment the song starts. The lyrics impart a range of accumulative emotions not expressed from INXS before. And partly because of it, I don't know whether to express or feel disdain, empathy or indifference here. The gong drum at the conclusion is timed to perfection. Just amazing. And consequently, these percolating qualities make M&W quite a stunning track. And it's also a wonderful way of ending the best album of INXS' career...
Men and Women: We make it to the closing track. When I first heard it, I was like 'meh.' Of course over time I've warmed up to it and really like it for what it is. The orchestra really works here. It builds up into this menacing, tense moment with loud washes of guitar and a thumping bass line; Which adds to Micheal's bitter sounding vocals, which really sell the lyrics. Everything just comes together and makes for a great bookend to this fantastic album.
I had the Max Q album on cassette when it came out and listened it quite a bit at first but, as others have already noted, it simply doesn't have any particularly good songs and so it didn't stick for me. I think that's the reason it didn't take off internationally, more so than any issues around management tacitly suppressing it and so on. Ultimately, if it had been packed with gold it would have taken on a life of its own. But it's not! I remember as a teenager I wanted to like it more than I did, and was definitely disappointed that it wasn't as good as the preceding INXS albums that I loved. On a side note; great thread (thanks Mark!) - I've spent the last few days listening to INXS more than I have in about 20 years, and schoolday memories have come flooding back by the dozen. My friends and I came in on Listen Like Thieves - that's my favourite by a country mile for the memories alone - but I quickly got all the previous albums too and remember loving then all, especially SS and TS. I still have INXSive on vinyl, and I think the Max Q tape us in the loft... I got really into The Cure, and then JAMC, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, the first wave of shoegazing and so on, so INXS fell right off radar for me from about 1989. I'm really looking forward to getting to the 90s output to hear where they went - obviously I'm semi-familiar with the singles from the later albums. I'd forgotten just how big INXS were for me for 2 or 3 years at an important time in my teenage years/musical development. Even the noisiest stuff I like has to have a tune and I'm a sucker for a perfect pop song. INXS had some beautifully crafted songs.
The Answer This is a variation on Questions ... and listening to it now, it almost seems like it may have been cool if the albums had been bookended with this track. The music is pretty much the same.... I am like you are sure of difference For the reason without treason Hoping if we fall down you see All things broken into pieces All of you take time win free sufferin' Wait through all love straight to your head Feel like I am like you are sure of Difference for the reason without Treason hoping if we fall down You say all things broken into Pieces all of you take time win free Sufferin' wait through all love all love Straight to your head feel like I am Like you are sure of difference for the Reason without treason hoping If we fall down you say all things Broken into pieces all of you Take time win free sufferin' made into All love straight to your head feel like All your life all your life all your life all your life All your life.. I don't know if it would have worked, but it seems if you are going to open with a Question, closing with an answer might be a good idea. Perhaps a rework of the lyrics .... but I'm not sure. I think the opening track doesn't need to be changed, but I like this version of it too, and it's a shame it didn't find a way of working itself into the album. I like the vocal delivery, and the lyrics are fine, but if they were a little more focussed perhaps it would have worked... Idk, more questions than answers for me here
The Indian Song Robert posted this earlier on, and I reckon it's time we had a look at it now. It would be interesting to see the evolution of Questions, because this track seems like it may have been an earlier version of the song, that hadn't been augmented by the percussion and wind instruments that set the album version off. And I was lost for words In your arms Attempting to make sense of My aching heart If I could just be everything And everyone to you This life is just too short To divide into Divide into, divide into two Yeah there's not enough Time for all of that I want to show you Not enough time For every kiss and every touch And all the nights I want to be inside of you Drift away To make time stop For the two of us I'm gonna make time stop Make time stop, stop, stop Better listen to The sighs of love In our fight against The end of time We were making love We are immortal We are the last two left Yeah the last two left Yeah the last two left Yeah the last two left We're the last two left…on earth This is a cool track, but it feels a little unfinished, like a good jam that didn't quite get fleshed out.
Wishing Well Alternate Version Here we get an alternate version of Wishing Well as a bonus track. One thing we see from these bonus tracks, is that the band were really mixing it up and trying all their options, in order to make the best album they could.
There is an alternate version of All Around as well, but I can't find it anywhere. Heaven Sent Waltz version (demo) This is very much a demo version. the vocal is a bit dodgy. This version is ok, but I'm glad they changed it up, the finished version is much better. Again we see the guys were actually working their ideas into the best tracks they could.
The Answer 3.5/5. It might be me, but I hear U2's Zooropa in this version, which was released later. Anyway, I love the music to this track whether it be Questions or Answers. The Indian Song 3.5/5. I also hear Laraaji in here, who also was an influence on The Edge's chiming guitar. Wishing Well 3/5. Again, that damn groove. Love it. Heaven Sent. 4/5. When I first heard this on the reissue, I fell in love with it despite Andrew's singing. Greatness. Michael gets a great deal of INXS, but Andrew made them great too.
I wanted to include these here, because I think it shows that the guys had realised their miscalculation with the X album, and on this album we see them via the outtakes and such really plying their trade and getting the best out of each other and the songs to produce an album that really ticks all the boxes. For me this album really is put together very well. The song writing is right back up with peak Inxs material, there is no honest way to say the guys were just cruising, you can hear the work they put into this, and I think the results show. If I wasn't so sentimentally attached to a couple of the earlier albums, this may well get the best album of their career call ... and with it being so new to me, it just makes it too hard for me to call, but I can comfortably say, although it did well, it didn't do as well as it should. For me this is a better album than Kick, because for em it has more substance than Kick. I guess I am almost a lone wolf in the desert on this, but I really don't see the U2 connections to be honest .... and I had been a huge U2 fan since about 1981, so it isn't like I'm not familiar with their material... I just don't really hear it.... but that is one of those interesting things about music and perspective. Anyway. This is a great album, very possibly the band's best, and for me there isn't really a dud track on here. Even what could be seen as slightly lesser tracks, work together in the structure to make the whole a better listening experience, and as an album guy, that is what I am after.
"Strange Desire"/"Men And Women" - I lump these two together for the very reason I lump "Questions" and "Heaven Sent" together: they are the final one-two punch of the album. The bass and guitar riffs that open the song, allowing that Latin beat to kick in and drive the song forward. The key thing is Michael's almost breathless drawling vocals lazily singing the verses before kicking into a fast semi-rap for the "Do you really think you're cared for" sections while Kirk's sax wails along behind him and that hot beat just drives everything to the finish line. The frantic energy collapses at the end into "Men And Women" where Michael sings in a dejected almost defeated mentality as if the energy is gone and the song itself takes on an atmospheric and moody (almost exhaustive) conclusion to what we've all been through as listeners for the record. The buildup of the orchestra and the heavy guitar chord at 2:45 just signs off on what is one of the greatest records ever made. To this day I still play this album a few times a week. It holds together very very well after almost 30 years since it came out and I still have fond memories playing this constantly in its first year of release. I hated that it only peaked at #16 on Billboard. This album deserved to be a Top 5 if not a #1 record. The band stepped up to the plate and delivered a home run with the greatest work they could come up with except nobody really bothered to show up to watch them knock it out of the park. A damn shame.
It's obviously a strong record, the band digs deep and it has grooves for days...but I can't say it's their best simply because I prefer the world-beating, cocksure INXS of Kick or Listen Like Thieves and even X if I'm being honest. WTWYA has an unshakeable aura of missed expectations that I can't divorce from the music, as wonderful as it frequently is.
That's why I'm glad that the lyrics ended up as "Not Enough Time" and "Questions' was done with a new set of lyrics. I would love to see a box set of this album someday. The 2002 single disc reissue with the 5 bonus tracks was a nice gesture, but there's so much more stuff that could be added into one box set - the remixes, B-Sides, more alternate versions, demos, outtakes, etc. I can only hope to see a 2 or 3 CD expansion someday. The album is deserving of one.
Same here. INXS released X and it was very much like Kick, but mentally I had moved on somewhat and was into a whole other list of bands. In the fullness of time I appreciate X for the high quality, but surface-wise it’s offering nothing much new and that hurt it I think. Today I can say it’s a fine album but it does still feel a bit “safe” and in 1989-1990 I was into new sounds not safe ones.
I like all the versions of this song I’ve heard now. This morning my brain made a connection between this and the song “Fools Gold” by Stone Roses.
I don’t see the U2 connections in the music, so much as a parallel with the arcs of both band’s careers after that huge peak for both circa 1987. Both struggled to maintain the peak and dealt with it in certain ways that can be compared and contrasted against shifts in public listening tastes and the music industry in general. Because both bands were so hugely popular around the same period of time, I think it’s natural for people to refer to one when talking about the other because it’s just what they know.
The very same thought has crossed my mind multiple times the past couple weeks! The best of the Bsides and outtakes from WTWYA that I’ve heard are The Answer, It Ain’t Easy, and the song “Tight” which was issued as a single from one of the later Hits collections. Those would be the ones I’d add if I was going for an extended tracklisting of this album. However, the album as released is virtually perfect. This album and Shabooh Shoobah are the two favorites that I’ve played the most times over the years, and both have an unbeatable flow that I am loathe to disrupt with my own tinkering. The next album is another story..... it’s 80% as good as this one but the tracklisting is a mess and needs some serious help.
I recall Mark Opitz saying the original track listing he put together for FMDH was scrapped at the last minute. I'd love to know what it was.
In my opinion, it's their second best album overall but a full step down from WTWYA. Can't wait to get into it for this thread.
There's a new 30-minute interview with Michael Stipe on the Rolling Stone website where he acknowledges taking a lot of vocal cues from Michael in the '90s, "as did Bono."
The Answer is basically just an extended version of Questions with "place-holder" lyrics. It's a good listen. The Indian Song's instrumentation is obviously derived from Questions but the lyrics are what wound up as Not Enough Time. An interesting track. The only major difference in Wishing Well's alternate version, is essentially just a hip-hop beat that lays the rhythmic foundation instead of the original rhythmic components. It's a decent version. Heaven Sent's waltz version presents very contrasting emotional & instrumental textures than in the original, because of how extremely different the tempo & atmospherics of the arrangement and vocals are. Another decent version. As far as I'm concerned, WTWYA is INXS' best album and is one of the top 5 greatest albums of all time. It contains all the wonderment, stylistic diversity, textural accompaniment and boldness from INXS' past, present and future, that you need to immerse yourself into and thoroughly enjoy, but at an accelerated rate. It also proves to the non-INXS fans, that think they were strictly an '80s pop / rock group, that the band were fully-capable of being unique, original and innovative, especially in ways they hadn't before. And yet, it still sounds like INXS. And this is partly because of Mark Opitz, who clearly knew what to bring to the table, production-wise. The band went on to produce great material that succeeded WTWYA. But creatively speaking, this is INXS' masterpiece. Many critics and other artists, like Terence Trent D'Arby, also hailed it as such. It took 15 years, but they finally reached the top of the mountain, after climbing it relentlessly. However, it's just too bad and incredibly puzzling, that commercially speaking, in terms of album sales / concert demand, apart from a few exceptions, they didn't sell as well with succeeding albums / tours from this point forward and consequently much of their fanbase began to erode. Here are my song ratings for WTWYA: Welcome To Wherever You Are ~ 4.87/5 Questions ~ 4.5/5 Heaven Sent ~ 5/5 Communication ~ 5/5 Taste It ~ 5/5 Not Enough Time ~ 5/5 All Around ~ 4.5/5 Baby Don't Cry ~ 5/5 Beautiful Girl ~ 5/5 Wishing Well ~ 5/5 Back On Line ~ 4.5/5 Strange Desire ~ 5/5 Men And Women ~ 5/5
Speaking of the erosion, I took a look of sales numbers on wiki. When it got to Elegantly Wasted, the sales were very poor. Check that out one day, it must have been humbling for them.
Sadly I think "humbling" is putting it mildly. Had EW been better received things may have turned out completely differently for Hutchence.
INXS – Get Out Of The House Label: Mercury – INXS 93 Format: CD, Compilation, Promo Country: UK Released: 1993 Genre: Rock Style: Pop Rock 1 Communication 2 Bitter Tears 3 Mystify 4 Listen Like Thieves 5 Don't Change 6 Burn For You 7 Underneath The Colours 8 Just Keep Walking ------------------------------------------------------ Ok, this EP was released either just before of just after the Full Moon Dirty Hearts album, and it seems to be a a promo EP for the tour, and also possibly a sort of booster to try and remind folks what a great batch of songs and albums the guys had released. It has an interesting selection of tracks on it, and to me, a pretty good selection of tracks, if we are looking at promoting the bands back catalog. Interestingly we have a batch of songs the pretty much work in context with each other, but still manage to give a pretty good cross-section of the kind of material the band have recorded over the years.